El Paso, Day 2

Day 2 in El Paso is was eye opening. I could actually see the city and the mountains. Oh, and the big fence that denotes the border between the US and Mexico. It was interesting to see the shanty towns just yards from the freeway of which across was a typical American neighborhood.

The fairs weren't bad. Lots of questions about criminal justice. In talking with other recruiters, it is due to the border and all of the crime that happens in El Paso and across the border.

On the way to El Paso HS, I found a few good To over look the city into El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. Got few shots of the two cities but nothing too good. Need a zoom camera for that.

Before ending the night, Audra and I went to Cincinnati Street, which is a bar/restaurant for dinner and drinks. Had a good time, as well as some banana pancakes.

We will see what tomorow brings...

Sent from my iPhone

El Paso first impressions

Well I just arrived in El Paso this evening. It feels like a different
place although it has been dark the whole time so I can't quite see
much. However it is really easy to see Mexico from I-10.

It feels like I am not in Texas. Were in a different time zone, there
are lots of mountains, the English radio stations still have Spanish
commericals and the list goes on. It also is apparent that I am in the
minority here. Which is not a problem, but is a little bit of a
culture shock.

I am really excited to be here. This is a new part of the state and
after this week and a trip to midland/odessa, I will have been across
the whole state of Texas.

Tomorrow, I will have a better view of things since it will actually
be light out and I will be able to see things. I can also get a good
look at the Mazda 6 that I am driving.
Sent from my iPhone

Lazy days

Well, I wrote this nice long post via email to test out the post by email option on the iPhone, but it did not work! I had inserted this picture and then wrote text around it and all that it posted was this picture. That sucks! I like to include pictures with my postings because it makes them more interesting... Well, I guess that won't be happening. Somebody needs to develop an app for the iPhone so this will be easier. Although, it will have to be free before I download it...

I love Austin!

I love Austin! It is just a great city. It is very pedestrian friendly and safe. I have come to Austin many times and driven around, but I have never really walked the city. You just get a better feel for a town once you have walked around to scope it out. There aren't many cities that you can do this in, but Austin just happens to be one of those cities.

I had to come for a visit due to work. We are attending the National Hispanic College Fairs here in Austin and San Antonio. We had another counselor that was supposed to come, but it fell through and I was chosen to make the trip. I was totally ok with that because I was ready to get out of dodge for a little bit anyways.

So I got into town around 6:45pm and checked into the Embassy Suites south of Downtown. I always try to stay here when I come to Austin because they have a kick ass breakfast. They have ready to order omelettes and other goodies, and it is a nice property too.

After I dropped off my bag, I went exploring. I walked over to the Whole Foods on the corner of 5th and Lamar. It was about a mile walk and it was a good way to make myself hungry for dinner. As I was getting closer to the Whole Foods, I was encountering these new developments that I saw last time that I was in town. They were just steel structures, so I didn't really know what they were to become. Well, it turns out that they are lofts. And beautiful lofts they are! They are in a part of town called the "Warehouse district" and they really reflected that. They all had balconies and whatnot and I really envy the people who live there. I am sure that they pay a pretty penny for them and that I cannot afford it, but one can hope.

When I walked into Whole Foods, it was great. I have been inside before, so I knew what it looked like, but this time, I had a pedestrian perspective and could see what it was like shopping there as a local from the neighborhood. As I walked over to the cafe, I fit right in as a patron looking around for dinner. I ended up having the London Broil with mashed sweet potatoes and a squash mix. It was very good, and only $10. Not bad.

After the adventures in Whole Foods, I walked across the street to a new shopping center where there was a REI and a bookstore. The bookstore was the only thing open, so I went in and walked around. I purchased a magazine and started to make my way back to Congress Ave. and to the Hotel (or so I thought).

At this point, I was on 6th Street. I remembered the Dizzy Rooster from the Austin season of the Real World, so I went to find that. Many blocks later, I found it around the corner of 6th and Lavaca; only 3 or so blocks away from the Real World House. It was pretty small, but cool looking nonetheless. I wanted to go in for a drink, but I really didn't want to go in solo. It would just be weird.

After peeking into the Dizzy Rooster, I walked back towards Congress Ave. and when I got there, I decided that I would walk up to the Capitol. I was half way there, so I figured why not.

