UH--Grad School

Well, I did it. I registered for grad school at U of H. Playing off the Economics Degree I received (even though I hated it), I will be hopefully getting my Masters in Economic Development/Entrepreneurship. Furthering my powerful Economics mind, ha, rigghtttt.... But it's official, I am going more in debt to get another degree. Go Coogs---- maybe not so much.

Va-cay 2007

Well I just got back from Part Uno of Vacation 2007. I went to Denver/Colorado Springs for the week. It was a great time to be in those "Wild at Heart" moments, however cliche that may sound in the Christian realm, haha, but the fact that all John Eldridge's books were inspired by all the places I was hiking in, really brought about a good time with the Lord. Plus I was with my super pregnant sister and brother inlaw, and all his cousins, so it had the feel of a college road trip as well. We did Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods, hiked the Rockies Resevoirs, went to the Rockies Baseball game.... Another stadium and game I can check off my list of wanting to see a game in every stadium in the country. It was a great trip, but I am glad to be back home on the sweaty Gulf Coast :), no chapstick needed here, and i missed the palm trees, well any tree for that matter, haha. Next week I will be in Chicago, then back home in East Texas, then over to West Texas to go to my sister's baby shower. Here are some pics, have a great week!

hmmm

Well i leave for vacation on Monday! Later peeps. Well it's been a quiet few weeks.

It's official I got a Crackberry (aka Blackberry) now I can look official with my ghetto job. It's like an old man learning to work a computer for the first time. My speedy thumb text messaging skills do not work on this contraption!



Well friends off to Colorado, Chicago, East Texas, and West Texas. Later!

Partay----It's Hurrcane Season 2007

TEXAS GULF COAST RESIDENTS: TODAY JUNE 1 2007 IS THE START OF HURRICANE SEASON!

Well if you are a news junkie like me, you have already noticed the Houston media has already gone into freak out mode since April about this upcoming Hurricane Season. Even on the drive home yesterday in the traffic report, the radio announcer was telling everyone to put together their hurricane survival box. Wow! Granted I will be more cautious this time, than when I lived in The Woodlands, even though I evacuated then as well. I am only 40 miles from the gulf now, so I will evacuate if the Mega Storm decides to hit the Houston-Galveston Gulf Coast. It kind of cracks me up at what I call the Post Katrina-Rita Hysteria here in Htown. I mean granted we swallowed up most of New Orleans residents after Katrina, and nearly all died ourselves in Rita until it turned away at the last minute, but calm down people, don't start driving the contraflow lanes on 290 just yet, that's just normal rush hour traffic! Speaking of Contraflow, I like the nifty little paintings on the shoulders of all the freeways. Nothing like seeing the big blue and white hurricane symbol painted on the lanes with arrows telling you to keep going away from it, haha. Anyways, contributing to the hysteria about June 1st (We'll call it Windy Friday, kinda like Black Tuesday, you get my drift), here are some survival tips.... I have to admit I stole a few from Houstonist and the Houston Press, but they are good tips.... Then I will follow with for real hurricane tips from the Houston-Galveston Emergency People....

First I bring pictures of Hurricane Memories:

Now for the Tips:

1-- Make a Music CD: The only way music can get you through another Rita-traffic episode is for you to make a mixtape so inutterably horrible that it -- combined with 100-degree heat, gulf coast humidity, exhaust fumes and no relief in sight -- renders you into a zombie state from which you will emerge hours later, never remembering what happened.

2-- Get religious! Start praying June 1 and don't stop until November, for those of you that live past the seawall.

3-- Buy ridiculous amounts of flashlights and batteries, because even though you are evacuating you'll need to light up your car like Reliant Stadium, or for those pee trips at midnight while you are sitting in traffic in some East Texas swamp.

4-- If you don't evacuate, and you are faced with an imminent flood, tornado, hurricane or other natural disaster, the first thing you must do is pick a fight with your spouse or roommate. At some point during the weather event you’ll probably be without power - meaning no TV or Internet - so you’ll need something to occupy your time.

