After going through Hurricane Ike blasted through Galveston and the Houston area last year, here’s a few tips that I think could be helpful. These tips are more about comfort, rather than emergency or medical-related. Chances are, you’ll probably survive if you:

1. DON’T stay in Galveston or along the coastal areas – That’s just plain foolish. If the storm surge is really bad, you’ll probably be calling for help very fast, and you’re putting other peoples’ lives in danger to save you, when you should have left while you had the chance. It costs lots of money, time, and potential lives when you strand yourself out there. If you live there, put all your most valuable possessions in some safe or hiding place that can last, and vamoose.
2. DON’T stay outside – Debris can hit you, you might be swept off your feet by the wind, knocked in the storm surge, etc. Better safe than sorry, but still there are people that actually do this. Unless there’s some emergency inside the house, like a fire or a murderer or whatever, stay inside!
3. BE CAREFUL with your energy generator – There was a good number of articles where people put generators in their garage or even their house, and people got sick or died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Don’t do that! Keep it outside under a tarp or something.
4. DON’T evacuate if you live in Houston – If you live in Houston, there’s a very good chance you’ll be fine. If you pack up and hit the road, you’ll just be adding congestion to the freeways for the people fleeing from the coastal areas. People from the coastal areas NEED to evacuate, and pretty much all Houstonians, especially those from the northwest, do not need to evacuate.
5. HAVE enough supplies to last – Plan for at least 2 weeks. Get a good amount of food, water, and gasoline. Store it somewhere safe. Consume as little as possible.

Follow those 5 things, and you’re very likely to live. It’s just common sense! Unfortunately, a lot of people just don’t have it, at least judging by the Chronicle and TV stations.

Now if there’s a weather report and it seems very evident a hurricane is coming, here’s what you should do BEFORE THE STORM:

• GET JUST ENOUGH supplies – I’m talking about food, water, and gasoline lasting for 2 weeks. For foods, I’d suggest non-perishables like bread (good for sandwiches), bagels, snack chips, pretzels, crackers & spray cheese, Ramen Maruchan noodles, and stuff like that that require little preparation, heat or water. For drinks, get water bottles (save the bottles to refill them from a clean tap later), sodas, and a well-insulated cooler to store most of the drinks in with ice. It’s was awfully hot during Hurricane Ike last year, and a cold soda would have been great. Make sure your first-aid kit is fully stocked, have flashlights with spare batteries nearby, a radio, have a little suitcase or folder with your most important documents at hand if you need to evacuate, etc. DO NOT get more than what you need. It is absolutely annoying when somebody buys practically all of one product, that could probably last him/her for years! This is not the end of the world, and if you’re one of those people that purposely hoards supplies to sell at outrageous prices, then you probably are committing some crime.
• CONSIDER STOPPING AT convenience, restaurants and outdoors supply stores – Supermarkets are good too, but don’t forget these. A bad hurricane may lose power to the area for quite awhile, and it hits convenience store owners hard when many of their products that need to be chilled go bad, OR their stores are easily robbed by bad guys who steal a bunch of merchandise, of course without paying. So you might be able to strike a bargain with them for lower prices. These guys have a lot to loose if nobody buys anything. Restaurants will also have a loss if a good number of food spoils, so again, you might be able to get a good bargain. Also, these places can be less crowded, especially the independent stores. Outdoor equipment stores, like Academy or REI, have a good supply of things you can use to live without power for awhile. They’re worth looking at too.
• CLEAR THE YARD of potential flying objects and board windows – Take anything that could possibly hit a window from your yard, and store it in a shed, garage, or inside the house. That way, you don’t have to buy a new window. Duct tape is NOT effective in protecting your windows. Any debris with the right momentum can still shatter shards on the edges. Get boards, and do the x shape if you don’t have many. It’s best to buy these even before there is a chance of a hurricane, because Home Depot or Lowe’s might run out by the time you get there. If there’s anything precious near the windows, move them away, and avoid sitting near them when the hurricane is in force. If you see a neighbor or someone on the street leaving such potential flying objects, tell them you think it should be moved away, because you wouldn’t want it to hit yours or anyone’s windows. Of course, if they refuse, and it does happen to hit yours or anyone’s windows, speak up and they’ll have to pay for the damage or whatever.
• TAKE CARE of any responsibilities you have – Like if you need to return a book to the library, pay some bill, return a DVD, or whatever, you should do it before the storm. I think most government institutions and businesses are lenient and will give a few extra days or a week after the storm to take care of your responsibilities like Hurricane Ike, but it never hurts to do it as soon as possible, just in case.

DURING THE STORM

• Finish any non-perishable products – Anything that will probably go bad when the power goes out for a long while, should be taken care of first. Milk, yogurt, meats, and others should be done with, so it’s not a waste. Consider it as possibly the last hot meal you’ll have for awhile.
• Do whatever you can do with the power still on – Watch the weather reports on TV for visual information, read the paper for more info, use the bathroom, cook more food, etc. Charge your laptops, cellphones, or whatever while you can. If you’re like me, and had a transformer blown somewhere nearby the area, then it might be WEEKS before the power company fixes it. It took 2 weeks to get power back here.
• Catch some ZZZZ – Take the opportunity to have some rest, especially if the power goes out. Not much else to do.
• Play games or read a book – Take the time to play some games, and brush up your skills. Read a book you’ve been meaning to read for awhile.
• Watch the activity going on outside – Stay at a safe distance and make sure it’s boarded up well enough.
• Listen to radio reports – If the radio station still has power or is on back-up generators, maybe you can hear what’s going on or to watch out for.

THE AFTERMATH

• Contact relatives and the workplace – Check to see if everybody is all right, and see when you start work again if they know yet.
• Survey any damage – Hopefully there’s little or no damage. Take snapshots of anything damaged that you could give to your insurance company. Maybe they’ll give you the money, maybe they won’t. Best to find the damage as soon as possible.
• Don’t leave your home unless it’s necessary – Don’t leave right away after a hurricane has passed. Let the road people clear up any debris or trees on the road, and let employees return to their business to assess any damage or to start opening up again. If many things are down, you’re just creating traffic issues if you left for a dumb reason like you wanted to check how everything is. Consider biking or walking carefully if you want/need to go anywhere.
• Repair or clean up your own yard/house – Better now than later
• Don’t flood phone lines – Don’t bother calling a bunch of places to find out: “When will my power come back on?”, “When will the garbage pick-up begin?” etc. Those are questions that will probably be answered on the radio or TV station, and you’re only keeping them busy by asking stupid questions. Giving them a call won’t make any difference in the speed of services coming back to you.

You pretty much know what to do from then on there. The KEY to doing well in a hurricane is:

1. Prepare early – Don’t wait until the last minute to get supplies, materials, and prep the home.
2. Don’t kill yourself by doing something stupid – Look back to the 5 ways I mentioned up there
3. Don’t be a nuisance – Take away potential flying objects in your yard, and don’t muck up the roads and phone lines unless it’s necessary

Just follow these 3 ways and you won’t be so awful during a big bad hurricane in Houston.

Taken by valkyriehyc on Flickr.

The school is a bit more confusing to go through now. The new east wing opened up, the grand staircase in the large commons has been blocked by an enormous white wall, the back area with the statue is still closed, the hallway nearest the gym directly towards the portables is one-way only (from portables towards the large commons, and you take the band hallway to go the other way), and now announcements are just on the school’s webpage and we just say the pledges, and super, brief important announcements.

Also, you’re not allowed to be on your cellphone when driving in a school zone, vending machines with carbonated sodas are turned off during school hours so kids don’t get obese, though they’re on before and after school.

My classes were until today:

• Government K – Coach Higgins
• Nutrition & Food Science – Mrs. Burnett
• Counselor Student Assistant – Mrs. McFarland
• English IV Dual-Credit – Mrs. Parham
• Lunch
• Calculus AB – Mrs. Wade
• Environmental Science AP (APES) – Mrs. Dickson
• Early Release

Brief thoughts: Government K with Higgins was awesome. He’s a really great teacher. He’s male, so he’s automatically more funnier, he’s younger, like 27, so he understands us more, and he’s a coach, so all the more to him. He has a nice beard going on, until he shaved it off sometime before yesterday, he has a simple way of doing things, rather than tedious rigmaroles that some older teachers are in a habit of doing, and he seems more efficient in my opinion of getting things ‘done’. I also like the people in my class. Unfortunately, there was like 42 people at it’s peak day in the class, so they had to level out people.

Nutrition Food & Science is kinda boring. There will obviously be cooking involved, but it’s also more about food content and the way foods are. It's kinda like Home Economics, which I think they came up with a new name and style for N&FS. I pretty much know very few people, not interested in knowing more, but it is what it is. Mrs. Burnett is ok. She’s more of the older type of teachers, and she has her set routines, but it’s not too difficult to deal with.

Student Assistant for Mrs. McFarland is was pretty convenient. So far, there hasn’t been a lot of work, and during my free time, I can work on last night’s homework or today’s homework. Jobs just require a little manual power, or a lot of walking power delivering notes or stacking stuff. Very easy. Mrs. McFarland has her things about always sitting down, and always having your badge on until the bell rings, even if it’s only a minute before, but I’m fine with that.

Mrs. Parham reminds me a lot of Mrs. Dubose, who was my English teacher during my sophomore year, and also taught English IV Dual-Credit until she retired last year. They’re very similar, and tell us to absolutely have as very few “to be” verbs as possible. They both talk a lot about stuff we should know, etc. Our desks are arranged around a circle in the room, to make discussions better, etc. She seems fine so far.

Lunch is B Lunch. Not many of my friends over at this lunch. Go figure. I guess I should be happy it’s not the very early A lunch, nor the last with C lunch. They raised chip prices from 50 cents to 60 cents this year! Also, I remember a time sodas were 65 cents and now they’re 75 cents, though that could have been the same last year.

Calculus with Mrs. Wade is ok. She seems to talk and demonstrate concepts pretty fast sometimes. Not really fond of the people in that class either. I don’t really like Calculus so far.

