Kerry: "Thats right, smile, it'll all be over soon George." 

Please Señor, no más

The roof is my new enemy...yesterday and today was spent mostly working on loose tiles and trying to guess what the first injury would be. Turns out it was just a sunburn. The rest of the day? Weeds, oh how i despise the weeds. Though there was a little bit of good in the sixth day of school being off, finally got out of my house for a little bit, and i mean a little bit, but it was fun and gave me some time. I finally figured out how to post pictures to this thing so my infamous hurricane pics are up! there are more if people like these and sadly my vid cam isnt DV or miniDV so i cant upload it.

Theres supposed to be an ST there too i think 

Holy Crap the wind is reading 70mph and im soaking wet 

During my second recon drive out into tampa, winds in excess of 45 mph 

Downed trees galore! 

This is pretty much the same story as the other picture, just a different angle, the wind at this point was clocked at about 60 mph 

This is my brother, showing that wind can be useful as a resting post...about 2 seconds after this shot was taken he fell on his butt 

This is the house next to me, not a wholly unfamiliar scene 

And God said, "let there be Rain"

Well its here, the fourth hurricane of Florida's season made proud landfall and trucked right across the state. So far it is acting just like Francis, just moving a heck of a lot faster. Damage in the Tampa area was minimal, but there were a few things i found on the road to note:

Street lights in the middle of the road
missing stop signs
Cops see someone run a red light and they just sigh and let em go

Always a grand time on the road after a storm...The house certainly wasnt a fun fest. I sat around and did some work here and there and caught up on the email inbox and watched a lot of TV.

Just a long, lazy day. I really missed going to church and having band pracice, always a good time there and today i felt like i was really missing it.

Hopefully the week will go well, no school Monday so who knows what will happen.

Pedro's lookin out for you

Yes...I finally saw Napoleon Dynamite and I have to say it was really funny. The movie is really somewhat of a hit or miss kind of movie. Of course going to see it with people who loved it probably made it a better experience too.

How did the day go? *The Theme of this whole blog*

Started out thinking I would be in Pine Island...apporaching Hurricane made that impossible so I stayed with the troop at church and did yard work on the grounds for like 3 hours. Afterwards I went home to watch the weather and do nothing until I got a call from Dave. He suggests movie, Alex would accompany, sounds like a plan. What was supposed to be a simple matter of going to a movie turned into an errand fun-fest that only David T could bring about. After the movie we went to the International Mall to pick up some keyboard keys for Dave's laptop. This is where I discovered the man known simply as the "Genius". Hes the barkeep at the Apple Genius Bar and he solves all of your Apple problems...when he is around. We waited for about a half hour for this great unix guru to arrive and when he did he took the laptop and slapped some new keys on it, woo hoo. After that it was off to publix for beggies nad such for fajitas. Then we finally get to the house and cook up the mexican delight. The food was good, the frozen drinks frosty and the ice cream wonderful. All in all it was a grand evening and im glad i finally had a free night to do it.

"Hey thats a sweet ride"

See that movie, its funny and if you dont like it at least you'll be able to participate in the jokes that abound from it and you wont look like a social outcast. Kinda ironic since the movie is about a SOCIAL OUTCAST!!! oh well, au revoir and beware the wrath of Jeanne

Pau Hana!

Well its finally here, Friday! Fusion tonight and no homework. I never though today would come and frankly im surprised it did. Thd weekend is going to be interesting, just call me "skipper". I'll proudly command my vessel on the river and collect debris in Pine Island. I dunno if i will be back on saturday night or sunday morning, all depends on our little lady friend, hurricane Jeanne. Off to prepare for Fusion and get ready to ROCK FOR THE ONE WHO IS THE ROCK!

What would you do to escape class?

I decided to give "the gift of life". Nothing like a blood drive to escape class, especially a class as exciting, cough cough, as ToK.

Things that you should never ask a 17 year old:
Have you been to Africa at any time before 1980?
If so, did you have sexual contact with a male while there?

More questions that are really stupid to ask a 17 year old MALE:
Are you now, or have you ever, used the birth control pill?

My response: "No, No, and WHAT!??" To which she realized the stupidity of her question and proceded to prick me for a blood sample.

Other than my adventure into blood giving the day was not too bad. I still get a kick out of my AP US history class, our instructor has students walk to the back of the room to "Get some oxygen" if they start to doze off or cant answer a question correctly or fully. I get a great kick out of it.

Found out what im doing this weeked, hurricane relief in Pine Island. What am i doing there? collecting debris out of the waterways with a power boat. I will be in command of a small group of volunteers as we traverse the newly created rivers. Huzzah!

And whats so werid about teaching a sword class? get over it...

Mid-Week is really just the middle of the week

I never understood why they compared being tired when driving to drinking and driving until this morning.

Last night was such a cool night in Orlando. Kerry-Edwards Rally.

The plan:
Arrive and just participate, enjoy the crowd and see Kerry from a distance and listen to him speak.