The Capitol is beautiful at night, all lit up. When I got there, I found that the gates were surprisingly still open, so I walked on through. As I walked up to the stairs leading to the door, I noticed a family walking around as well. This was comforting at 9:30pm on a Sunday night.

I made my way around the building and took some pictures and made my way once again back towards Congress Ave.

When I got to 11th and Congress, I noticed that I was near the KTBC (Fox 7) studios, so I went over and snapped a few shots of one of their live trucks and the cover over their front door. Its not everyday that you walk right past a TV station!

And from there I made my way back to the Hotel, about 11 blocks away. I stopped on the Congress Ave. bridge to see if I could see any bats (I did.. they were out looking for food) and then went back to the Hotel.

It was dark for most of my trip and I felt safe the entire 4.2 miles of my trip. Again, you could make a walking trip like this in every city. I enjoy the fact that Austin is a very young city and that UT and the young, working professionals keep this city young. They also care about the environment and are also very laid back. It would be great to live here and grow a family here. Austinites have the right attitude to do so. They are a medium sized city with the big town amenities and the small town charm. These are the perfect elements for a great city!

(Pictures will be uploaded when I get home)

Gustav is making waves

With only 24 hours away from the third anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, New Orleans is watching the Gulf for another storm; Gustav. As of now, the projected track will take it just to the west of New Orleans near Houma, LA which would not be good for the Crescent City. This potential track will mean that New Orleans will get hit with the "dirty side" of the storm, where the worst winds and rains reside. In addition, the storm surge is bad on this side as well, and with Katrina, we know what a storm surge can do to a city that is at some points 6 to 20 feet below sea level.

In what I call the Katrina affect, the local news stations are already providing some major coverage of Gustav's possible tracks. Starting yesterday, the Meteorologists have been hosting 3 daily live chats online by video giving viewers the opportunity to ask questions about the storm and its possible impact. I think that if the Democratic National Convention was not going on right now, this would be a big national story. It may become one as the days go on. The storm is projected to hit the Gulf Coast sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Governor Jindal of Louisiana has already declared a State of Emergency and WWL-TV has reported that Gov. Jindal may start contra-flow evacuations Saturday if the storm keeps its current track towards the Louisiana coastline.

It will be interesting to see what sort of hype will follow this storm as it gets closer to the United States. As of now, the system has been pretty fickle, so there is no telling what will happen. There is another storm in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Hannah and two other storms, one off of the coast of Africa and another one behind Hannah that have some favor of developing into storms.

It seems that this season will be a little busier than last season. We will hope for the best and pray that we will not have another disaster like Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, or Wilma of 2005.

Denton Public Works Office, you SUCK!

The you have been working on Maple street in front of Kerr Hall for almost 2 months now, since the end of Spring 2008. It is now the 2nd day of classes and you are still working on the road and closing it down with no notice.

WHY IS IT THAT YOU COULD NOT HURRY TO FINISH THIS BEFORE CLASSES? DO YOU NOT REALIZE THAT IT MAKES IT HARD TO NAVIGATE CAMPUS WHEN ROADS HAVE 5 INCH POTHOLES AND ROADS ARE CLOSED RANDOMLY?

Please, please finish this soon and do better planning next time.

Thank you, your friends at UNT.

Quick Note to Big Brother's Dan

Dan,

This week, you have had my stomach in knots. I cannot watch various parts of the episodes this week because of the craziness of your Head of Household. With that said though, you have been able to weasel your way out of difficult situations, and for that, I have to tip my hat to you. You have played a great game this season. I cannot think of anybody else in recent seasons that has performed as well as you. I hope that your game play does not come back to bite you Thursday night, because, you may be caught up in the surprise double eviction night tomorrow. I hope that your side of the house keeps the HOH and you send either Jerry or Ollie packing (really Ollie because he is the next one that needs to go after Michelle, Jerry will be easy to get rid of next week).

You are a true Renegade.

Good luck and God Speed,

Dustin

Want to know what is going on, see the recaps here : http://www.cbs.com/primetime/big_brother/recaps/1019/?season=10

and

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/big_brother/recaps/1020/?season=10

What's the Haps?