Environment Science is kinda fun. There’s definitely a lot of people in this class, and it looks like it will probably stay that way. I’ve had Mrs. Dickson as a sponsor for my Environment Club, which I’m the president of btw. She claims she’s “older than earth” but she doesn’t appear that old. Coach Higgins popped by today and said something like he was meaning to pop by in sometime, and he even said he had her as a teacher here, not so long ago! Even a little crush, I think. Mrs. Dickson retorted back by saying that maybe she had a crush on him, but it’s joke of course. He went away after that. We’ve been exploring what science really is, by doing labs and filling out information on our little 4-square chart. The class has a good mix of people, so it’s fine with me.

Early Release hasn’t been of much use to me so far. I don’t have a car, so I can’t escape home right away. I don’t have a job now also, so that doesn’t help. Now my dad picks me up if he has the time to, because finding a classroom and doing work until the bus comes or my club starts is pretty boring to me. Going home is not an option considering the distance and the heat during that time of the day. At least I don’t have to have another class.

Unfortunately, my schedule got changed yesterday! They finally leveled out people of his 1st period, and I just happened to be one of those! 1st period is now student assistant for the attendance office, and there’s a lot of work! I have to take in people that are late, and have several routines depending on whether they have a pass, no pass, a parent, or a nurse’s pass. I have to also send slips to classrooms around the building. I have to sort through new schedules and organize them into the file cabinet. Etc. Not enough time to do my homework or study it seems. Also, I miss my history class. :(

3rd period is now with Miss Daniels. I remember she was Mrs. Barnett’s teaching assistant when I was in 10th grade for World History. She’s young and all, but she’s more brisk in manner and about efficiency, and seems kinda like the strict time. Also, there’s not many interesting people in her class. A good number of the students today were dumped just like me. It just didn’t feel as fun.  The only benefit to this new schedule is that getting to classes isn’t as hard as it was, but still. I walk fast, so I’d rather have everything back the way it was. I know nothing’s perfect, but come on. Just a little piece of goodness at school?

Levi told me a lie, or something that wasn’t really true. He said that  Chris Holt, this guy from JVTV and football HATES me because partially he thinks I’m homo, thanks to my stupid immature and not-deep-enough voice, and because he thinks I’m all ‘innocent’ like. That’s just BS. I never even met him, as far as I recall. I asked around what people thought about Chris, because Levi said Chris hates a lot of people. Seems that Chris is pretty much an OK guy, and never said or seemed like that.

I got my current rank, and I dropped 11 ranks!!! I used to be #22 in my class of like 691, but now it’s #33 out of a class of 667. I’m going to have to work harder this year :(

ARGH!!! I’ve been working on this post for awhile and my schedule got CHANGED AGAIN! Now my English IV class during 4th period is at 6th period (still have Mrs. Parham), and my Environmental Science class is now during 4th period (NEW teacher and not so awesome classmates!) and I have the first lunch of the day, A lunch! This is just getting tiring! So now here’s my most recent schedule:

• Attendance Student Assistant – Mrs. Vick
• Nutrition & Food Science – Mrs. Burnett
• Government K – Ms. Daniels
• A Lunch
• Environmental Science – Mrs. King
• Calculus – Mrs. Wade
• English IV Dual-Credit – Mrs. Parham
• Early Release

You can see how it all went downhill. The only ‘perk’ I can say is that going from place to place is a bit easier, but I can walk fast anyway and this is not at all as useful as working with the right teacher and people. I can only hope things get better. All of this makes me feel I lost something I never had.

----------------------------

I went to my great grandmother’s funeral last weekend. Her name was Banh Chuyen. She was born in 1924 according to the DVD. I really never knew her much, since there was always language barriers with her speaking Vietnamese often, but she seemed really nice and always had a lot of candy in her place near grandma’s house. The last time I ever saw her was at this nursing home facility somewhere in the southeast part of town, closer towards Baytown. She was in a state where she really couldn’t talk anymore, and seemed dependent on machines to keep her alive. It was really sad for me. I felt really sad for Ah Thai, and I really wished she could be the way I remembered her. The entire facility smelt awful if you asked me, and that was not the way I would want to spend the rest of my life. I didn’t know what to say, but I knew in my head that I really hope she could be happier and such.

So the funeral came. It started early Saturday morning, and we went through some ritual. Then my sister and the other ladies in the family set up the food and drinks in the eating room for family members and guests. I really liked the Triscuit crackers, the cream cheese and chives ones. There was coke and sprite too. My Aunt Nicole’s boyfriend came too. His name is Scott. They’ve been together for over a year or something. He apparently works at a company called Cerner, and he like sells or does stuff with software that can automatically take information from scanned pieces of paper (like a birth certificate or insurance card or whatever) and place them in the appropriate fields on a digital document. So a person doesn’t have to manually type from the physical document, the software can do it all if the paper is scanned. I guess that’s pretty neat, and it’s meant more for healthcare places. So yeah, Scott and I went to the Kroger to get some more forks and plates, and gummy bears for my Aunt. My aunt loves the Haribo gummy bears.

So we waited for more people to come, and then my dad took me and my bros home for the day. We said our goodbyes to everyone and left.

We came again the next day and did the ritual thing with a bit of a variation I think. Refreshments and drinks were set up again, and there were more visitors this time. I heard my Aunt Nicole was going to move to Chicago to work for some financial firm. At least a year according to her contract. I was pretty sad. She likes to take me and my cousin places sometimes, and I can sometimes depend on her if I need a ride. So I had to say goodbye to her too. More family and friends of my great-grandmother came and then it was time to do the afternoon ritual. After that, we said some more goodbyes to each other and talked and such. We cleaned up too. My great-grandmother was cremated the next day, which was a school day, and I’m not sure if it’s something I really would have wanted to go to.

So that’s about it so far.

Well I saw “A Perfect Getaway” yesterday with my friend Eric Sonne. He’s going to A&M on Sunday so he made plans to at least spend a little time with me, since we don’t often hang out a lot. He came by with his green Mustang (which could use a wash with all the crepe myrtle and gunk on his windshield) and we left. We chatted about how are lives were going on the way to the theater. Eric quit Rudy’s a few weeks ago, plans on majoring in ocean engineering, etc. I just told him a few of my misfortunes and plans for my last year at JV and beyond. We got to the theater, realized we were pretty early, and decided to go to Fuddruckers when we were done. As we stepped onto the curb, Eric remarked that one of our mutual friends, Katherine Humphreys, seemed less stuck up lately, and I concurred with him. The last time I had a Facebook IM chat with her, she seemed rather mellow. Anyway the ticket offices outside of Tinseltown were empty, so we headed inside. I paid for both his ticket and mine (it was going to be his birthday this Tuesday), but he gave me the money he was going to spend to me. We got back in the car, drove the short distance to Fuddruckers, and parked. There was like only ONE car in the parking lot. It was around 3 on a Wednesday, but I was still surprised. I never saw it so empty.

I went inside and it felt kinda quiet, despite the tunes playing on the loudspeaker. We ordered. Eric got a 1/2 pound burger with a side of fries and a drink, while I got a 1/3 pound plain bacon cheeseburger with a side of fries and a drink. My bill was $11.19 including a tax of 85 cents. It consisted of:

• 1/3 BACON CHEDDAR : $6.84
• RG ORIG FRIES : $1.99
• LTO 3 BC COUPON BEV : –$.048 (I’m not sure, but I think because I didn’t do lettuce, tomato, and onions, I didn’t get charged, but I had no coupon?)
• SOFT DRINK : $1.99

I just wanted to note this, in case I come back to this post one day, and realize how cheap it was back ‘then’.

So we waited for our orders to come. Eric got an iced tea with the lemon wedge, and I just got Cherry Pepsi. We chatted some more. Talked a bit more about ocean engineering and urban studies and such. I asked if he found a new girlfriend lately, and that was a negative, as well as my response to the same question when he asked me. My buzzer rang first, so when I went to get there, she greeted me by name (which I like btw) and told me the fries would be coming soon. She’d even go deliver them herself. Nice. So eventually we both got all of our orders, and we chatted and ate. For some reason though, I had a hard time eating my food. Like indigestion or whatever. I wanted to finish it all (I believe in using my money to its fullest), but in the end, I left a couple of the seasoned fries; about 4-5 or so. Eric remarked they seemed saltier. So we finished, and when Eric questioned if we just leave our trays on the table, I said “Yeah” and he remarked that’s something he’s not used to, probably because he worked at Rudy’s and all. So we got in the car and took the short drive to the theater again. Before we got out of the car, we packed a good number of Air Heads into our pocket. Eric says he prefers taking them in because they’re flat and easy to take in, and he doesn’t want to pay the ridiculous candy prices at the counter as much as I do. Not much of an Air Heads fan, but I took them anyway. So we got in, found our movie room, and watched a bunch of movie trailers (mostly scary ones). I thought the scary trailers were so stupid. There is little likelihood it will ever happen and the scenarios are so dumb.

So like 15-20 minutes after the movie was suppose to start (3:40) it finally started. Overall, I thought the movie was pretty good. It was pretty mellow and breezy at first, then it got more interesting a bunch of murders that appear as a male & female couple are on the loose after a killing spree in Honolulu. Sometimes during the movie, you’re wondering who’s really the murderers? Couple A, Couple B, or even Couple C? The suspense is pretty good, and they throw in some nice wordplay. Like the way Kale, a so-called ‘special ops’ guy who is aspiring to become in a new movie, remarks to Cliff (an upcoming screenplay writer) about how he doesn’t want to be a ‘red snapper’, while Cliff corrects him by saying that he thinks Kale means a ‘red herring’. Kale still disagrees, saying he’s sure the term is ‘red snapper’. Also, as they’re crossing a river with guided ropes suspended across it, they pass a guy going the opposite way, and when Cliff asks if it will take any longer to get to the beach, the guy remarks that they should expect a few ‘twists and turns’. You’ll later figure this all out later.

