People often ask why I call what I do Castle Hunting.

While exploring Ireland in 2003 I happened upon many unmarked ruins. Quite often the GPS would report the street as “unnamed country road”, I would have no idea of what town I was in and even worse it was not uncommon for the locals to just refer to it as the local ruin without having any idea of its name or history.

In order to avoid this type or frustration I try to keep very good notes to help me on the trip and allow me to further investigate when I return home.

Of the 95 castles I visited during my 2004 trip to France I was able to record the names of 94 of them. The one that eluded me was a ruin on a hillside somewhere on the D14 (the only information that I have). I promised myself that one day I would try and identify it and moreover that I did not want that to happen again.

Both before and during my 2009 expedition to France I conducted an extensive amount of research and I brought with me binders of information and maps and along the way took notes and of course photos.

Especially challenging are the mountaintop castles because they look very different from the air (which are the photos usually seen in books) than from the base of the mountain than from directly in front of or from inside. In fact on the entire drive to the Chateau de Peyrepertuse in the Pyrenees I was not 100% sure about whether the castle I was seeing in the distance was in fact Peyrepertuse or another of the many Cathar castles. The question of Peyrepertuse was quickly resolved as I drove up the mountain and was able to verify its identity in person.

From the peak of the Chateau de Peyrepertuse you can see another chateau in the distance this is the Chateau Queribus. It is well documented as being visible from Peyrepertuse and also very identifiable.

The next day as I was driving out of the Pyrenees towards the Mediterranean Sea and I spotted a small tower on a mountain peak. I pulled over to the side of the road and too this photo:

At the time I thought it was the Chateau Queribus from the other side and only later did I realize that I was nowhere near Queribus so now I had an unidentified chateau.

For this trip I used a geotagger. A geotagger is a GPS device that records in regular intervals exactly where I am located and saves this information as a time-coded data stream. By cross referencing this data with the time-stamp in my digital photos it can tell me exactly where I was when I took each photograph. From this I can see that the unidentified chateau photograph was taken from the side of the road in Cases de Pène.

My research could find no castles related to Cases de Pène which is not surprising considering how far away the castle looks from my location in the picture. This is the bad part about geotagging photos – it only tells me where I was standing – not in which direction I was looking or how far away the subject was.

Looking back at the photograph it is clear that the castle is situated on the peak of a hill so to find my unidentified chateau I need to look at a terrain map of the area.

Most of the elevations appear to the northeast where I see three possible peaks.

Returning to the satellite imagery, it is still very hard to see anything that looks like a structure.

However, when I zoomed in on the first location I can clearly see the circles of a structure that looks like a base and a tower. While not definitive proof, nothing rules this out as my unidentified chateau and I mark it on the map as the most likely item to research.

Returning to a wider view of the area it is becomes clear that the closest city to the unidentified chateau is not Cases de Pène but instead Tautuval.

The city of Tautuval has a very nice website (in French of course) and it mentions in the region that there is a local castle and a tower farther off.
http://www.tautavel.com/

The Château de Tautavel is located inside the city, on a much flatter area, and is made up of several ruined structures so it can’t be the one I am looking for.

The tower “la Torre del Far” however looks close. Described as being situated on a peak between the villages of Tautavel and Cases de Pène, could this really be the same place as the photo I took but from a different angle?

A quick search about the tower took me to a website about the history of the region.

http://histoireduroussillon.free.fr/Thematiques/Batiments/Histoire/TorreDelFar.php

The page includes an engraving of the southern elevation of the tower.

This exactly matches a close-up of unidentified chateau which is logical as I was in Cases de Pène and facing north.

There can be no question that the unidentified chateau is “la Torre del Far” - the Fire Tower also known as The Sentinel of Roussillon. While no records exist of its construction it is mentioned in an order to provide supplies for it in 1341.

Voila! I love research!

Figured my off campus friends might want to see it!

I have helped put brakes on a car before and even once did it solo and I figured - what the hell - save a few bucks and spend a few hours.