And more tips that are in this nice little sheet I found on HoustonPress.com:

1. Buy three outrageously oversize cans of some otherwise
ignored foodstuff like baked beans (Remember: Get at least
a two years’ supply!)
2. Throw out the unused large cans from last year to make
room for this year’s cans
3. Buy enough batteries to power Portland for three months
4. Purchase a complicated and bizarre battery-operated
contraption that features a short-wave radio, black-andwhite
TV, flashlight, coffee grinder and calculator
5. When lights go out, explain 50 times to kids that the
battery-powered TV doesn’t get Nickelodeon
6. Purchase large amounts of sickly sweet Hurricane mix,
never to be used
7. Get a Mardi Gras CD for the Hurricane party you’ll
eventually not have
8. Stock up on plywood; after almost killing yourself, decide two
windows into the job that this storm won’t be bad enough to
need plywood
9. Fill up the gas tank, then refill it every time it gets less
than nine-tenths full
10. Get enough ammo to handle a week’s worth of looters.
By God, they’ll have to pry those cans of baked beans from
your cold, dead fingers

Ok no really:

Here is the Chronicle's Hurricane Central Website: http://www.chron.com/news/specials/hurricane/

Check your ZIP to see if you are mandatory evacuated as well as the arrows for evacuation and contraflow lanes:

http://images.chron.com/content/news/photos/07/05/21/hurricanemap.pdf

There you go, now go freak yourself out, hehe.

the local hero....

So the police chief for my campus building takes down a car thief that escaped from the downtown jail. Nice! But seriously, the thief wasn't that smart, that jail is 2 (I repeat 2) blocks away, and the guy had been out for over 30 hours, and he was still 2! blocks away from the place he broke out of, on the bayou ,where there is always a police presence. Seriously, what an idiot! I am laughing out loud just thinking about it. I mean hello the MetroRail is right there, at least right it down to Bell or the DTC and take a bus outta here. HAHA, the fact that he was caught basically on the same sidewalk up the street from where he was in jail at is really funny. Anyways, I rest my case, but he gets the vote for idiot of the day. Now if we could only get the other campus cops to quit eating over at Houston's Soul Food and fight crime within our building, that would be great!


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4849513.html

Bonehead move of the Year perhaps....

Well a lot has happened.... I am still pissed about the Immigration bill. Mitt Romney is quickly becoming my favorite candidate. Something about him, I like! Maybe it's the good hair, we know how well I treat my hair, but I think it's deeper than that. We'll see in the months to come.... Now that Freddie might throw his hat in and run, my opinion might change. So I am calling it know, I "COULD" change my mind about who I want to endorse for 2008....

Memorial Day was a snoozer.... It rained all weekend, I spent all Day Sunday at NASA with my aunt and uncle and little cousin.... It was fun, but I was really tired. Monday it was flooding, so I didn't even leave the apt. until that night when my new roomie Michael and I went to my favorite Kroger over in West U. You know the Kroger with the live Music band.... Yes you heard correctly that's how us West U/River Oaks people roll. Never mind the fact that me and my friends Victor and Jen had a half hour conversation at PF Changs about how amazing that Kroger is, and the fact that we are losers for just going there to kill time.... When did we turn into Yuppies, I think it was when I decided to buy Seersucker shorts from JCrew last week. Don't hate, it's the staple of the South....

Moving on.... Get this bonehead from Atlanta. He has TB! But proceeds to go to Europe with his newlywed wife, then sneak back into the US via Canada! WTH! You have TB your doctor said don't leave, then you did, and they told you to stay in Italy, but you didn't! You my friend are an idiot, can't wait to see if any civil cases come out of this if anyone actually caught it from this bonehead....

Here are some quotes from this genius:

I thought to myself: You're nuts. I wasn't going to do that. They told me I had been put on the no-fly list and my passport was flagged," the man said.
He told the newspaper he and his wife decided to sneak back into the U.S. through Canada. He said he voluntarily went to a New York hospital, then was flown by the CDC to Atlanta.
He is not facing prosecution, health officials said.
"I'm a very well-educated, successful, intelligent person," he told the paper. "This is insane to me that I have an armed guard outside my door when I've cooperated with everything other than the whole solitary-confinement-in-Italy thing."

Uh---the "whole solitary-confinement-in-Italy thing." Did he really just say that!!!! YOU DID NOT COOPERATE!
Yeah you are well educated alright, usually educated people know health risks and obey doctors and the USA's orders.... Oy, he's probably a democrat too, maybe he got a taste of universal healthcare over there and what it's really like....

Then there was a fire....

This really reminded me of 9/11, now you can see why i was freaking out as fire trucks ambulances and helicopters were everywhere and I was trapped in it.

So this is the Westpark about 5 blocks from my apt.

Ariel....

So yesterday in my neighborhood there was a big explosion that i saw as i was leaving my apt. from lunch.... I really thought we were under attack, the smoke was awful, people running out, no power, no phones, etc.... I was trapped in my car on Richmond in Greenway, and it was chaotic, with all the sirens, etc.... I really thought the "bad guys" hit.... Turns out that it was a huge electrical substation at buffalo speedway and 59, but let's say i was panicking when my phone was jammed, and i saw the haz mat crews fly by, fire trucks from the 'Tre' come by.... Here are some pics....