The ending of course has some kinda twist, which I could see coming though. Anyway, when the movie was finished Eric liked it as well and said he likes the way the plot was thought out and all. Eric went to the restroom real fast, and I turned on my cellphone, and we discussed some of the other elements of the movie as we headed out. I asked Eric if we could take a quick picture, and he said that was cool, and suggested we do one together with a self timer. I didn’t know how, and despite the screen not rendering a thing, he knew which button to do it, most likely because I recalled he had a Sony Cybershot himself. So yeah, we took one together, and I took one of just Eric. He offered me a water bottle from his trunk, and took one himself. Earlier he told me he and his mom had shopped around Target and other stores so he could move into his dorm easier. He noted he got the water bottles too, and when I asked if it was from Randalls, he confirmed that and correctly deduced that I noted the Safeway logo on them. Personally, I think plastic water bottles are a waste. I’d rather get a nice BPA-free durable metal water bottle that can be reused again, so I don’t have to pay for each bottle, and I can get water anywhere. He also offered me some of his Gatorade, but I’m really not a fan of it. As we continued driving, we noted that it’s likely it will rain soon. So we got to my house, I thanked him for spending some time with me, promised to keep in contact and that was about it. I look pretty dorky in the photo below, and I really hate my new haircut. I really got to work out more.

Last night, I got a call from Chris Charles about any meetings or whatever, and I asked if he could contact Mandy Tran for me, because she was one of the officers. Later Mandy called, and then we discussed if we could meet at Starbucks on West Rd. to make a trifold poster board of our club to present to incoming freshmen during Freshman Orientation on Saturday (9-11). Instead she said it would be better if we did at her house, so I wrote her address. I contacted Vanessa Rivera to see if she could help, but she only could if someone could supply her a ride from Starbucks (she had a TAFE meeting). So this morning, I got my dad to take me to Starbucks around 12 so we could pick Vanessa up, and I was going to see if the 99 Cents Only Store would have what I need, but it was closed for some reason. So we decided to go to Walmart near 290 because it was pretty close to Mandy’s place. Vanessa and I found what we needed i got a Dr. Pepper and we went. We found Mandy’s townhome and pulled our supplies in. I carried my big long blue storage bin of arts and crafts that I used to use a lot when I was a kid. It has tons of construction paper, tissue paper, pipe straws, foam sheets, etc.

I lugged it upstairs where Mandy’s living room was. I thought Mandy’s townhouse looked pretty neat. I haven’t been in one so vertical before. There wasn’t a yard out front, but a gate for privacy, and a small patio with a few trees. Her kitchen and living room was oddly on the 2nd floor, and there was even some other rooms on the 3rd. There’s even a little terrace on both sides of the house, on the 2nd floor. Her street has many tall trees, offering some much needed shade. Anyway, I think it’s pretty neat. I at first didn’t notice the guy sitting on the sofa, but later I found out it was Nathan Park. I at first thought it was her brother, but I found out sometime later it was Nathan. Mandy and him are both in band, so it’s not surprising he was there. So for like the 1st hour, we were trying to think of what we wanted on the trifold, and we even wrote down some of our own ideas that the club should do this year. Unfortunately, a lot of our plans were undetermined, because I really haven’t been in contact with Mrs. Dickson, our teacher sponsor, over things. Vanessa remarked that every club had some constitution, but I had no idea what it was. So the next hour, we finally got to work and put stuff together. I wanted something more proper and orderly, but Vanessa and Mandy said we had to make it more interesting than that. Nathan offered some pretty good ideas like having a big tree stating what we do, and a speech bubble coming from it. Mandy. Vanessa had the idea to do grass, and I suggested having a blue background for the sky, but I got rejected multiple times because they felt it unnecessary and a time-consuming thing.  Before I left home, I printed a lot of pictures and even an article from my computer and the web. Neither of the girls really liked them, except the ones that actually showed what our club did. (Just so you know, the Eco Club at JVHS has traditionally been rather sloppy and slow, and our ‘historian’ never really released us any pictures of what we did. Our historian was also one of the school’s news reporter.) With little photos, I just pulled some images from a video I had taken from one of our parties. 

The end result so far is what you see above. I plan on adding green pipe cleaner straws on the bottom as grass, and printing out better color photos of who we are. It’s rather messy as you can see. I still think it would have been better if we did a blue background. I might add more to the leaves of our friend. So that’s about it so far.

On Sunday, I went to Splashtown, played and have fun. I was looking at the price of things a bit more closer this time. Did you know a small bag of Frito Lay chips was $2.50 there? I’m not kidding. That’s like how much a big bag of chips cost at the market. A 20 oz. bottle of Pepsi products is $3.00 from the vending machine. There small/regular fries is $3.00. Etc. The only thing I spent actual money on was a Brisk from a can for $1 and a chocolate shell over vanilla popsicle for $1. Going to Splashtown can cut down your wallet FAST.

After that, my sister picked me up and we headed to my house so I could change and get ready to go with my friends to the movies. We were going to see District 9. So I got ready, my sister and I left the house and we picked up Brianna and Tyler and off we went. We stopped by the movie theater to pick up our tickets, and then she dropped us off at Fuddruckers which was nearby. We ordered our food. Brianna and I decided to share a bacon cheeseburger plain with a side of fries and one glass (I remember Brianna barely eat her platter last time, and I could save money and food this way). Unfortunately I was short a few dollars (I forgot Tinseltown charges $6 for night time), and Brianna paid the last 2 dollars of our bill for $11 and something. Tyler just got fries and a shake. We found a booth, chatted, and waited for our food to come. We chatted some more and Levi finally came over to our booth just after he finished ordering. We chatted some more about stuff. I showed them my senior pictures and Tyler joked I looked constipated. Whatever. I’m going to retake them I guess. Levi finally got his food, scarfed it down and off we went.

We showed up in time for our movie, and we spent the next several hours watching it. Tyler shared his small popcorn with me, most of it actually, because he wasn’t that hungry.I and Levi bought nothing. Brianna had a soda. It was a pretty good movie in my opinion. It started out in a documentary style with pieces of related news media interspersed with it. It mentions how the aliens came, what they discovered, the human v. alien clash, and eventually forcing the aliens into an area called District 9, that was a shantytown. The people at MNU (Multi-National United), a private company specializing in weaponry, are prepared to relocate the aliens to a new camp 240km away from Johannesburg so they wouldn't bother the human citizens too much. The protagonist is Wikus van der Merwe, an affable employee at MNU who has just been assigned to lead the task of going to District 9 to get the ‘prawns’ (the aliens) to sign their signatures on the eviction notices. He tries to be really friendly at first, but of course, the aliens aren’t as understanding and sometimes the guys with weapons have to step in and threaten the prawns. They discover some illegal weapons at some residences (which those prawns are apprehended). They come to another one that is set apart from the documentary, now in regular film mode. Inside, the two aliens are very close to finally finishing their secret project they’ve been working on for so many years. Wikus and is crew are coming up, and the owner of the shack converses with them, but becomes rude and the muscle guys get him down and search his cabin. The other alien, Christopher Johnson, manages to escape away unnoticed. Wikus finds some advance weapons of course behind a secret wall, and is fizzled a bit when he unleashes the strange canister of black liquid into his face. When Wikus and Co. finally reach his shack, he gives CJ’s son a little lollipop thinking it would be so easy to control him, but the boy throws it back in his face. CJ comes out, they search his place and finds machinery decorating his wall but nothing really incriminating.

Wikus starts feeling weird, and you notice his fingernail coming off on one finger, how he looks disgustingly sick, and even his comrades noticed the blackish liquid coming out of his nose while eating at Gunther’s. Anyway, I’ll let you watch the rest of the movie and I’m not going to spoil anything else.

I start school again on August 24. It’s kinda a bummer, but this summer has also been mostly a bummer. I’m trying to get more people to join Environmental Club and seeing who wants to join a movie club I’m creating this year. That’s about it.

Well there really isn’t much to say about our beach trip this year. It was rather dull. We packed up on a Sunday, stopped by a Walmart for chips, KFC because Mom wanted some fried chicken, and Burger King because I wanted a burger, and we went.

It took about 40-50 minutes to get there I guess. We kept searching for the beach we usually go to, Pocket Beach (3) because they offer a nice clubhouse-sort of place with a big deck with tables and umbrellas for shade, and a restroom and changing/shower facilities so we don’t have to track sand into the car. Unfortunately, we passed by it and it looked like it was in disrepair, probably due to Hurricane Ike. That’s really too bad. I hope they fix it up someday.

We ended up stopping at a state park beach (that’s what I thought it was) and got out. The shoreline wasn’t that far from the parking lot, but far enough. So basically I just play, swam in the water, hunted for pretty shells, fed the seagulls Cheerios that we didn’t like, I walked further down the beach, got a sunburn around my chest/neck region, and that’s all I can remember. then we went home. Not much exciting, so I didn’t take any photos this time.

I started Driver’s Ed at Sears Driving School several weeks ago. It’s upstairs at the Willowbrook location, and you’d never know it was there, in a hidden corridor where the restrooms and employee lounge are. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be. Most days we worked from a workbooks, watched many videos (notably ones with accidents that never should have happened – like Red Asphalt), and my instructor, Clyde, just told us a bunch of stuff we should always remember. There was one girl I knew that went to JV named Rebecca Ortiz, but I didn’t know her personally. She seemed nice. I think there was another JV person, but I don’t know who. I met a tall quiet guy named Tyler Hunter, some guys from Tomball (Edwin, Joseph, Alicia), and I usually sat next to this girl named Rosa or whose last name was Sosa or something. Clyde is a really funny guy. He’s black, and well he’s fat. He even admits he’s fat. Not just a plump belly, but big fat. We joked about what people have called him before, like ‘big’ or ‘massive’ or even hilariously ‘fluffy’. Lol. He told us several funny stories he had driving with some of his students like:

• A boy driving on the night hours (you’re driven home directly after the session) didn’t even know where he lived. Even after passing the street several times and when they had to call his dad who walked up to the sidewalk not far from where they were.
• A guy who did not want to miss his driving appointment (a $20 fee if you do) and broke out of a hospital with his IV bag with him. When Clyde was going to say no, the boy suggested putting the IV bag on the coat hanger to make this work, and it was just funny.
• A boy on the night shift, when heading towards his home kept Clyde going around in circles farther and farther away then Clyde wanted to drive the Sears car. Eventually they went in the opposite direction to get to his home.
• A girl who ran over a squirrel, and kept crying and crying. She couldn’t stop. Clyde secretly thought the squirrel made it however. When Clyde had her for another drive time, she ran over a bunny this time and as she started to cry, Clyde told her it was ok. It was just a bunny. Then she got all psycho-analytical telling him the meaning of life and it’s value and such, and it sounded funny.
• The boy who thought there was a miracle with the car. Clyde has a special brake on his passenger side of the car, and he used it as he knew the boy was going to turn into the lane exactly when a truck was coming up. The boy wondered why he couldn’t go, and when Clyde pointed at the truck zooming past, the boy was in awe and thought it was a miracle. He even asked if he could get one of these cars somewhere that ‘automatically’ does the brakes like that.