I went out and get the needed parts - pads, rotors, grease, brake parts cleaner. I also went out and got some better tools - nothing like a set of good wrenches or a nice jack and some jack stands to help.

The front brake job went - OK. I got stuck on a few bolts (and YES I used various forms of penetrating oil - everyone always asks this) but after much fussing and fighting I was able to get it all done.

I did run into a snag where I broke a wheel lug off - but my friend Ed talked me though the replacement.

Overall I was very pleased - it did take a few days but I was able to finish the job with only making phone calls to my friend Ed for help and not for physical assistance.

The next day I was hurting pretty bad though. They say the muscles that hurt are the ones you don't use - well apparently I don't use my ass.

I was very proud when I pulled up to Ed's house the next days to show him. He then proceeded to take my lugs nuts off and tell me that I had put them on backwards (the lug nuts!). Well every job you learn something new.

--- Jump 4 months later.

So I know that my rear brakes are a mess - I can hear em crunching every time I stop. Normally I wouldn't consider doing a rear brake job but on my 2000 Subaru Legacy they are also disk brakes - so I figured this shouldn't be a problem.

First to find the rotors and pads. My local Murray's (which is now O'Reiley's didn't have them but could get them in a few days. The idea is not to wait so I called around.

My local NAPA store had this really nice guy named Norb who hunted down the parts for me at another store. So I went and purchased my pads, rotors, brake parts cleaner, and grease.

I went home and thins started to go very well.
1) Jack up car and place on stands
2) Remove tires (without braking any studs)
3) Remove Caliper
4) Remove what's left of the rear pads (they where horrible).

Now when I went to retract the calipers I almost forgot to pop the lid off the master cylinder but after I did that I was able to clamp them back without any problems.

All I needed to do now was the remove the caliper bracket that would allow me to slide the very corroded rotors off.

This was a problem. First there was NO room to get a tool in there. I found that you needed a very short tool for on and a very long tool for the other. Once I found that out I realized that the bolts just didn't want to move (penetrating oil wasn't helping).

I went to the store and got better sockets and a breaker bar but the moment I felt the socket skip over the head I knew I was in trouble.

I was 4 bolts away from getting these rotors off and they wouldn't move.

Could I give up? Put my good pads on my crappy rotors and hope for the best? Drive it to a mechanic and pay double?

I called my friends who told me I had done everything but that a pro 'might' be able to heat up the bracket to loosen the bolt but that was iffy unto itself.

Since I didn't want to take it to a mechanic I wondered if I could get one to come to me?

So I visited Craigslist. And yes - apparently there are MANY roving mechanics who come to you to do the work.

Upon making a half dozen phone calls it appears that most of them are just bat-shit crazy.

I finally got a hold of someone who was very professional. He wanted to schedule an appointment and refused to make promises over the phone.

He came by on Friday in a fully equipped truck and proceeded to try and get the bolts off. One came off - three did not.

The good news is that if I had gone to a shop they would have run into the same troubles and then tried to charge me more. The bad news was it was time to cut the brackets off.

I called the dealer and they said it would take 2-4 days and cost $80 per bracket.

So he cut the brackets off (with his really cool torch) and left.

So now I can get the rotors off but I need the brackets.

I didn't want to wait the 4 days to buy it from the dealer so I started making calls to junk yards - nothing!

I looked online - nothing!

Well something. I did find if I was willing to wait a week I could get the pair for like $75. But since I have been walking to work for the week I do need to move on.

I also found out that sometimes the caliper COMES WITH the bracket. Not only that sometimes it comes with pads as well. One local parts place had the Caliper with Bracket with Pads in stock.

The problem was going to be the core fee. As many of you know - most parts charge an extra core fee that you get refunded when you bring the old part back. Well I don't have the old part anymore!

The one place agreed to give ma a partial core fee back (since I didn't need the caliper and I wasn't going to open the brake lines) and would sell me them for $67 each. This was great because then I could even take the pads back (since it came with them).

