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..