Those stories among other humorous stories. Class got by well when he told stories like that. Anyway, I did have an issue with my permit. I had to send in my birth certificate, social security card, VOE form (verification of enrollment from the high school), and $5 to get my permit from the state. Unfortunately, I got all that paperwork back and no permit because my name on my VOE, which I commonly go by, did not match with my legal documents. Even though all the parts in my ‘common name’ were on the birth certificate, it wasn’t the first, first name. I talked to my cousin about this, and she had the same issue too. Apparently, this happens a lot with Asian parents. Sigh. You can’t even initialize the first names of your name. It really sucks.

So I got another VOE at Cy-Ridge. JVHS was closed down for the summer for construction, so the offices were at Cy-Ridge. I met Yesenia there. I’ve been seeing Yesenia EVERYWHERE this summer. Usually, I rarely see her at school. We sometimes rode the late bus together during 11th grade after our after-school activities, and I’ve already seen Yesenia once at the library, at a video store, and I think somewhere else, all in one summer! It’s so weird. Anyway, instead of waiting at the long line, she went up and asked where they were, and the lady said it was on another side of the building. Yesenia went with her friends to her car, and my dad and I tagged along. It wasn’t really far from where we started to be honest. Anyway, I went inside, and there were several tables for incoming freshmen to sign in at. One table was set up for parking permits. Yesenia approached her, she went back to her car to take a snapshot of her license plate, and then she finished up. I also saw Zach Moran there, and not long after Austin Sarabia. I felt kinda embarrassed, because like sometime during the fall of 11th grade, before Physics class started, I remember Austin talking about something related to driving with Alicia Nelson, and when he showed his driver’s license, I think I commented on it, and Austin wanted to see mine. I wouldn’t confirm if I had one or not, and Alicia, Austin and even Jacqui Bontke were interested to see it. Of course, I didn’t have a license, but I didn’t want to admit that. I’m hoping they thought I just didn’t like my pic or something. Anyway, at the table, the bubble was to burst.

Austin was waiting behind me, and when I tried to be discrete and asked the lady about my VOE, she remarked she already signed this before school ended and it was valid, but I explained to her about the whole birth certificate thing, and she understood. Anyway, it was loud enough and Austin heard it. Oh well. I don’t want to make a big deal out of this, but I just feel so below when many of my friends are off driving already at 16, and I’m still waiting. So I had to go back to where I started before, and go into the actual main office this time, where a JV girl or assistant was there and she signed me out a VOE. I explained my situation when I told her about the names thing, and she said it must really suck in sympathy. So I got it, but when I gave it to Sears this time, with my dad along, it was rejected again. Dad got into an argument that the name was perfectly acceptable, but the people at the office said “No, it isn’t” and insisted that the state would only accept the name stated on the birth certificate word for word. Every time they said, “Okay. Wait. Listen!” but my dad wouldn’t listen, and Clyde got kinda upset and left. I tried explaining it better to him, and eventually he got it. He finally said he’ll go to DPS to see about this, and he took all my paperwork with him. We left, and there was no time to go to the DPS to see if we could straighten this out. The Sears people said that it would take hours to wait at the office, and they’d probably say the same thing, but Dad didn’t think so. Later, I called my sister about changing her name, because my mom mentioned that she got her name changed when she married Alex, but it wasn’t the same thing. She couldn’t change her first name without a different process and she didn’t want to bother that. She suggest I research it online and get back to her with that so maybe we could both get our first names changed.

So I was really fed up. I was already fed up at the office when I told Dad I didn’t really care anymore about what my name was. It was a big mess already, and I just wanted to get the stupid permit and I’ve had enough embarrassment over this. Even my class knew there was some issue with my name the first or 2nd day. Somehow my first name was “David” on the roll sheet, and when I asked him why he didn’t call my name, he asked if I was David, and he asked me for my birthday which was the same as “David’s”. So like every time he greets me, it’s like “William Michael Henry Nguyen” or something just as funny. I just smile, because it is kinda funny when you think about it. It got even exacerbated when the whole legal name issue popped up.

My dad thought I was doing that to make him mad, because I did say it kinda in a pouting like way. I was just tired. Angry, but tired. Anyway, I needed to get another VOE at Cy-Ridge again with the official name all the way, and I gave it to Sears. I also had my final exam for the classroom portion of the school (which I got a 110!), and it wasn’t that bad. I think mostly everyone in the class passed with a very good grade. Many with 100+ points (thanks to the bonus). So I paid my $5 today, and now hopefully my permit will come in soon.

I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at Tinseltown on July 18 with some friends. I might have seen it the night before with my cousins, but Alan wasn’t interested that night. He claimed he could just buy it on DVD. We were going to go at night, but my mom still wasn’t home. My aunt and uncle didn’t want to leave Alan and Andrew alone, so they decided it was better if I didn’t go. Sigh.

Anyway, I had planned since Monday to see the film with Brianna Donahue, Tyler Bell, and Levi Dooley that Saturday. Unfortunately, that Saturday morning, I had found out my brother wanted to go. I interrogated him why he chose to go that day, instead of the opportunity he was presented yesterday, and then he confessed that he just really wanted to ensure he could get his daily computer time hours. I was steaming! I had planned on going with my friends, and that’s it. I didn’t want Alan in the car embarrassing me as we picked up Brianna and Tyler. I’m already embarrassed enough, but he has to come along? Ugh.

I laid out 2 basic rules which was not to let them here him speak, and to wear a good shirt. If he spoke, he might have intentionally (or purposefully) said some pretty stupid stuff about him, or they might think his voice is annoying (which in my opinion it is) or a bunch of other stuff. He usually wears pretty ugly shirts to places, and it makes us look kinda poor. He claims it feels good, but I’m quite a lot of t-shirts can feel good, but don’t have to be so ugly. I know I’m seeming really egotistical, but as a person that doesn’t get to hang out with many friends, its crucial to me that things go right. I don’t see why he has a problem with just doing 2 simple thing for me. Anyway, we had a big argument about it, he offered to do so for computer time (which I refused), and dad was yelling at us and at one point, he even said we might as well not all go. Alan finally said he wasn’t going, and dad said if he wasn’t going, the nobody was going. Nobody understood that I didn’t mind Alan going, but I didn’t want to be embarrassed. Sigh. I even dropped the two rules, and said as long as he doesn’t embarrass me in anyway, I would be fine with it.

So my dad took me, we picked up Tyler (who took forever!) and Brianna and went. We arrived there at the same time Levi arrived. So we decided we should buy our tickets first. Then we walked over to the Fuddruckers near the freeway.

We walked over to a door and it was locked because it was reserved to a “defensive driving class”. We were all wondering what the heck were they being rewarded for, so we just walked around to the other entrance. I’m not that familiar with Fuddruckers, so I just order some fries and a coke. I embarrassed myself when I walked away from the cashier and my friends waved me back because I didn’t pay enough with the $5 bill I gave her. I thought she had told me $4 something and I wanted to look at something else. I gave her a dollar or a quarter or something to pay for my meal of $5.13. So we decided to eat at a booth in the far corner. So we had discussions about what’s been going on lately, Tyler and Levi chatted about The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and I mentioned my bike campaign, etc. Brianna had offered earlier, while we were still in line figuring out what to get, to share half of her bacon cheeseburger meal, and I wish I had accepted. By the time we were done, she still had more than half of her bacon cheeseburger uneaten, and a good number of French fries. Well that’s that. So we left.

We still had a long while before the movie started so we hit the arcade inside Tinseltown. Brianna defeated Tyler in air hockey, and later I defeated her (but she claimed she didn’t do so well on the account she had to hold her handbag for part of the game). Sometimes she would ask one of us to hold her handbag so she could play, and didn’t want to leave it on the ground or somewhere that might be dirty/sticky. I failed miserably to beat Tyler with a basketball hoops game, but only because I wasn’t to familiar where the hoops actually moved back and forth. Tyler used his tickets to get a prize from the prize machine, and game up with one of those brain teaser toys where you have to pull them apart. Well I did, but by brute force, not like the ‘solution’ where you position the clips in a certain way and pull apart. :)

So anyway, Tyler and Brianna won more games. They said that since Levi and I (the losers) lost, we had to wait in the long snack line and get their snacks for them. Of course they gave us the cash to pay for their snacks, its just that Levi and I had to wait and get it, while they got in the theater to get the seats. Levi and I waited and waited. I discussed about my proposal for a more wider and extensive bike lane system throughout Harris County, and he thinks it might work. Brianna wanted Rasinets and a large Coke, while Tyler wanted Sour Patch. We got them and went into the theater.

It was at that point, we realized this ‘plan’ failed. It was dark inside, there were a lot of people, and Levi and I couldn’t make out Brianna or Tyler from other people. We found some seats near the back, and Levi sent a text to one of them to signal or something to indicate where they were sitting, but they didn’t respond. So we just watched the movies by ourselves. The movie was all right. Some parts were really good, and some parts were ok. I thought that girl that loves Ron is so icky. I dislike lovey dovey girls. Anyway, I noticed some parts from the book were missing, and other parts slightly altered.

