Has anyone ever been to Falcon Point before? It's an awesome place. Houston is known for being a flat city (which is why there's TONS of suburban sprawl). But go towards the NW area, around Jersey Village, and there's actually some hills and a cliffside that rises up in just that area. Strange, because there aren't fault lines around Houston, but it's cool. Falcon Point lies just right along the Jersey Meadows Golf Course, and borders the US 290 and goes along that strip all the way towards JVBC near Jersey Dr.

The place is named after the many falcons that soar around there. The tall pine trees, the nooks within the cliffs offer a great place for the falcons to dwell. There is a reason why the JVHS mascot is a falcon. It's fun to hike year-round. The trees offer tons of shade, and coolness against the Texas sun, there's some cool creatures lurking around nearby, and it's refreshing from the typical fume-exhausted roadways of Houston.

Once you reach the cliffside, it's a spectacular view. Down below there's tons of trees, then followed by the houses, apartments and condos of Jersey Village, leading towards the freeways and tollways, and there's a good view of downtown Houston at the horizon. If you're lucky sometimes, you might catch a falcon. There used to be a lot of falcons, but some local hunters (illegally)  shot them (before August 25, 1999 - when Peregrine Falcons were off the U.S. Endangered Species list). But even after 1999, the Jersey Village city council ruled a ban on the killing of the peregrine falcon. So there's been more falcons lately, which is good.

Falcon Point is NOT an official park area or anything. It's just a local name given to that area. There's some trails, but no official names or whatever. There's talk that the city of Jersey Village is considering submitting FP to the state parks division, and offering some money to manage it, and the Peregrine Fund could manage a small conservancy there. But some people criticize that the park is a bit too small to consider it be a real park.

Anyways, I love to visit Falcon Point from time to time. I'm just hoping it won't fall away towards the real estate moguls that have been building ugly strip malls, single-site chain stores, gas stations, and all that other nonsense. As if we don't have enough of them. There's rumors that they might want to develop something big, like maybe a second shopping center complex. There's already a recently new shopping complex right in Jersey Village. Does there need to be a new one?

If you have time, visit Falcon Point. It wouldn't hurt to take a quick hike once in awhile, would it?

I just love the taste of pistachio ice cream, don't you? It's super sweet taste really calms you down after a hard day.

I usually eat the Blue Bell brand : Pistachio Almond. Personally, I don't like the almond part much. I've never been a fan of nuts. I think they sort of ruin the experience when you get to that crunchy part. I don't know if there's any pistachio flavors with no almonds or nuts, (surprise, considering pistachio IS a nut), but i would love to go for it if there were. Blue Bell is awesome. They're like the top ice cream brand in Texas, because of the nice and simple flavors.

I'm not sure if it's like my favorite flavor ice cream, but it's definitely one that I enjoy.

I just posted something to post something.

So I attended the JVHS '08 Graduation Ceremony. It was kinda boring. I went with my cousin's side of the family (who for some reason, has always had some issues with my mom's side somewhere).

We got to the Berry Center, and it was super hard to find a parking spot. My cousin (different cousin) wanted a specific parking spot, but with all the officers pointing this way and that, we had to go back on the road to get over to that spot.

Then we got inside the Berry Center. I had to stick with my cousin's family as we got to our seat. We sat pretty close to the vicinity of the main podium stand. So then we waited. We waited. And we waited some more. Finally the ceremony started off talking about how we're all happy to be here today, thanking the school district board and all that. Michael Barbas, the valedictorian, went into this speech with something about Ithaca, but it was rather cruddy from the comments I've heard about it. Then Ginger Grossman and Jacqueline Harper went into their own speech reflecting about the past 4 years and looking towards the future. I thought their speech was pretty good : Quite vivid, a little humor, and really lightened the mood.

Then the principal had some more words to say, and finally they started naming the Summa Cum Laude, the Magna Cum Laude, and the Cum Laude. My cousin was in the Cum Laude group. I clapped loud. :)

So then everybody else's name went by. Some people had funny names. Some had names that looked as if they came out of royalty. Some weren't even present.

Finally it ended. I recorded some of it. My cousin's family went out and down the steep wide steps of the Berry Center. We met my cousin down there. I gave her a high-five and gave her the congratulations. Unfortunately, I wanted to see some of the other graduates, but my cousin's family wanted me to stay nearby, so I didn't "get lost". Yeah, right. I've got a cellphone right here, and it didn't appear as if they'd be moving off anywhere else so fast. So I stuck by like a lollipop.

Most of the graduating seniors were clumped far way towards Entrance One of the massive building, while my cousin's family stood at the bottom of the humongous front stairway. Huong's Asian friends chatted by, but not many (barely any) were coming down this way. They were all celebrating near Entrance One. I was yearning the chance to see some of these people just ONE more time, before we were probably gone forever. No dice. Huong's family really didn't want me to wander off. I made a lame excuse to go to the restroom, but Huong's brother said I could wait until we got to the restaurant. Oh brother. They did let me go, and I went towards the main entrance at the top, but it was already locked. The rude officers wouldn't let me in. Anyways I just decided to return back, instead of going around the staircase towards the other graduates. Bad mistake.

Anyways I barely saw anyone I knew (a quick faraway wave to 1 or 2 people) and that was it. We left to go to this Chinese restaurant along Bellaire Blvd. In the car, I talked to Huong and asked her a lot of questions about graduation and other stuff I've been meaning to ask. Then we finally arrived. I'll be honest - I HATE Asian restaurants. They usually contain seafood which I really dislike, and I don't like the arrangement of the foods, and the selection there is. I'm just not a fan. So it's like torture. I ate some stuff, though I wasn't really pleased. Huong invited me to place softball later, but I didn't feel like it. Personally, I'm no softball fan either.

Then I got home. That was that. Sorry it took like a week to get this in.