So nothing is really going on at work. We are in the second day of class and this starts the slow period before the recruiting season begins. I am enjoying this slowness, but I hate it at the same time because it gives me time to worry about things, and that is never good. I am scheduled to take the GRE on September 13th, so I am preparing for it and worrying about not making the score that I need to get into my program.

I don't know if I have posted this or not, but I have decided to pursue a Masters of Higher Education. It seems like I will be at UNT for a while, so I figured that I might as well settle in for the long haul. As a part of that, I need to earn a Masters degree in something, so I figured why not learn more about the field that I am in. A couple of my co-workers have been talking to me about the program and I have finally been recruited. I am hoping to being in Spring 2009, but I have to get a few things in order, such as GRE scores and letters of recommendation.

For the letters of recommendation, I have to get a recommendation from a professor. It would figure that the one professor that I actually met with more than once and somewhat established a relationship has moved on to another college. I emailed her almost 2 weeks ago to see if she would do it and she has not responded. Now, I think that I am going to ask my professor that I had this summer at Collin County. I am a little nervous about that because I never met her in person (as the course was a WebCT class) so I don't know if she has enough to go on to feel like she can give me a recommendation. Also, some of the writing that I gave her during the semester wasn't my absolute best, and she does not know that I already have a Bachelors degree, so I hope that will not count against me. (For those keeping count, I took Introduction to Mass Communications this summer because I was bored and didn't have anything else better to do. Also it is because I am a nerd and I am intrigued by the TV industry right now.) So we will see how that goes..

Travel season this year begins on September 15th with Dallas I. My travel schedule is as follows:

Sept 15 - 19: Dallas I

Sept 22 - 26: Dallas II

Sept 29 - Oct 3: Gulf Coast

Oct 6 - 10: Houston I

Oct 27 - 31: San Antonio

Nov 3-6: Professional Conference in Corpus Christi

Nov 10 - 13: Panhandle

Nov 17 - 21: Fort Worth

Dec 1 - 5: Austin

I am excited to get out of the office right now. Traveling is fun, draining, but fun. We will see what crazy things I can encounter this year..

When you thought that it could not get any worse

They do it. VH1 that is. They have created a new show. A show that questions their judgement. They have added to the American re-make of a British show.. The I Love the (decade here) series. However, they have gone out and made a "I Love the New Millennium". I'm sorry, but is this decade over yet? I thought that we had a year and a half more to go before the next decade, but I guess that I am mistaken. It started on Monday and the series goes through the year 2007. IT JUST HAPPENED! I watched years 2001-2003 last night and it was interesting. I knew exactly everything that they talked about oddly enough.

I love these shows, it is a great resource for people who like to study culture. It is also great to look back and see what was going on during those days and how style and thought has change from there to here. However, this is absurd. I guess that I am not helping my argument because I am watching the episodes, but still. What are they going to do for 2008 and 2009? Wait until the year is over and make a new episode to accompany this series? I think that in order to do a "best of (x) decade" show, that the WHOLE decade be completed for a few years. This would have been more appropriate to appear in say 2014 or so. It is just way too soon.

But I will still watch and reminisce. Ohh the 2000's!

Photo Credits : VH1.com

Yay for holidays!

So there have been some talks around campus that we may not get the usual week surrounding Christmas and New Years off. I looked on the Human Resource calendar today and I found out that he do get the week off! I would have been really mad if I could not have the week off for Christmas. We are an educational institution and there is no reason for us to be on campus. Yes, technically, we do get backed up during the holidays in processing files, but we need a break sometime. Plus, how is one expected to visit family members on a few days?

In other news, not much is going on. At work, we have begun a calling campaign to help remind students to sign up for orientation. After work last night, I hung out with Jessica, Jennifer, and Jaqueline and I could barely talk. It was not pleasant. I was still glad to hang out with the girls because I have not seen them in a long time, especially Jax and Jessica.

Pretty soon, I will know my recruiting schedule, so I can start making travel plans for the fall. I am excited. I know that I have only been in the office for a handful of weeks now, but I am ready to get back out on the road and get away from the telephone. I do not like to talk on the phone, especially when it is the same question over and over and over and over again. It just starts to get annoying after a while. Today I get to escape for the afternoon because there is a program at the Fort Worth Convention Center. I just hope that the rain holds off until after the event. I don't want to carry viewbooks through the rain. That will be no bueno. We shall see how it goes though..