The movie finished, and we met back with Tyler and Brianna. We chatted, saw a display for the 2012 movie, and went back to the arcade to play a bit more. Levi left when his mom picked him up, and we decided to wait outside. We talked, and I called my dad to see when he was coming, but he kept changing his approximate time he’d be here, and the clouds were getting darker. About an hour later it was raining! It grew even stronger! Finally my dad came, and we all jumped in. I was really steamed my dad took so long. Tyler and Brianna seemed a bit upset at how late it already was, and I got even more steamed when my dad stopped by McDonalds to pick up two McFlurries for Andrew and Alan because they requested them. When my dad asked my friends if they had already alerted their parents, they didn’t understand him. It was just mortifying, because his English isn’t that great. I had to explain to them. Ugh. We got to our subdivision dropped them off, and headed for home. I vented out my frustration in the living room, and I was angry at how Alan got me all worked up like this, how my dad didn’t tell exactly where he was and was wrong with his approximations on when he would be here (I only suggested my friends we waited outside because it didn’t seem long before he would arrive, based on him coming from downtown, when he was actually farther off somewhere else), and I was really crushed. I wanted this to be a good outing with my friends. My dad responded that he’s not “my driver” and that my friends didn’t even thank him. I did feel bad, and I explained how I did appreciate him taking us, and that my friends weren’t sure if he would understand them, or they were in a rush to get home to think about it. Sigh.

So a week later, I’m going to an Astros game with Brianna, her mother, and her stepfather. They invited me around Tuesday of that week. I’ve really wanted to go to an Astros game this summer with my dad, but he’s always to busy to take me. In fact, it was my first time ever. So I arrive at Brianna’s house a few minutes late, I jump into their red Ford pick-up, and off we go. On the ride there, we just chatted a bit, hunted for a cheap parking spot near Minute Maid Park, and got in line to get in. The lobby looked just like one of those big train stations, and it was pretty neat. Right after the people checked the ladies’ bags, and our tickets, I saw some guys passing out black baseball caps. I recognized them! It was Scott and Sam from the Jersey Village ROTC! Scott said hi to me, and I said hi to them both.

So we wandered around the place, looking at the restaurant and shops. It’s bad enough that you can’t bring any food or drinks into the park (the only Major League Baseball to have such a no-tolerance rule), but the prices for food and drinks in the park, at any of the spots were pretty pricey. So we found our seats (Section 321, Row 3, Seat 7, on the Terrace Deck level), waited about an hour. Her parents got a magazine for Brianna to read through, and I read it too. I took some pictures of the park as I waited. Finally the game was ready. The national anthem played, and then the game started. A big fat old lady sat on the chair next to me, and as anyone knows about stadium seats, she was like less than an inch or two away. She’s a big baseball fanatic (not too much of an Astros), and she’d keep yelling about a lousy throw or other stuff. Luckily, they left like about half an hour later. A middle aged couple came next, and near the end of the game, a younger couple sat there. I remember he had some pretty good arms. Anyway, during part of the game, I went to get a chicken and finger basket, just like the one Brianna had earlier. I waited in line at this one spot, and it was like 6 minutes by the time I got up there. Guess what? No more there. I waited at another similar place, and the employee who took my order teased me and asked “Do you really want that? Can I see some ID?” Ugh. I got it, and it was about $8.50 when I would have priced it at $4.50 or less. Oh and a regular bottle (like a water bottle size) Sprite costs about $4.50. What a rip-off! I don’t think I’ll ever buy anything at an Astros game again.

So some funny stuff did happen. I liked the FanCam where they showed random shots of the crowd. At another point there was the KissCam. It was really funny. Fans who were on TV had to kiss their partner. One guy tried doing it with his woman, but she pushed him away in embarrassment. The last footage was of a Mets player proposing to a girl near the Mets’ dugout. It was pretty cool, because I don’t think this is something that often happens in MLB games. The big display board was going “SHE SAID YES!!!” and everyone was clapping and stuff. That was just awesome.

We left around 9, because it was pretty obvious the Astros were going to lose. It was 10-1, in favor of the Mets when we left. We walked back to the truck and went home. Brianna’s dad, Mr. Baird, was nice enough to get us autographed baseballs for Brianna and me.

I don’t know if the baseball was actually signed by each player, or if it was just blasted on by a machine, but it’s still nice. Mrs. Baird said we might even get to go again sometime, perhaps with her bowling league. I had a blast! Unfortunately, I looked up the score on Bing later, and it was an Astros loss of 3-10. Oh well.

I went to Quiznos to turn in my uniform, and pick up my paycheck, a few days after I wrote the previous blog post. My dad took me there, on the way to do some errands. I walked in, it was kinda busy, and Kelly took me to the back where we were sorting it all out. I gave her the shirt, and she asked where the hat that came with it was. I told her I left it here somewhere and she look like she wasn’t going to believe it. Thankfully, Ryan was chopping something nearby, and came to my rescue by pointing out the hat he was wearing, was mine, because it had my name on (I’m also grateful that Jessica or Victor wrote my name on it!). She gave me the paycheck, and I just wanted to clear that I was just laid off and that I wasn’t fired. She said yeah, but if I wanted to find a different place to work, just go ahead and do that. She might call me in, she might not. Oh well. I saw the ‘new’ girl Jamie, and she didn’t seem like much in my opinion. I asked Kelly why she fired me. I said it. She replied that she heard from Victor or someone that I was still mixing up which meat was black angus and which was prime rib (it’s an easy mistake because they both look similar and are right next to each other), but she knows I do understand now. I mean that mistake stopped since early May, I think. I guess that is a mistake that shouldn’t have gone on, but still. She also said she still thought I was slow, but in my opinion, I’ve sped up significantly since January. I usually know what to do now without having to look. She also said that the other employees know what needs to be done, and don’t need to look at ‘the list’ of tasks she writes sometimes. Whatever. Anyway, I got fired laid-off for those things. If I had seen this coming, I would definitely have done my utmost best to stay in the business. I just feel like I’m in one of those reality shows where you’re competing with other contestants (coworkers) for this job/career thing, and I just got kicked out. It’s not like I haven’t done my best, but I would push myself to the extreme to stay in. Like I said, the job at Quiznos is probably the best I could have got around here. Unfortunately, I also had another issue with one of my previous paychecks that my dad pointed out. It’s like one of the checks bounced, and the bank had to reprocess it again after Quiznos or whatever gave it back, but there was also a $25.07 or something like that fee, and my dad expected Quiznos to pay for their mistake. I asked Kelly about this, but she said something like it was already taken care of and I should just check my account again. I went to the car and told my dad this, and he got all angry, and stormed off to the shop. I could go back in there. I’d be humiliated so much! My dad really cares about our family’s money flow, and he never wants to be overcharged, not even a few pennies. I could just imagine him in there, talking to Kelly in his accented English or sputtering out Vietnamese, yelling, and not helping with the angry Asian stereotype. UGH. I don’t think she’ll be calling me back now. Anyway, he said she resolved it.

Not so long after I heard the news I got laid off, I found out my Sony W290 camera had an internal screen issue. Like when I turn it on, 4/5 of the screen is blackened with the top portion of this black blob having a nasty arch of distorted banded color lines. Argh! I discovered this when I pulled out my camera to take pictures at Willowbrook Mall. I don’t know what I could have done to damage it. I don’t recall many times that I dropped the camera, and even those very few times I did, it was inside a case. I’m really mad that Sony used this really fragile type of LCD in their cameras. It’s so sensitive to even a finger on it, as you leave very noticeable fingerprints, and you have to buy a special LCD cleaning kit to clean it. Anyway, the bad news was that I couldn’t find my receipt and that I didn't buy any stupid special warranty from Best Buy (because I bought one for my Zune, and it turned out to be a waste of money since no serious damage ever occurred). I went to Best Buy and tried to get them to fix it, but they said that based on the issue, I must have damaged it, and they’d only do something if it was a manufacturing issue. ARGH! If you ask me, I thought it was a manufacturing issue, as my Canon PowerShot worked great even when I did drop (without a case!) though there were some minor issues. But nothing like this! I think Sony can fix it if I ship it to them, but I’m worried because Sony has the same “We won’t fix it, if you accidentally broke it” type of policy, and that shipping it was all for nothing, and I have the risk that my camera will be even more damaged from shipping it to Laredo.

I also didn’t have a stellar time at Splashtown. My brother Alan didn’t want to go, but when my sister came by to pick us up, she demanded that Alan go too, and that kinda made everyone a bit angry and at unease in the car. After stopping by her house to get some things and change, we drove and she dropped me off at Splashtown while she and my two brothers were going to a different waterpark. So I went up to the ticket booth for season passes and luckily, there was no one in line. I planned on getting the season pass for just $64.99 as it said on their site:

What they don’t tell you, as usual, is that this is their online price. Not their at-the-gate price. I had to end up paying $75.06 for my season pass. Can you believe that? Ugh. What was even worse, as that I only had $74.70 or $74 dollars and a few coins. So I had to get my sister to come back, and she was kinda pissed, because I told her I had about $75, but she thought that meant I had enough or whatever. She gave me $8 bucks, and when I went back to the booth, there was actually a group of four at the window. It was empty when I first got there, and now I had to wait for these folks. I decided to wait under the shade right next to one of the empty windows that wasn’t being used, while waiting for the foursome to hurry it up. 2 girls stood in the line behind me, but when the employee opened up another window, she called them over, instead of the guy that was standing right in front of her! She was the same employee I tried paying my season pass to. Could you believe that? I think I was more of a priority than these women, and I just needed to pay for the stupid season pass and go. I had to wait behind those two girls (who weren’t even attractive anyway). Finally the employee called me up, and she gave me a stupid piece of paper so I could get in.