What really happened:
Get to the rally to see the usual mob of people there...initial estimates were at about 5K. I decide to try and use some connections to find out if there was a way to get into the rally early or get a good seat. I call a friend who tells me some info and i simply walk up to a staffer, relay this information and boom! I get three VIP passes to the floor level of the rally. We get down to the floor and rub elbows with Orange County's big democrats and get to hang out and listen to the band and the crowd as they entered through the public entrance. The speeches were amazing, the crowd was excited, and I really have the confidence in the candidate i support for President and Vice President.

The Problem:
Get home at 1:30...some work left to do so i do it and hit the sack at about 2AM. Wake up at 6 and im off to school. This whole pattern of less sleep than the usual less sleep is starting to wear doen on me. No more tuesday night events! First that party for Castor in ybor and now driving to Orlando, tsk tsk. Oh well, it was well worth it and my work was still done and i didnt kill anyone today driving to school.

Now its off to Heavenly Works for my class then its back home for the oh so fabulous ToK Essay on CAS, the most ridiculous paper i have had to write so far this year.

Todays Quiz:

Who said the following, "The CIA laid out several, uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, *pause*, the CIA laid out several plans for how IRAQ would turn out...they were just guessing"

First to call in gets a prize

You must be kidding...

The Day is just begininng...

As I have a spare moment, i have to put together all of my homework and papers to take with me on the road. Where am I going? Orlando of course, on a school night you ask? of course! Im off to see John and John rally the florida folks and i couldnt miss this for the world. Again, the day has just begun and probably wont be dont until late into the night. All i need is my laptop, my car, and lots and lots of coffee. No one has guessed that little phrase on my last post yet...prize to the winner.

Another week begins

Well it looks like this is going to be a full week, and if theres anything a public education system is good at its making a week seem as long as humanly possible. School was actually pretty good, for anyone in ITGS i commend you on choosing what could possible be the best IB class ever created. For those of you not in this class, I pity you a great deal. The best part of the day, however, began afterschool at the JSA meeting. Once again, the club slanted to the left and decided that an assault weapons ban would be better than no ban. JSA is looking good as far as the club itself goes too. Everyone wants to be there and everyone has something to say, it is a perfect forum for anyone that wants to express themselves and know how others feel about the same issues.

Kerry rally in orlando tomorrow, i dunno if im gonna go but if i can it would be a great event. As much as i love sleep and getting my work done, I would much rather travel to see the man who will lead our nation for the next four years and his wonderful running mate.

Much to do, the major assigments due by wed. is currently set at
ToK (2)
ITGS (1)
History (1)
Physics (1)

I gotta run along and meet a client of my mom's, her pets need watching while she is in the hospital, just my little way of helping. More on that later once i get it done, and it should be an interesting story.

Quiz for today:
Translate this phrase- Quis custodiet ipsos custodes

Extra Credit:
Translate and tell me who said this;
¡Hasta la victoria siempre! ¡Viva la Revolucion!

"Day of Rest"

Well I had a really good post but i deleted it, oops. And read carefully, there will be a test...

Today has been a very long and stressful day.

As much as I enjoy getting up early for church and playing in the band my favorite part of the morning was having my youth pastor come up to me and say, and im not kidding, in reference to the John Kerry sticker on my guitar case, "I cant believe you would bring the tools of the devil into the house of God"...that pretty much set off my mood for the rest of the day. There were two events today that stood out as good today:

going out to lunch with a bunch of people and talking about nothing but random stuff and eating junk food at westshore pizza.

and...

being nominated to serve on a leadership committee at church (for me a big deal)

Other than that everything else was the usual gig

Youth pastor getting on my case about my politics and my lack of going to the service everyone else goes to.

Childrens Church running well...one thing i can count on for sundays

Band practice being dominated by random band changes, songs being changed to strange new forms and having problems with coheision between leadership and the band members. Im not sure whats going to happen with that, changes are expected, but is it too little too late?

And just to make matters more fun...my dad got really mad, and for those of you who dont believe me when i say my dad can get upset boy did you miss out today, i missed a boy scout meeting (littel deal) for the annual church charge conference (big deal) and he wanted me to wear my uniform as a compromise. I said no, there was not a point in that and so i didnt.
He refused to talk to me the rest of the day until he yelled at me at dinner for being mean and unthinking to him. So now hes pouting in his room upset with me for this and angry that i would skip boy scouts. So im really in no mood to do anything productive, i feel like i can please no authority except for, maybe, one person. So hopefully this week will be better, who knows what will happen. Dos Vadanya

Something Happened Today

Someone told me today that its my birthday, so i suppose it is. Today was actually nice and relaxing not to mention the stuff that comes with having a birthday. I finally got an iPOD and im soon off to get a new guitar so i suppose that alone is reason to celebrate. Tonight im off the the Columbia for spanish cuisine, which is always a good time, so i look forward to that. Im not sure how far this whole blog thing will go but we shall see.

First Entry

I have always wanted to try this just because...and besides its free.