I drove there first thing Saturday morning to find that they had one and not the other (it was an inventory glitch and a missing part).

So I left. And called literally 100 places. First I was finding nothing at all - thing I started to find them but they were not going to refund ANY core fee so it was going to cost $110 each!

Then I found someone on the west side who had it for $85 each. Turns out it was a NAPA and as I was purchasing it I realized I could save a few by just buying the one and going back for the other $67 one (it was on the way home).

The guy at NAPA was confused when I told him I didn't want the caliper and he had to go in the back and take it off himself and keep it for the core fee but it all worked out.

That is until we realized that it didn't come with bolts. The bolts that attach the caliper bracket to the car. The things that wouldn't move in the first place. The guy at NAPA was concerned because they were specially hardened bolts and he didn't really know where to get them and his only ideas were closed on the weekends.

On the way back to the other parts store I stopped at a junkyard and they didn't know where to get the bolts either.

So you fully understand I am driving all over the city and paying a few extra dollars to NOT have to wait until the next week to do this job.

At the other parts place they sell me the other bracket and also have no idea where to go.

So I call Home Depot.

They put me on hold. While on hold I drive to Home Depot. In fact I was talking to associate while I was still on hold - it was 15 minutes of silence - they never came back. The in-store help was helpful and suggested I call Parma. They had hardened bolts but not metric automotive ones.

Another guy came up and said - that's off your brakes isn't it? He told me to call my dealer and that brake bolts where very specific.

So I call the dealer and surprise they are still open and they have the bolts for $5 each. I run to the dealer and when I show the lady what I want she gets a little worried. They don't have those bolts!

We go through page after page of computer diagrams trying to match the right bolts to no avail.

Finally she grabs a mechanic from the back and after they talk for a few minutes she hands me a handful of bolts and says - these are what you need. She knew I was having a long day and then added "No Charge".

So now I have all the parts but its too late to do the work.

In the am (Sunday) I got up and put the brakes on without any troubles. New parts, new hardware, good grease. It went fine.

I did run into two more little snags.

1) The roving mechanic jacked my car higher then my jack normally goes so it was hard getting it off the jack stands.

2) When I drove the car it braked GREAT but started to make the same grinding noise it had before. I later found out that the rusted out dust shield was hitting the rotor on one side (the other had rusted into oblivion) and after I removed it the car is golden!

Thanks to Kyle Wering (the Mobile Mechanic) who I will use again if I get stuck!

So next weekend - I replace the alternator/power steering belt (no joke folks)!

The 3 selected then get shown DURING the superbowl. If the USA today poll picks the commercial as first place the entrant gets $1,000,000, second $600,000, third, $400,000. If all three top spots are Doritos commercials then each gets an additional $1,000,000!

OK - so Tom and I put together 2 commercials (a third involving Tom and some outtakes just kind of emerged). Here they are:

"The Wish"

"The Fall"

"2 Flavors, 3 Takes"

Listen here:
http://media.nmc.org/2009/10/jared-bendis.mp3

The Future Holds No Dignity: The Death of Ethics in the Digital Age

People wanted some of the links. Here they are:

EPA offset for Hopkins Expansion

Reverend Wright and Media Censorship

Kanye West at the VMA Awards

Kanya West at the VMA Part 2

Kanya on Jay Leno

Pleasure Center of the Brain

Chris Brown and Rihanna

Generation Me by Raina Kelly

AK Dewdney and Operation Pearl

AK Dewdney and Physics911
Pet Duplicators

Singer Building

Death of GeoCities

Facebook Memorials

APA 6th Edition Filled with Errors

They Stole My Dignity

What The Hell Is Wrong With Them

CAN SPAM Compliance Guide

Worst Cereals Are Most Heavily Marketed to Kids

Soupy Sales Money Scandal

Pepsi Judgment

Tell Me A Joke @ SillyServices

Van Halen and Brown M&Ms

Thanks!

The deadline for the first annual Flip Camera Film Festival has been
extended until Wed Oct 21.
Its not too late for you to show us what you got!