I got in, and I decided to head straight for the far end of the park where I was suppose to register my season pass card. It was sweltering out here, and I felt a little envious of all the people splashing around as I reached the place. Unfortunately, the stupid family foursome was there again when I opened the door, they were blocking me and hogging the tray of pencils, that I couldn’t reach. They finally finished up, and instead of moving up the line, they decided they want to go back out. ARGH! I soon saw that there was no one else in the line, and I couldn’t believe this foursome waste my time like this. I quickly wrote down my information on the paper, and I walked over to the guy that registers the info and card. I handed him the slip of paper, he typed it all in, and I got ready for my stupid picture. Done. I was still hot, and I still needed to find a place to stash my backpack for a bit while I played. I put it in my usual hiding spot, and then I went to play. It was fun, but I got kinda exhausted from the stupid Splashtown unfriendliness and I just didn’t want to play anymore. I decided to wait under the shade of an area right next to the restroom/shower stalls. I got hot easily, and when I wanted to buy a bottle of soda from the vending machine, it was an outrageous $3. I took more showers, and less than 2 hours later, I got kicked out. There was this creepy guy in the bathroom/changing area, and I guess he was waiting to use one of the restroom stalls, but I felt he was eyeballing me weird. He was really big and fat, had balding gray hair, and wore some dorky glasses. He looked like a brute. I left the area, and decided to get an ICEE to help myself relax a bit. I expected it to be 3-4 bucks, for a tube that was really narrow and long, but it was like $6! She told me before I paid that it all the other flavors were watery but grape, but grape didn’t seem so bad. Splashtown overcharges way too much. I was taking another shower (man was I beat and hot), and there he was again helping his kids change. I think he was eyeballing me again. A few minutes later, security escorts me out, and question why I was there so often. Mr. Creepy is saying that I’ve been there for quite a while, and that I was doing ‘inappropriate stuff’ in front of his children. That’s a downright lie! I did see his kids, but I did nothing nasty in front of them. I really do not want to hurt a kids innocence (unlike most teenagers), and the only nasty thing I can think of doing is just yanking my shorts off in the shower, but it was only to get better underneath, and to wring out the wetness in them. But that’s nothing uncommon. I’ve seen a lot of men and guys do it before, and it’s not like we men should be uncomfortable or scared of seeing a nude man. We all know what we’ve got. Just ridiculous. I told the guard that I was just hot, and waiting for my ride to get here, but if it’d make them feel happy, I’d leave. He said fine, and I went, but I went out dizzily and I waited on a bench outside the park and just for show, I laid on the bench uncomfortably, and like I was extremely heat-stressed. I laid there all the way till the last person came out (I got kicked out a few minutes before closing time, but not all guests left until around 7:30) and then some time after. I don’t know why my sis was taking so long, but she called and told me that Alex (her husband) would pick me up around 8. Actually he came around 8:12. When questioned why I didn’t just walk over the McDonalds nearby, I really can honestly say that I only had one buck, after buying that stupid season pass and the expensive ICEE and I was just too tired to go over there.

Just yesterday, my mom called during the middle of the day, and said that my aunt was interested in driving over to Iowa, and that if I wanted to go, I should tell my brother Alan and we should pack. But when she got home, it was cancelled because she was too tired or whatever. We talked about this earlier this summer, but the idea was squashed at that time because my dad didn’t think she should be driving without him for such a long distance (my mom and dad argue over their driving skills) and he didn’t have any vacation days.

Life just sucks. I wish there was a restart button and I could do some things over again. Like push myself to the max in keeping my job, getting a good warranty for my camera or buying a different camera, not bothering with stupid Splashtown (a.k.a. Ripoff Park), and maybe some other stuff like getting in driving school earlier. I can’t do anything about the heat situation we’re experiencing (lot of dry hot heat, little rain), and there was probably more issues, but nothing I could do to resolve them.

I can only hope for the best.

At 3:59 yesterday, on Monday of July 6, 2009, I gave a call to Quiznos to see what days I was working this week. I had not seen myself on the schedule for this week, so I thought I should give a call to see if she had made up her mind yet. Turns out she did.

Nobody answered after a few rings, so I hung up. About less than a minute later, I got a call from some number I didn’t recognize. Turns out, it was Kelly, my manager. Business has been slow, so they had to lay me off. To me, that just feels the same as being fired. She wanted me to turn in my cap and shirt, and get my paychecks. I had already left my cap there on a previous occasion, so I didn’t feel the need to worry about that. Instead, I worried about finding a new job. I felt really sad that she picked ME to lay off. Why not someone else?

I admit, I’d been kinda slow off in the beginning, when I started in January, but I’ve caught up real well in the past few months. I come to work on time, at least 96% of the time (many times even earlier), I usually answered to calls to fill in for someone who had plans for his/her day to work, I sometimes visited even when I wasn’t working and chat with some coworkers, and help them out a bit, and I haven’t stolen any money or items really that I could think of (though I took some paper bags or boxes that were to be thrown out anyway). I’m courteous to customers, I’m pretty generous, and I don’t really complain about anything.

Unfortunately, the only major problem I had was when Kelly assigned days, and there just had to be those few days that I could not work. Just a few. So then she started giving me less days, and now there’s no days. I only meant that I couldn’t work those few days, but I guess I never asserted I could work other days during the week. That’s what my coworker thinks is why I’ve been laid off. I suspect this too. I’m going to turn in my shirt today, get my paychecks, and see if she can give me an explanation why she chose me over the others. If it’s because she thought I didn’t want to work there or work at all, then I’d quickly explain that I can work odd days if she needed me too, and I’d even take a less paycheck if it meant keeping my job. I currently get paid $6.80 an hour, up from the $6.55 I started out with.

Why do I care so much about working at Quiznos? It’s the fact that this particular store fits my needs. It’s not too far away from my home (in the emergency if I couldn’t get a car ride there, I could walk/bike) as it’s seems to be a halfway point between home & school, the work is not too difficult once I got used to it, my coworkers seem amiable and friendly to work with, it’s not usually too busy, and I felt the pay was good enough to satisfy what I wanted. I can’t forget my coworkers.

Victor Albarran is a hard working, weightlifting Hispanic guy of my age. What he doesn’t have in smarts, he has in muscle power. He works many days, and has even been considered being assistant manager or manager or some step above the work crew. He often rides his tiny bike here, since he does not have a car. He’s been taking summer school for English IV so he can get that done with now, so he can squeeze in other stuff during football season. He likes to joke a lot, and mock us. He was in my BCIS class, and I was surprised to see him there one day learning the ropes.

Jessica Krejci is also of my age, white, and she’s more on the popular and well-connected side of my class. She seems wealthy enough, as she has a nice car and nice things, but she probably works to own some of her own money to supplement her gasoline needs and whatnot. She works fairly well also. I had never met Jessica before then, but I was surprised to see we did have a connection with her best friend, Maddie Scott, who happened to be in my English III class.

Lola is this black girl that’s been working longer than either of us. She has some more important jobs like cutting up meats, and she was also born and raised in Nigeria. She likes to chat and text, and she can be really funny. I think she’s been taking a course in economics at the local college. She usually works the morning shift, and she has this nice African accent when she speaks, but she can definitely speak English very well. We chat sometimes about current events, and she’s even perused through some of my books when I came in for my shift, like my sociology book, and my Hercule Poirot book, The A.B.C. Murders

Hillario is also Hispanic, and prefers to work out when he can. He wears glasses, and is just a bit shorter than I am. He just graduated from Langham Creek High School, and has his own car. I don’t know his future plans, but I known in the past, he’s had some trouble with the law. He used to do some drugs, pick fights, or whatever. That was the past, and he’s taken counseling sessions, and has come to work here. He’s also worked at another Quiznos before, but the owners/managers were of a Middle Eastern or Indian descent and didn’t particularly like boys or something like that. Anyway, he also works rather well, and he’s even given me a lift home on two occasions.

Ryan Trygstad attended JVHS and graduated 2 years ago, I think. He has a brother that I know, Kirk Trygstad, who Ryan claims really doesn’t know as much about cars and basketball as much as Kirk thinks he knows. He joined on the crew a few months after I joined, and when he introduced himself as Ryan, I immediately remembered someone on the basketball team, and then I thought he seemed a lot like Kirk, and when I questioned if his last name was Trygstad, it was. I haven’t seen him work much, but I would guess he’s does a fair job.

Andrew Bailey, or as I and his friends call him Andy, joined less than a month ago. I know Andy, because he used to be in the Environmental Club, and I see him at lunch. He graduated this year, and during the last few days of school, I heard he did not work at Krogers anymore, and I suggested he work at the Quiznos I worked at. It turns out he did take my suggestion, and there he was. According to my coworkers, he can be rather slow and he didn’t really like talking to Jessica, which she found rather unpleasant, but I guess Andy needs more time like me to warm up to this job.

Danielle is another black girl, more closer in age with Ryan and Lola, and she is super efficient and is usually a happy person. She also takes on more important jobs like cutting cheese and meats, and she’s swell to work with. Sometimes her brother comes by and orders something. She’s also stopped by on a few occasions when she wasn’t working to buy something or see if a paycheck has come in. Lately though, I think she’s been taking classes, or has another job and she’s been working less also.

These are the coworkers I’ve really met up with most, and I’m going to miss them. It kinda makes me feel sad. I mean, it’s not like we’re all friends and hang out and whatever, but the feeling of having someone to chat and joke with this summer has made me feel better, so work did not seem to tiring.

I took a bike ride yesterday, to calm myself after hearing this news, and I rode all the way to Jack in the Box, the one not too far past my high school. I took a meandering ride through Jersey Village and stopped by Quiznos to get a quick drink and chat with my former coworkers. I asked Victor what he thought about all this, and just thinks that I don’t work enough for Kelly to put me on. Darn. I looked at the schedule to see if I was the only one cut off the crew so far, and to my surprise, I saw this name “Jamie” on the list. Perhaps she’s been here awhile, and I had never been there on those occasions to meet her, but my first thought was “is she here to replace ME?” Seeing her on the list, and with me being laid off and all, I felt like I’d been replaced. I just couldn’t believe it. Maybe she’s been here for awhile though, and I just hadn’t noticed, but still. It kinda hurts when you’re being laid off, and nobody else on the crew has been cut off yet, AND you see another name you hadn’t recognized on the crew before.

