Thursday, September 29, 2005

LBK to DFW to the ATL

Well I arrived in Atlanta about 30 minutes late tonight. Everything is pretty dark so I don't know what to think of the place yet. It doesn't seem all that bad, it's big, but everything is pretty spread out. It's funny how I stick out like a sore thumb in a lot of places. I don't know if it is just my crocs, or maybe the fact that I'm from a different lifestyle than those I'm around here. It's a lifestyle I'd like to learn to embrace, but I'm coming to realize that my backwoods streak might be a little wider than I thought. No worries though.

I had an interesting talk on the way here with a guy on the plane. Which by the way, coming into ATL was the worst landing ever. It was so rough! Anyway, I had my RV (RIO VISTA) hat on and he asked what it meant. This guy was probably in his mid 50's, seemed to be a nice guy. So I told him about camp, and gave him a lot of the information about it. He was telling me about a camp in Washington State where he used to go to when he was like 12. He said it was around Puget Sound, and they would boat from island to island and do camp outs and things. He also told me about all the responsibilities that they had as campers. Like setting up the camp site, making the fire, cleaning up afterwards. Not too far from what we do, but a lot more for the kids to do. I know it's probably obvious to most, but it made me think about how easy we had it as kids, and now how much easier the kids growing up have it. I can't say that I've ever really roughed it. I mean a few times out at the ranch the pressure pump would go out, or it would freeze up, or just all together break, and we'd have to come into town to shower and do all that jazz for the day. We'd also have to use the bathroom outside, but heck, that's what men like to do anyway. The stories this guy was telling me were really interesting, and made me wish that maybe I'd grown up a little more like him. Or that we could teach the kids more things that we are. You can't really just throw 2 tons of responsibility in a kids lap, but it could definitely be a progressive thing. There's so much that can be learned from doing small things. Like having them set up the campsite not only teaches them how to set a campsite up, but also gives them that responsibility, and then afterwards the feeling of accomplishment for actually putting their sweat into it. Oh well, anyway, just a thought. Something I wish I would have had more of!

Well there is a one hour difference between here and TEXAS, so I guess I'll stay up one hour later. It sucks that I can't sleep some nights. I've got about 150 DVD's to choose from, so I might grab one and try to drift off to dreamland a little earlier.

Besides not seeing my sister in more than a year and a half (which it's great to be here), I'll also get to watch my first NFL game this weekend! I may have covered that in a previous post. It's even more of a bonus to see on of your great friends playing in an actual NFL game! I'm really pumped about that. It was crazy enough to see him play in the various stadiums throughout the BIG XII, but now it's in the Georgia Dome! Truly amazing what my friends can accomplish. Regardless though, the reason I'm here is to spend time with my Sister, and I'm grateful for that. I'm looking forward to the next few days. The thing with me, is that I don't have to be entertained, I can just sit around and talk. Which is what we did tonight, and it's very entertaining, and proves to be a wonderful time. I'm really looking forward to getting to know my brother-in-law a little better on this trip too. I always get the feeling that maybe he thinks I'm a little different. Mainly because I am a lot different from what he's used to. I always have a good time hanging around with him though....

Well until later!

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

My teacher

Well I thought I would post on the little test I had last night. It was the class where the teacher tries to make all of us feel stupid. Well he did that last night too! He gives us assignments a lot of the time without checking them out for himself, then he acts surprised when it doesn't work out. So last night, we were taking information off the census website and none of us could get it to work the right way. So as it turns out, it wasn't us, it was the way that he had told us to do it. It was funny because he was running around trying to figure it out, and the person I sit next to and I did before him. So we ended up making a 100 and helping the rest of the class. NICE...

Last week we did an assignment in class and his answer sheet had all the answers wrong. The first few people who went up to him had different answers, then the more of us that went up there, he realized he was wrong. I guess I take some great pleasure in seeing these things. I wouldn't if he wasn't always trying to belittle us in class...

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

not much going on here...