Flip Cameras are available for 3 hour loan from the Freedman Center.

And don't forget to join us Friday October 23 for the word premiere
screening of YOUR film!

Contest rules and event information are here:
http://artsci.case.edu/bakernord/events/archive/flip_camera_film_festival_2009.php

Hurry - you only have 5 days left!

Drop your completed DVD entry off at the Freedman Center before close
(11:45pm) on Wed Oct 21!

The premise is simple, I told everyone:
"You tell me a joke and I'll give you a nickel."

282 people signed a release form and allowed me to videotape their performances!

The collection of jokes are integrated into my website and I am currently producing a DVD of the complete (dirty jokes and all) 282 jokes - this is 2.5 hours of jokes!

Check it out at my SillyServices.com website!

Final tally - 21 days - 21 hours of video - 3415 photos - 45 Castles - 38 Other Cultural Sites.

What I am presenting here is not the finished movie just a teaser of what happened on the trip.

Oh and I also included the bloopers!

Be sure to click the HD button (and then full screen) to really get
the full quality of these videos.

Enjoy!

Thanks again to the Maison Française de Cleveland for their generosity in support of the project.

Also don't forget to watch my 10 minute "My Cameroon Experience" which I recently re-cut:

About a 6 weeks ago I needed to plug back in a TV and I couldn't reach. Instead of going on the floor or moving the table that was blocking me I tried to lean over it. I mean I put my entire weight into the table so I could reach over it. Two days later I had a horrible pain in the left side of my stomach - it hurt REALLY bad. Everyone I told laughed because the appendix is on the OTHER side. I went to the urgent care. They did a CT and found I had epiploic appendagitis - which is an inflammation, I took some pills for two days and was fine. Its a funny illness because before CT they would open you up only to discover that you didn't need to be opened up. That was that.

However - they told me that the CT showed some other abnormalities and that I needed to see my doctor RIGHT AWAY and get an MRI. They saw something - something that shouldn't have been there and something that could be Cancer. No matter what happened next I had to face this realization "I'm 37 years old - and I might have Cancer."

This is also where the fun medical journey began. I don't have a regular doctor. It isn't that I don't go for medical stuff but I just go to the family practice at UH because it is across the street and you can just see whichever doctor is next in line. I called over to MRI and they said that my doctor had to request one first. I called over to the doctor and they said I had to wait till tomorrow.

The timeline was a nightmare: on Wed I was told I might have Cancer on Thursday a met with a doctor who sent me for the MRI but they weren't able to schedule it until Monday. The doctor also told me that she wasn't going to be my doctor that she wasn't taking new patients and I needed to follow up with my regular doctor. Remember, this isn't the urgent care - this is the doctors office telling me this!

Monday I got my MRI and they said the results might be done on Tuesday and that my doctor would call me (even though she said she probably wouldn't I later found out she legally had to follow through with it since she ordered the test). I called on Tuesday to find out if the results were ready and then again on Wed to find that the results were in BUT because the radiologist hadn't put the final seal on them they could only give them to the doctor and not to me. On Thursday I was able to get the doctor to call me and sort of read me the results saying that it might not be Cancer but that I needed to see a specialist to be sure - oh and they found something else that needed to also be checked.

Oh and along the way they forgot to run a critical blood test. They ran the test but never called me with the results. When I called for the results they told me they only call me if the results are bad so since I didn't get a call I should wait for a letter in the mail. Nice.

Friends of the family had the name of a doctor at the Cleveland Clinic that I should go see so I called over there and they told me to have my records transferred from University Hospital. Radiology told me to stop by and handed me the printouts of my reports and a CD (which I copied) and I dropped this off at the Clinic. The rest of my records I was told could only be requested by Fax and then they could only be sent to another hospital or I would be charged for them. They also said it would take 7-10 days. Nice.