Anyway, I do plan on coming by today, and turning in my uniform and getting my paycheck, and seeing if Kelly can explain why she chose me to lay off. I’m going to see if I can get my job back sooner, and I’m even willing to accept reduced days, reduced hours, and even a reduced paycheck if necessary. Quiznos is probably the best job I can get that will fit me, and other potential jobs are too far away without needing a car. This just sucks.

So there’s been some activity going on in June. I’ve seen three movies so far: The Taking of Pelham 123, Terminator Salvation, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

I really liked Pelham 123. I love that type of movie where a disaster/calamity happens and you see a different personality arise from characters. I also wanted to see how the bad guys would take advantage of the system. I also really liked the MTA control room they showed in the movie; it looks so awesome even if it’s not real. It’s a pretty good movie, though it’s geographically incorrect in many areas.

I also really liked Terminator Salvation. I thought it was pretty good, and some of those characters were hot. It’s also interesting how bleak and desolate the word has become. I was pretty impressed with how they did all those effects. I thought the humanity aspect was great. The ending was pretty nice too. I just love to see those nasty machines die. The part where Marcus talks to the creepy video screen where the creepy woman was talking was also interesting too. I thought it was weird still seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger naked again in this movie (was that really him?) and it made me laugh.

I didn’t Transformers 2 at all. It’s not my kind of movie in the first place, and cars that become robots? Dumb. I mean the effects were nice, but I just don’t like the plot. Also that creepy girl that was way into Sam seemed way too suspicious from the start. It was good, but not that great. I didn’t see the first movie either, but my coworker Jessica Krejci at Quiznos said she would let me borrow it. I only saw this movie because Chloe Halley and her chums wanted to see it.

I got a brand new camera! It’s a Sony W290. It has 12.1MP, 5.0X optical zoom, 3.0” LCD, it can take 720p HD videos in MPEG4 format, among other neat things. I got the silver-colored one. I might have gotten a Sony T90 instead that was even more expensive and had a touchscreen and even more compact, but the one feature that I didn’t think was so great, was it’s optical zoom. The T90 had 4.0X while the W290 had 5.0X. The camera costs $229 at Best Buy.

Unfortunately, we also had to buy a dumb Memory Stick Pro Duo, because Sony doesn’t use SD cards. I don’t know if it’s actually better, but it works. I also bought a case where I can hook it to my belt and that’s about it. I’ve taken some photos, but I haven’t uploaded anything yet. I might later.

For Father’s Day, which we did just last Sunday (because my sister had a wedding to go to, so we couldn’t eat out), we went to a place called HB Japanese Steakhouse on FM 1960. I don’t like Asian cuisine much, but Japanese steakhouses are generally ok. The interior was actually pretty, and there was even a crystal chandelier in the entrance (though I don’t know if the crystals were real). It looked like a nice sophisticated Japanese design, and we were seated around a grill. We had Onion soup (pretty good), a salad (yuck), fried rice (which could have been less oily) and then the main course. The main course had grilled shrimp (which I didn’t like), grilled vegetable of some sort (which I didn’t like), and then our steaks with mushrooms. The steak tasted great, and I even ate some of the mushrooms with it. Then dessert came with only three flavors: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. Boring! I took vanilla, though now I wish I got strawberry. Pretty good place if you like Japanese stuff. It wasn’t busy that Sunday night.

I’m still working at Quiznos, and work isn’t that hard anymore now that I’m used to it. My friend Andy Bailey now works there too, because I suggested he work there. He’s not doing too bad. There’s also this guy called “Victor2” which I guess is because we already have a Victor working there. I have yet to meet him, but he seems to be a rather silly person.

I’ve been pretty bored. I haven’t really done much this summer. I did visit my cousins Athena & Alex’s house, and they’ve visited here, but that’s about it. We just most played Mario Party 8. Otherwise than that, it’s been boring. I’ve been really meaning to hang with some friends, but I just don’t know what to do. It’s been really HOT so far. We’ve had 100+ temperatures in a row. They’ve even been considering banning some fireworks. It’s nuts. I hope to go to the beach later this summer if it’s not so hot. I’m also planning on taking a driving course at Sears. I’m kind of excited because I’ll soon have some freedom, but I’m also disappointed because this is yet more growing up and driving has come at a great expense to me.

That’s about it lately.

So after getting hastily dressed, I ran to Brianna Donahue’s house, and after getting her make-up on, Brianna, her mom, and her godmother B.J. and I got into her Toyota Corolla (or something Toyota) and we tried to get there as fast as we could when we left at around 5 PM. We tried to use the car’s built-in GPS but it couldn’t find the place. I only just knew one way to get there, and it would probably be the most congested. We ended up trying to go on a shortcut to get there.

That’s the approximate route. So to go just about 14.62 miles, it took about 45 minutes. Yikes. We were suppose to get there by 5:30 but the traffic was horrendous. This is exactly why I think cars can be a stupid mode of transportation. It’s completely ridiculous.

So we got there, I got into the building and told the guy at the front to let me in early because I was passing out programs for the National Honor Society. So he pointed me upstairs and I met up with some of my classmates. Lindsey Safi, Stephanie Quintana, Yahya Khan, Austin Alsguth, and Dylan Cole (I think). So we just passed out programs to people who walked in. We had to dress nice for the occasion, and I was freaking out a bit, because I wasn’t sure if I was suppose to wear a tie or not. All the other guys were, and so did Jacob Triska, Bryan and Alvin Cheng, and Chris Charles who came in a bit later. Hope Adams and Jackie Bontke also came in a bit later too. So we passed out the purple programs, and sometimes it’s a bit difficult if a whole pack comes in at once, and the people in the middle of the stream you have to reach over to pass out a program, which may obstruct other people from moving forwards.

So yeah, around 7:10 we had no more programs so we called it quits. I tried finding a good entrance, but I settled on the one closest to the left side of the stage, the side the graduates went off the stage. So I sat there through the Magna Cum Lade, Summa Cum Lade, and then the Cum Lade. I saw several of my friends going on the stage, and somewhere in the Ms of the rest of the senior class, someone blew a bullhorn or something. Mrs. Dubose did the first ones, then Mr. Higgins, then some lady and Mr. Bay. The last person on the list, got a large round of applause. Must be cool to be that person!

So after that, I left the building and tried to scout out as many of my friends as I could to take at least one more picture before that’s pretty much the end of it. I only managed to get a few, before Brianna was texting me that we were leaving. I remember managing to get one of Conley Norris, Katherine Humpheys, Sara Radtke, and I wanted to get one of Jason Gamble but he was too busy looking for his family. It took FOREVER to get out of the parking lot. Like maybe 30 minutes at least. We’d come to a standstill a lot, and Rebecca’s dad (who left early) was wondering how much longer it could take for us to reach Joe’s Crab Shack.

Finally, we vamoosed, and when we reached the intersection of Barker Cypress Rd. and West Rd. was a swarm of activity with officers trying to coordinate traffic. There were even light markers on the road to direct traffic with and lights and stuff. Man it was crowded. After Briana reported that her dad said that Joe’s Crab Shack was closing in 15 minutes, and we hardly got out of the exit of the Berry Center, we called back to go to the 59 Diner on I-10 instead. So we got there, and I’ve always wanted to go to to the 59 Diner (at Willowbrook). The interior is pretty neat, some interesting vintage stuff, some photographs, neon signs, and a cozy diner feeling. I order the Texas Sampler with French toast instead of pancakes and a vanilla milkshake. We got our drinks first, and Brianna bragged about how the shake were so good, and they were! There was even extra that came in a metal cup. However, as we were waiting for our food orders, I drank some more, and I got kinda nauseous. I guess the shakes are so good, they can fill you up pretty fast.

The food arrived, and I thought it was ok, but I didn’t like the sausage that was on my plate. It was the very dark and thick kind, and I think those taste AWFUL. I ate them anyway, but gosh, I thought it would be the more lean and thin type. The 3 bacon strips were nice and long, the French toast was all right, as well as the eggs and hashbrown. I wasn’t really too satisfied though. The service was pretty friendly though, the waitress and a guy stopped by at our table a few times to check up if we needed anything, but that’s about it. I went home, promised Brianna I would go to her party, and that’s about it.

I’m planning on going to Trey Woodruff’s party, Brianna Donahue’s, Kayla Anderson’s, and David’s.

So on Monday, June 1, 2009, I did a study session with Chloe Halley in the afternoon. She picked me up, we went back to her apartment to fetch her laptop and history book, and we stopped by Sonic to get some iced slush (I got watermelon) and she even paid for mine, because it was happy hour and everything was half off. I didn’t argue with that.

So we went to the Harris County Public Library at the Fairbanks Branch. Chloe had her library card form filled out, the one she got when we went to Lone Star College branch to do some research for are Sociology religion project on Vodun, and she wanted to get her card. Well she came back upset, because her mom needs to be present there, and she was going on how she’s practically an adult and fully responsible. Well anyway, she didn’t like the woman who turned her down, and didn’t want to be within eyesight of her. But eventually, we had to move over to the study tables, so we could plug Chloe’s laptop to get some juice. We eventually found the HCPL network, and used Chloe’s e-mail as our identification. So we took the online tests from the textbook site, and we did Chapter 19 using the book pretty much. Then we went on to 20, but it got so boring and tedious that Chloe started going on her Facebook and well I just checked out some books that I could find relating to U.S. History, and requested Murder on the Orient Express for my summer reading. We checked the books, and vamoosed to my house to study there.

We had to take an alternative route, when we found out the Fairbanks N. Houston road was extremely congested (we noted this earlier when we left my neighborhood) because of some of the traffic lights not working. This is exactly why an infrastructure based on automobiles is stupid. Anyway, I showed her an alternative way that might be speedier and it worked. We got to my house, got on my computer, and Chloe looked around and chatted with my bros. As much as I complain about this subdivision, Chloe actually wants to move over here. She thinks the houses are pretty nice, and that’s really all that matters to her. So anyway, she thinks my littlest bro, Andrew, is very cute. A lot of people have that impression. So as we’re studying, Andrew and Chloe like to talk and play around, and it got in the way of studying.