This week I have my first two tests. The first is tonight in my Geography class. It's not really a test, but more like a computer exercise that is to be done in class. I really enjoy Geography, but not this class. I'm the kind of person who can look at a map for hours. This class is human geography. I enjoy many parts of human geography, like urban geo, and population geography, things like that. I think it's the teacher that makes this class kind of a bummer. It's the 4th class I've had from this guy, and he tries too hard to make his students feel stupid. At least he makes me feel stupid. He assigns a huge amount of reading of super boring material. I'd rather have my teeth pulled than read some of the crap that he assigns. So I don't read it, well I read what I have to. We only meet once a week, and have something due every class, so I read what I have to to complete the assignment each week. I was going to take the 2nd GIS course, but couldn't fit it in with the Economics class I am taking. That's where my second test is. It is on Thursday. I feel that I'm ready for it, and hope I am. I am going to end up with a minor in Economics, which is laughable because I'm horrible at it.

After the tests is going to be a great weekend. I'm flying out to Atlanta on Thursday night to see my sister. It'll be the first time I've seen her since she got married a year and a half ago! I'm also going to go watch the Vikings play the Falcons on Sunday. That will be my first NFL game, and it's awesome that I'll get to watch one of my best friends from high school play in it. We're going to go out to eat the night before. I'm looking forward to that. Other than that, I'm not real sure what all I'll be doing while I'm there. I'm just happy to be getting out of Lubbock, and getting to see my sister and brother in law!

For now, I guess that's it. Nothing too exciting going on here. This semester is really flying by quick. I need to get a job, which I eventually will. I don't know of many people that will hire someone who is only going to be around for 2 months. I'll tell more about my trip sometime next week. I might even have a picture or two! Excellent! Adios!

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Interesting Weekend

Well I've been up here for about a month and this'll only be my third weekend in Lubbock. I went back home for one weekend, and then went to Ruidoso last weekend. It was a blast. Woodbury Taxidermy was doing the big Elk hunt up there and we saw some huge bull elk brought in. I wanted to take some pictures with them, but there were always too many people around, and I didn't want everyone to think that I was trying to say I harvested the bulls. Although, had I gotten a picture with 2 or 3 of them, I would have said that. These things were unbelievable. I'd love to go back up there the next two weekends and actually help out a bit instead of standing around and watching. Someone brought in a black bear too. That was awesome. It was the closest I'd ever been to a real bear before. They do hunts in August or something like that for the bears, I might look into that in the next few years. It's not overly expensive and wouldn't it be sweet to have a sweet bear rug on the ground somewhere. Settin' the mood for you huh? Ha, well anyway, someday that'd be cool. I'm really not that big of a hunter. I think a large part of that has to do with not wanting to mess with things after I shoot them, but another part is that I'm a bit soft-hearted. It doesn't bother me to see others shoot things, but I get a weird feeling of guilt after I shoot something, it goes away after a few minutes though.

Back to this weekend. Two of my bestest friends are coming up for the football game. We play against Indiana State, which is no big whoop, but if Tech is ever to hang 100 points on anyone while in division 1 this might be the weekend. Cupcake or not, 100 points is amazing. I bet we score somewhere in the 60's to 70's. I wish we would have at least scheduled one good game. Texas had Ohio State, A&M had Clemson, we could have gotten an SEC team like Vandy, or Arkansas. Or gone out and played against the Pac-10. I would have loved to play one of the Arizona schools, (we could have gone to see Nathan or vice-versa). Basically anyone out there other than USC. No point in that. The team I'd really like to play is Louisville though. They might trounce us, but I want to see if they're the real deal. My friends will get here sometime late afternoon on Friday, then I'm sure it's off to Rocky's for a weekend of debauchery. The weekend after I'm going to Atlanta to see my sister and hopefully see Cullen play a football game.

I'm starting a diet, or not really so much of a diet, but watching what I'm eating, and getting more exercise. I hope I can hang on and do well with it. There are a lot of clothes I'd like to fit comfortably into again.

It looks like Rita might turn out to be a real problem. That's no news if you've been watching television though. I was happy to see that they had buses moving people out of Galveston. It's funny how after Katrina people are so on edge about another hurricane. When before everyone was so lax. How long will it take for people to go back how they were before? I say next hurricane season. It's like 9/11, 4 years after it happened, we didn't really hear that much about it on the anniversary. Have people already pushed it to the back of their minds? It's definitely not a date that I'll ever forget, it's my Dad's birthday, so it's in my mind all the time as it is. Back to Rita, I need to call and find out what people in that area are going to do.