Homework

Last night, I did my first section of homework since I left school in May 2007. I have to say it has been quite a while. My keyboard at home is much different than my keyboard at work, so needless to say, I made quite a bit of spelling errors that I had to go back and correct. Maybe my computer is trying to say that I need a natural keyboard at home... For fun, I am taking a course at the local community college about the Media. It is COMM 1307, Introduction to Mass Communications. It is a 10 week course and my first assignment is due next Tuesday.

Last night I studied all there is to know about advertising. We had to read a chapter in the book and then answer some questions that went along with the book and also involved me checking out some ad agencies and choosing one that I would prefer to use to advertise my imaginary product. One company that I looked at was Fallon. I chose them to do my ad. They have produced many of the ads that we have seen on TV, specifically the Citi card commercials where you have the victim of credit card theft and there is a voice over of the criminal talking about what they are going to buy with the credit card. It is one of my favorites.

I also learned that advertising is a billion dollar industry. I read that and was shocked. I guess that we just don't think about how much money it is to purchase time on the air waves.

So far I am enjoying the class. It is what I have been reading about in my spare time, so it is worth it. How I am going to use this credit, I am not sure, but it can just support my habit for off the wall knowledge.

Before I started homework, I finished up a series that I borrowed from the UNT Media Library. It is a BBC show called "The Robinsons". It stars Martin Freeman (Tim from BBC's The Office). It is about the youngest son (Freeman) in a family of 3 who is struggling to find out what his purpose in life is. His family is highly dysfunctional and it is a really good show. It only lasted for 6 episodes, so there is not much to it, but by British standards, it had a full run. Lately, I have been watching all that Martin Freeman has performed in. On Sunday, I watched "The Good Night" where Martin Freeman played someone similar to his character in "The Robinsons". For some reason, these roles are really intriguing to me right now.

On tap for tonight, Public Relations!

P.S. I feel about how he looks right now.... :)

Summer showers combined with a cold front = perfection

It was so beautiful last night! I had to drop off books at the library so they would be counted on-time so I made a little trip to the Lewisville Library around 10 pm. The temperature was 72 degrees so I drove with the windows down. And I am glad that I did. It was so relaxing! I had the windows down, radio up and nothing in the world could be wrong. It was great!

Before my excursion to the library, I watched a mocumentry called "Chalk". It is about new teachers who have between 1 hour and 3 years of experience. It was really good. It was executive produced by Morgan Spurlock, the "Supersize Me" guy. "Chalk" give you an idea what first year teachers experience and some of the frustrations that they can encounter. From un-ruly students to administrators who are not as helpful as they can be. They had a couple PSA's in the special features section. One was really funny, it had this teacher and all you could see is his shirt and tie. He is walking down the hallway, waving to people. He walks into the classroom and starts his lesson. He suddenly drops his chalk. He bends down to pick it up and he is wearing short shorts. A sign on the screen says "That's just wrong. Students, please respect the dress code". It was funny. Unfortunately it is not on Youtube to share, but something to investigate if you watch the DVD.

The season finale of ABC Family's Greek was great also. Of course it was a roller coaster ride of "will they, won't they" but it ended how it should have. Now I will have to wait a whole summer to know what will happen between the Casey-Cappy-Rebecca love triangle.

With all of that excitement, I guess I should start working on my class now...

Making News : Savannah Style

Tonight is the premiere of the TV Guide channel's reality program "Making News : Savannah Style" series that follows a local TV station (usually during the Spring season) to see what they are doing and usually see how they are trying to beat their competition. Last season, they focused on KOSA in the Midland/Odessa market. They were undergoing some changes in management and also they were trying to beat the their competitor KWES (NewsWest 9). It was really cool to see the behind the scenes action at a local news station.

This season it is based in Savannah, GA at ABC Affiliate WJCL. They have faced some problems of their own : They have a new owner, their General Manager of the station was sent to prison, they are the lowest ranked ABC affiliate. They have a lot of problems they they need to work on. Their current General Manager wrote about why they wanted to be on the "Making News" series here. Basically, they have all of these issues and are the worst station ever and how could it go wrong by having somebody come and document their struggle to become a better news station.