I waited and called the Clinic (who had my wrong phone number and address on file because they bought Lakewood Hospital and merged their records) and they were very direct. The doctor wants to see you on Wed - you will have a CT scan at 2 he will see you at 3. Can you imagine that - they scan you then review it and then talk to you - all in the same day! They overnighted me a map and printed directions of where to go, what to do, and a schedule of my day.

I had my CT. Which turned into an adventure because I had a reaction to the contrast. Not as bad as the lady in the waiting room who looked like a lobster - but when they injected me I sneezed, everybody freaked out, and I got a little itchy.

The first doctor came in and told me "Clean bill of health - its not cancer". You have no idea how good that felt. She said I had to wait for the second doctor to tell me more and what to do next. He explained that what I had was "not Cancer" and there was nothing to do or could be done (there is still something there it just isn't Cancer) and that I should come back in 6 months for another CT scan. If it is the same then just check back every few years. He sent me home, joked that they would send a bill, and that I would see him in 6 months.

Tada. I don't have Cancer.

Hold the applause. No congratulations please.

I don't have Cancer. But I do have something - something that isn't Cancer but needs to be checked and rechecked. I now need to get a regular doctor - one who knows my personal history.

Also I can't take back past or future anxiety.
I know what this feels like - and it doesn't feel good.

The joke of it all is - I have (and have had) no symptoms! If I hadn't have bent over the table I wouldn't have known that I didn't have Cancer.

I try not to stress - I really don't - and those that know me know that I am always overloaded. This was a bit much. Its nice to have a release valve on it that's for sure but it certainly makes you see certain things differently.

FYI - I don't want to discuss health care reform. The asinine nature of what I went through is comparable to any other major industry crap that I go through and blog about on my other site:
http://www.theystolemydignity.com/

Thanks for listening and again please no congratulations.

Jared

I have been out of town for about a month so I have missed quite a few news items and only recently heard/read about the latest Reverend Wright controversy.

By now most have read or heard the quote in question. When asked if he had seen Obama since he was elected Wright said “Them Jews ain't going to let him talk to me…"

I am not writing discuss the opinions of Reverend Wright or his later clarification that in the interview when he said “Jews” he meant “Zionists”.

What I want to talk about is professionalism and journalistic ethics and what I didn’t hear until I investigated some.

I first heard the quote while surfing around YouTube and saw this video from Keith Olbermann (which is not a news source for me):

I felt I needed to look further and I found this:

At this point what came to my attention was that after Wright’s first statement there is a moment of silence before the clip continues. A momentary gap or pause at about 27 seconds into the clip. It sounded like either the audio went out or that something had been removed.

In order to find the complete version I went to the original news story which I found here:

http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-local_wright_0610jun10,0,7603283.story

This story included the audio clip with a slide show:

When I listened to it I noticed two things.

1) Same gap in the audio at 27 seconds.

2) The interview faded out before its completion

So I went back to see if I could find more.
This next part shocked me!

This clip is the exact same clip as the one posted on the DailyPress website except that the audio gap is not there.

At 27s into the clip, after Wright says “Them Jews ain't going to let him talk to me…" the interviewer (David Squires) says “Right” and then laughs (quite heartily). It was this laughter and him saying “Right” that was editing out.

So where did this unedited version come from? It came from the DailyPress website and had only later been replaced with the gapped audio one (which explains why it is a gap and not just a clean edit).

So why? Why did they censor their own interviewer?

What was David Squires thinking?

What follows here is supposition and opinion only but it is what angers me the most about the situation.

The saying of “right” and the laughter appears to be more than just a “yeah – go on” it appears to be a supportive encouragement of a statement that was clearly going to be condemned later. Otherwise why would it only later be removed? The fact that there are two versions means that someone clearly had second thoughts about it.

Why should David Squires not be put to task for his actions here? Was he not being complicit even if in just milking this for sensational content? Why didn’t he stop Wright and say – do you really think the Jews are behind this or ask him if he felt that the phrasing was the best way of putting it? Journalism is not just about giving someone enough rope to hand themselves it’s about investigating. Was he so excited about this titillating sound-bite that he would agree with him just to keep him going?