Lastly, one of my friends from camp wrote an interesting piece on his blog. He's an extremely intelligent person and I wish he'd update his blog more often. He talks about looking through an old high school yearbook and wanting to relive a lot of the pictures in it. It's a lot of thoughts I've had before but could never lay out as well as he does. So check that out if anyone is reading this. It's Curt from Curt on my links to the right!

Saturday, September 03, 2005

my two cents

I ran across this picture today while I was looking at some hurricane news. It was of an Oriental Rug Store in New Orleans that was boarded up and the owner had spray painted the outside of the boards with a message that said, "Don't Try! I'm sleeping inside with a big dog, and ugly woman, two shotguns, and a claw hammer. Looters will be shot".

I've become addicted to the Foxnews channel, and can't seem to stay away from it for anymore than an hour at a time. Usually when big things happen in the US, like 9/11 for example, I pay very close attention to the news. However, after a while I get so emotionally caught up in the story that I have to wean myself away from it. With every new development in this story though, I've been glued to the television. There are so many things about this situation that frustrate the hell out of me. I could sit here and talk and talk about it, but maybe I'll save that for another time.

Anyway, back to this picture, the looting that is happening in New Orleans is one thing that is making me want to scream at people. The picture offered a little comic relief, but at the same time shows the desperation of the people who are going through all of this, and what they will resort to if pushed to their limit. Can It be stated any clearer? "LOOTERS WILL BE SHOT". In my opinion, which carries no clout in the grand scheme of things, there are very few instances when looting is acceptable. When a person has to break into a store in a time like this and get food, water, some type of nourishment for their own wellbeing, then I see it as acceptable. I still don't 100% approve of it but I see it as acceptable. Had we been better prepared for this crisis, then there would have been no need for someone to break into a store for food and water. NOW, I DO NOT see looting as acceptable when a person walks out of a store with a DVD player (or other electronics), a new pair of shoes, or hundreds of dollars worth of clothing. I know it will be impossible to do, but I would love if there was some way to bring charges up against the people who have been looting. From what I've seen, many of these looters feel what they are stealing is owed to them. For not taking better care of them, they have every right to go into a store and steal things right off the shelves. Some of these people should be dragged out into the street and flogged.

So where did we mess up so bad in this thing? Well how far back do you want to go? Umm, how about WAY BACK. Why would you build a city under sea level? Okay, we can't go that far back, mainly because I don't know all the history on New Orleans, or enough to defend myself on that statement. How about 5 years back when I remember watching a news piece on New Orleans thinking about building walls around parts of the city that would be able to be opened and closed with ease, and would protect everything within its walls from flooding, or a force 5 hurricane. Well maybe that wasn't economically feasible. I don't know how much that would cost, or how it would be mapped out. Here it is, in my opinion, the biggest mistake made in this entire tragic event. Why were the people of New Orleans, who could not afford to evacuate the city, not bussed out by the government of the city, or the state, or the United States? Is it not common knowledge that Hurricane Katrina was a force 5 at one point churning in the Gulf of Mexico, headed straight for New Orleans? Is it not common knowledge that New Orleans is more than 10 feet below sea level at some points? I realize that I can very easily sit here and type on my little keyboard about what we should have done, but I really feel that evacuating these people would have not only saved thousands of lives, but also could have been executed without too much difficulty. It may not have been easy to do, but it would have been a hell of a lot more pleasant than what is going on now.

It may sound like I'm ripping the city/state/federal government here, but I'm really not. Or at least not meaning to. I'm just disheartened that so many lives had to be lost when there was something that could have been done. I really feel that the federal government is going to come in and do the best they can. I don't think they can solve everything and make everyone happy, that isn't even possible. They will however do what is needed to be done, and try to make the best out of a horrible situation. All of this in my opinion of course, so take that for what you will.

This link below is to a blog from CBS news that gives day by day updates on what is going on. It's not super detailed, but it is a skin and bones look at what is being done.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/04/katrina/main814689.shtml