They are in the 97th largest TV market, which is a bit of change from the Midland/Odessa market which is #157. If you notice in the picture above, it says the 198th best local news station, this is referring to overall ABC affiliates nationwide.

I watched Making News : Texas Style last summer and it was very entertaining. You get to learn about what happens behind the scenes at a TV station and which is something that the average viewer does not get to see. It is definitely worth checking out if you have digital cable.

The Mole

So I watched the premier of the new season of ABC's "The Mole" last night. It was the first time that I saw a full episode. I remember watching a little bit of an episode back in 2003 when it was last on.

"The Mole" is a game-show/reality show which follows 12 people who are given missions to find out who the mole is and also to win money. It is a 10 week venture and this season they are in Chile. Basically, they do all of these missions to gain clues. At the end of each week, they will take a quiz to see who knows who the mole is. The person with the lowest score on the quiz is immediately sent home.

This season has a variety of characters, most are in their 20's, but there are a few contestants who are a little older. The first mission was to "bungee" off of a waterfall in order to grab a bag that may or may not have cash in it. Only 5 people out of 11 grabbed bags and only 2 had cash in the bag (which upset some contestants).

With any game show/reality show, there are characters, people who whine, etc. One contestant, Nicole, threw a fit about having to sleep outside. She was named the person who whines the most and on the next mission, she was the lead, but she paid for her whining because she was stranded on an island for a night.

Overall, I am luke warm to the show. I am not jumping up and down excited about it, but it was not bad either. I am going to watch again next week and see how that goes. It comes on ABC Monday nights at 9pm CT.

Happenings of the past few days

So I have finished moving my stuff to my new apartment. Now that everything is settled for the most part and 90% of the boxes are gone, it is starting to feel like home. There are some things that I still need to do: hang pictures, fold clothes, finish unpacking boxes in my room. It is not too bad.

Now that I have my stuff in there, it is not as small anymore. It is just the right size. I am still trying to find a place to put the lids to my Tupperware containers. I have no more drawers or cabinet space available, so I guess for now I am going to keep them in a box on the floor next to the kitchen. Mostly everything else, if I am do not use the item everyday is going in my massive storage closet. It is so big, it could be an extra room!

Since I do not have cable or Internet yet, I have been watching a lot of DVD's. I just finished a documentary that I borrowed from the library about West Point. It was very interesting. It was filmed in the Fall of 2001/Spring 2002, so it was interesting to see how the cadets responded to the 9/11 tragedy. Most were nervous, but many were ready to leave and go fight.

While I was at Wal-Mart this weekend, I bought season 6 of Roseanne. I used to watch this as a kid and I thought that it would be cool to remind myself of what I watched during childhood. Believe it or not, this season aired in 1993. From the different fashions, you could tell that it was the early 90's. I just could not process the fact that season 6 was in 1993. I would have thought that it was a lot later. As I watched, I remembered the different episodes from the first time that I watched them and where I was when I watched it. It was a nice trip down memory lane. Especially important to this season is that this was the first season that Sarah Chalke plays the role of Becky. I really like Sarah Chalke (and prefer her over the other Becky) so that is why I am starting in the middle of the series.

On tap for tonight is Disc 2 of Roseanne. I am excited. It is cool to flash back and watch shows from the past.

Above is a before picture of my living room. Tomorrow, an after picture.

New Apartment

So I got keys for my new apartment yesterday. It is nice, although definitely smaller than what I am in right now. It is over 500 square feet, so it is not minuscule, but going from 1100 square feet to 500 is a big change. One thing that I really notice is the kitchen. My cabinet space is greatly reduced, so I will have to develop a new strategy for dish placement as well as find a new home for my foodstuffs as I do not have a pantry. My creative juices have yet to flow on this one.

I am still excited though. I moved quite a bit of stuff into it last night, so I have a good start for the impending big-move this weekend. Now I just have to start packing the last minute stuff and also finish packing the kitchen.

This apartment has new carpet. It is really soft and I really like it, but it is brown. I have never seen brown carpet before. I guess that it is good though, because it should be able to hide stains and won't look as dirty. It is very nice though.