David Squires in the interview says “I was just letting him talk”. No you weren’t.

And why shouldn’t he be held responsible for what he said? How come he gets off the hook? Because it makes him look bad? Then he should be more careful when he interviews. If it was an honest mistake and just nervous laughter and an innocent or even sarcastic “right” then he should defend it – explain it – but leave the interview intact.

The unedited version is still not any better but it isn’t simply a person talking to a reporter but someone who is being coaxed in a friendly fashion by someone who is like-minded. I already knew Reverend Wright had strong and outrageous opinions so the only thing newsworthy here is that Davis Squires will do anything for a story (or that he really thinks “Them Jews” are keeping Revered Wright at bay) and that the DailyPress thinks that censorship is ok as long as it makes them look good.

Disgraceful!

Typing this from iPhone

In Paris

Visited museums

Saw medeival chateau de Louvre and remains of the Bastille

Ate good food

Visited Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde's graves

Went shopping for antiques, souveniers, and ritzy stuff

Head out in the am - see you in the USA

Jared

Day 17
(32) Chateau de Versailles
(and everything that goes along with it)

Day 18
(17a) Notre Dame de Paris
(18a) Sacre Cour
... Internet Cafe

OK So the hotel is fantastic! Great location great price - No Internet.

This is a quick update from an Internet Cafe.

We returned the car after a quick trip to Chateau Malmaison and then went to the Eiffel tower where I had a great time hustling the salesmen for cheap trinkets.

We spent the next day at Versailles. Wow it was so tiring! After we hunted down a movie theater and I got to see the new Tom Hanks film. It was OK but very welcome to have some media in my life (and some popcorn).

Today we went to Notre Dame which closed early to have a service for the victims of that flight from Rio. We will go back so we can climb the tower. Next we went to Sacre Cour. I have been there before but never have I climbed as high. I mean I climbed the tower but not to the very very top of the dome - wow that was intense. I mean the staircase was OVER the dome.

OK that's enough for now.

PS I am still clean shaven and wearing a blue shirt!

Jared

Day 12
(26) Fort de Salses
(9a) Arena in Nimes
(10a) Maison Carree
(11a) Pont du Gard

Day 13
(27) Palace of the Popes
(12a) Pont d’Avignon
(13a) Arena in Arles
(14a) Theater in Arles

Day 14
(28) Chateau d’If
(29) Chateau de Savilly

Day 15
(15a) Cathedral in Autun
(30) Vaux-le-Vicomte

Ok summary aside. Let’s review. Car was broken into and I spent many hours in a police station getting a police report. Other than Tim’s stuff and our general inconvenience of having a car that couldn’t be secured everything is fine.

I skip ahead. We arrived at the Chateau de Savilly very late which was disappointing though I did get my pictures of it in the morning. We left our bags there and visited Autun and then got the bags. We then drove to the hotel to put our bags in the room before Vaux-le-Vicomte but the hotel was closed until 5pm so I cancelled that reservation and moved to another hotel.

Our plan goes on from here:

We leave this morning and drive (yes DRIVE) into Paris to drop our stuff off at the Hotel. Then we drive to Chateau de Malmaison and then from there the Airport to drop of the car and deal with them. At that point two things happen: (1) we are on foot – which is good because I can leave a lot of stuff in the room and it makes me more mobile (even though we are less mobile) (2) The hotel doesn’t have Internet so at best I will post from Internet Café as we find them.

I have more pictures and stories to share about the trip and that will unravel over the next few weeks as I will continue to post but I wanted to give a quick tidy up message to everyone who has been following.

I also want to once again thank the Maison Française de Cleveland Fund for their generosity and support of the expedition.

Our plan for the week is to do some typical Paris stuff. Don’t laugh it is important and part of it all. Thursday is the long day at the Musée d'Orsay and Friday at the Louvre. And yes we will sneak off and do a full day at Versailles either Tuesday or Wednesday.

Next time from an Internet Café!

Jared