I am an American export. I am one of the thousands of Americans working in the Middle East trying to work, raise a family, and show a good side of the USA.

I'm sad that the image of the USA overseas has eroded so terribly and I would encourage other Americans to leave their comfort zones and try working abroad. In my case I am an English teacher but there are many other kinds of jobs available as well.

I'd appreciate your prayers because my wife's cancer came back and she is under treatment. My dad's is also but because of his age he's having a much harder time of it. At least my wife is able to live a fairly full life and even continue a full-time job. My wife is a wonderful cancer fighter!

By the way, I am interested in hearing from brides who have ordered stamps from this gallery or www.zazzle.com/markomarko [The Imagi-Nactory]. On my homepage there is a facility for emailing me. I would like to know how your stamps turned out for you and about any positive reactions you got about them. I would like to know if there are any designs you think we should have, but don't.

I need a creative outlet. I think I'd go mad if I didn't have one. As a teacher I have a creative outlet through my teaching and materials development, but that usually isn't enough.

I'm a habitual doodler and I've generated 100's of interesting designs and images that way. Some of them I have scanned, manipulated digitally and placed on the internet as art. See my portfolios at photo4me.com, art.com and www.cafepress.com/frakfak.

But, I also love fractals. I approach them like a photographer with a camera. Like a person looking for elephants in clouds or butterfiles in inkblots I look for 'photo' opportunities in fractals. From what I've seen, most fractal artists don't do that. If you have not already done so, please see my Zazzle gallery. And, please pass my links along to others.