I also have to decide what is going to go into my apartment (and where) in the respect of furniture. My former roommate and I have 3 couches, so I think that I will take one and send the other 2 to storage. We have a recliner and I am still uncertain as to whether I will take it or not. Also, I need to figure out which wall my bed will be going on. I really want it on the same side of the door, but there is not enough space. I guess that my best option is for it to go under the window, which is not exactly where I want it, but guess it will have to do.

I am really excited though and ready to get everything settled so life can return to some sort of normalcy.

I will have pictures of the new place up soon..

A true sign of boredom

Did you know that toilet paper has been around since 589 AD? According to Wikipedia, there have been documents written that include talk about the use of paper for toilet purposes.

During the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) a Muslim traveler made this remark,

"They (the Chinese) are not careful about cleanliness, and they do not wash themselves with water when they have done their necessities; but they only wipe themselves with paper."[2]

The first rolls of toilet paper and dispensers that we know of today were invented by Seth Wheeler of Albany, NY in 1871. He was granted several patents for the actual roll and the dispensers that accompanied them. He sold the product under the name of the "Albany Perforated Wrapping Paper Co."

From Wikipedia :

"It is sold "by all the leading druggists" and is not medicated. It is marketed as being free of "all deleterious substances" which includes printed materials and chemicals "incident to the ordinary process of manufacture (which is) a cause of hemorrhoids." In addition, medicated toilet paper which is "heavily charged with ointment" was offered for "sufferers of hemorrhoids."

From there, toilet paper has evolved. Today, it comes in various forms : Quilted, containing Aloe, "Earth Friendly", and so on. You used to only be able to buy it at a drug store, but now it is practically everywhere.

The advertising of toilet paper has also evolved. Mr. Whipple taught us in a 1970's commercial to "Not squeeze the Charmin." Charmin is teaching us today that there are 2 different types of toilet roll for your needs, as demonstrated by cartoon bears. I wonder which one sold more rolls?

And just in case you go to another country, here are some common names for toilet paper : toilet roll (UK), TP (US Slang), Loo Roll (UK), Dunny Roll (unknown).

Now you can go and impress your friends with your new knowledge about toilet paper! :)

Photo Credit : Chris73 via Wikimedia. This is a picture of Ancient Japanese toilet paper. They were sticks found from a stream. Aren't we lucky that these have evolved?

Good luck with that...

So I am going to try something new on here. I am going to blog about my daily life. I know that I am a boring person, but it will give me something to do. I am starting a new adventure by living alone. I am excited, but also aprehensive at the same time. I have never lived alone for a long period of time, so it is definitely going to be a new experience. And to kill time, I will document it here. I have been reading a blog from a friend that I know from High School. She lives in Chicago and it is interesting reading about her daily adventures living in a busy, "happening" city. If you want to read about her adventures, you can go here : http://cbhoff.blogspot.com/. I am going to borrow her style and try to document my own experiences of living in the 'burbs.

Random Quote for the day

I thought that this was funny... I don't have anybody in mind, but sometimes it could be me...

"There are grammatical errors even in his silence." - Stanislaw J. Lec

Caucusing

So I went to caucus tonight. It was an experience to say the least. I got there right at 7pm and had to wait until 830-9pm to even get inside the building to caucus. Once we got in, we had to stand there to wait for some forms to fill out to establish which candidate we wanted to caucus for. We waited there for about 15 minutes to figure out what to do and there was a lot of confusion. Nobody knew what they were doing. After filling out the form, we had to wait and vote for the precinct captain. Again, it was very confusing. There was one guy in a red shirt who acted like he knew what was going on and another with a white shirt who had no idea what was going on. There was one lady who was going around yelling "If you want Obama, vote for the guy in the white shirt." So, when we went to vote for precinct captain by separating into two different lines, the guy with the white shirt won. This is due to the fact that most people thought by going to that one side meant that they were voting for Obama. I wish that I would have yelled at that woman because she was making a confusing process even more confusing.

Overall, it was a real cool process. I now can say that I waited 2 hours to caucus in the 2008 Primary. I got to meet some people from my community and just listen to some like minded people. It also gave me a sense of pride that I never really felt before. It was just a great night to be an American and get to take part in our government. Despite the annoyance of waiting outside for 2 hours in the cold and all of the confusion that went on inside, I am glad that I got to take part of this process. I am also really glad that there were about 1,000 people at my polling place and several hundred people who took time to take part of the caucus.