So finally, we went to downstairs to get something to eat. I pulled out a bag of Anytizers chicken balls, and we munched on them while we studied on the all the amendments and presidents after Reconstruction. We asked Alan to quiz us, and I tallied who got more right. I remember getting more correct .

Well I took the the test the next day, and it was somewhat hard. I should have studied less about amendments and presidents, and more on the actual events. I ended up getting an 88 on it. My semester average before was a 89 average, and after the final, it was still an 89 average! I should have just exempted it for high school!

So after taking that test, I just stopped by the Senior Breakfast to chat up with the seniors just one more time before they graduate. I’m really going to miss some of the seniors I know. I’ll probably rarely ever see them again. I saw Jason there, and the other Jason, and Eric, and Raj, and Katherine, Sara, Andy, Ty, etc.

I even snuck in the auditorium while they were briefing over how the ceremony would work. Sigh. Memories. Well that’s about it.

Last week was a rush of schedules, quick classes, tests, and last minute stuff before the end of the school year. Some people skipped the last few days, and it’s been chaotic. I had my schedule changed a lot for next year, and here are the courses:

• English IV K
• Government K
• Economics K
• Calculus AB K
• Environmental Science AP
• Street Law
• Psychology AP
• Food Science
• Beginners Food Science
• Early Release

Not exactly the schedule I wanted, but it will do. So yeah, it’s been hectic. I have to take a U.S. History Dual-Credit final, because this test also counts for my grades at Lone Star College whether I exempt or not, and I decided not to exempt this from my high school because I have an 89 average, and if I study super hard, I can achieve an A on my GPA. I got a 91 on my final last year in this class. So maybe, just maybe it won’t be bad.

Yesterday, I worked at Quiznos I saw two people who I kinda know: Taylor Bean and this girl from my Interact club group. I saw the girl first, and I don’t know her name, but she used to be in my Interact club; she was even wearing that shirt as she pointed out she was in the club. Her mom was with her, and saying how cool it is that we help out, and I felt myself kinda blushing. They were really nice, and they both didn’t want red onions on their sandwiches. Taylor came in later, and I know him because we’ve been through elementary and middle school together, and he’s in my 6th period Tech Theater class. He’s usually tardy or skipping, and he’s rough sort of guy and likes to work out, and has some pretty pumped biceps even though he’s normal size. So yeah, I saw his dad and him there. On Saturday, I saw two old neighbors: One was Mr. Tisher (Kelcie’s dad) and another guy named Jesse. I saw Jesse first, and I hardly recognized him. It’s been so long. He used to be really mean when I was a kid, and sometimes he’d throw my stuff up in a tree with one of his buds at the bus stop. He likes to ride dirt bikes and he graduated the same year as my cousin Huong. Anyway, he either didn’t recognize me or said nothing about me. Then later that day, I saw Mr. Tisher, his daughter Lindsey and a friend of hers. They all had footlongs.

So yeah, from time to time, I’ll catch someone I know. I also met this interesting fellow named Matt Norman (or something like that) and he mentioned some stuff that got my attention. He was saying he wanted to be in the military and stuff, and like he had a 4.0 GPA and got a perfect on some military test, that the recruiters were trying to find him to get him to enlist. He wants to be in the Navy if I recall. He also said he used to work at a Quiznos before, and that some of the stuff we do isn’t protocol. Like he should be able to see through the tea containers, there should be labels on a bunch of stuff, some stuff needs to be raised 6” off the ground, and other stuff. He stayed there real long, more than an hour as we chat. Later, Hilario and Ryan (who I earlier found out to be Kirk Trygstad’s brother!) dissed him, saying that some of the stuff he said wasn’t true and whatever. Oh well. But he definitely was interesting to talk to.

So today, I’m hoping to go to IHOP with Chloe Halley so we can study for our final exam. I also need a new digital camera. As soon as I can get one, I can take some memories of the seniors I met, graduation ceremony, and other stuff going on this summer. My mom wants to drive me and my bros to Iowa so we can check out the town she grew up in (Ames), but my dad doesn’t want my mom driving alone. Sigh. Well I hope things can get better.

I really wanted to get my mom a new coaster. Since I don’t have a car, I left it to my dad and my bros to find a good one at Target (I had work Saturday afternoon), but they couldn’t find one. My sister has some nice metallic ones at her house, and I wanted something similar to that. My mom loves to watch her soap operas at night, and she often takes a cup of warm water to the coffeetable, and lays it on some of my newspapers (even when I haven’t checked it out yet!), so I thought a coaster would be a good idea.

On Sunday, my dad and I went to Costco and looked around for a gift. I really thought a cheesecake would be a great idea, after tasting a sample at Sam’s Club (well I wanted some too) but my dad bought roses instead. Roses are ok for a girl, I guess, but roses die at some point, and they’re just something pretty to look at. I’d rather buy a long-lasting gift that’s useful.

So we went home, and there was this Eureka marathon, and I missed some of the episodes, and my dad wanted us to clean the house a bit. I really wanted to (sometimes I do it when I’m not busy), but by the time the last show ended, he already vacuumed and cleared the dining and living room. Sigh. I really wish I could be of more use, but it’s not everyday a good TV show marathon comes up.

My sister stopped by, and she brought in some of her latest cooking creations, a tray of sliced apple tart with some type of jam on it. We’d save it for later after eating out somewhere.

Just right about after my sister stopped in, mom came home. We discussed where we should go (mom ate something earlier that day) and finally we went to a Chinese restaurant. I DISLIKE Chinese/Vietnamese restaurants of any type pretty much. Why?

1. A lot of seafood on the menu – Seafood tastes awful in my opinion; lots of sodium, eyes staring at you, stuff that was alive (or still alive) only half an hour ago are on your plate, and it’s just yucky to me. I’ll only go as far as fish sticks.
2. Chopsticks – I’m no good with these. They aren’t as versatile as just having 3 separate utensils, or even a spork. I could always get a fork though.
3. Asian people – I already see enough Asian people in my subdivision, I don’t want to see more
4. ‘Dirtiness’ – Asian establishments are notorious for bad sanitary conditions. I guess it comes from a lot of these kitchen people and owners living in Asian countries where cleanliness wasn’t much of a concern for people. I remember going to this other Chinese/Vietnamese style restaurant, and there was a small roach in the ice, and my coke glass was disgustingly dirty.
5. Lack of eco-friendliness – Asians, specifically the older types, aren’t really eco-conscious. Since the food is shared, there are always bits left on all the main dishes, and I have feeling that instead of being composted, they go into the garbage. Smoking is generally tolerated (outside) and it stinks as you go up to the door of the place. I can point out a lot of other stuff too, but it’s too much.
6. Used to most of that stuff at home and in childhood – I don’t understand why my family loves to go to these type of restaurants, when they can already make it at home (most of the times even better than what we’re served). I got really tired of this type of food, and now I avoid it when I can.

So anytime I’m at one, I’m not happy.  So this different restaurant didn’t surprise me. We had to wait a long time (well, I can’t be too harsh since it was on Mom’s Day) but it took like 8 minutes to come back with the drinks we ordered. And they charge for refills too.

There was also these two annoying Asian kids running about, and stomping on the platform that our table (and a different table) rose up upon. My sister told them two times during our visit that she wants to speak with their parents, and they’d buzz off. Can their parents not teach them some manners (they knew their kids were bugging us, as my sister said). My two younger bros don’t act like that at all.

Food came, we ate. I just ate rice and some tenderized beef. It wasn’t too bad, but I’d rather have something else tasty. Then we went home. Boring!

So we got home, I changed and we gave mom her gifts. My sister bought her a fancy teapot (claimed that I chose it) and two small jars of orange jam that was part of the pot of jam she worked on at 4 in the morning. There may have been something else, but that was about it.

So I’m going to try to make this post as fast as possible:

Since my last post, I’ve been biking around during spring break. The Tuesday or Wednesday before bring, I took a very long and exhausting bike ride to the KFC near Walmart.

According to the drawing tool on Live Search Maps, it took roughly 4.55 miles. So that’s 9.10 miles for the roundtrip. It wasn’t easy either, trying to dodge around the fierce traffic on Fairbanks. I chose to go to KFC because I heard about the KFC snacker boxes, and they seemed pretty good. According to the TV ad, it claimed it was 99 cents, and I really wanted the one with the popcorn chicken and potato wedges. Unfortunately, when I went there, it turned out it was actually $1.99, but you could get a regular drink combo with it for just $2.99 so I bought that. It was good of course, but I don’t know why the ad said 99 cents. I’m going to investigate this the next time I go.

I also biked to Willowbrook Mall on Monday during spring break. Now THAT was a VERY long ride. I didn’t plan on going to the mall, but I ended up trying to see if I could make it. Previously, I had attempted to walk the route, but I got halfway there and was absolutely too exhausted. It’s is a very arduous route. I had to stop at a Shall/Jack-in-the-Box gas station and wait for my mom to pick me up on the way home.

Luckily, I made it! It took 7.47 miles (I took minutes tracing my route with the Live Search Maps tools) and again, this isn’t something that probably most Houstonians could accomplish. I went to the mall, hid my bike in some bushes (no bike racks, plus I don’t have a bike lock) and I went inside, and it was a pretty slow day. I ate some Chic-fil-A, and then started back home at around 6PM. I stopped by Denny’s on the way there, and it was all right. Not sure if IHOP is better or not, because they seem pretty much the same. I had a French Toast plate with a side of hashbrown for about 7 dollars and something. The server had mistakenly thought I wanted to order to go, when I wanted to stay in, so I had an extra 10 minute wait time, but I didn’t really care, even though I was worried about the sun going down. He was really nice, and made it up to me by giving me a free drink of my choice, and I chose a lemonade. Very refreshing after an arduous ride.

I then left, and it got dark faster and faster. By then, I was getting worried. I’ve discovered that in surburban Harris County, there are often LONG stretches of roads with no street light or traffic lights. These are stretches where cars LOVE to go fast. So it’s really frightening as you’re biking and you see a cars headlights coming up or hear the sound of one, and you have to make yourself conspicuous to make sure you don’t get killed. As I went along the race track, I was very fortunate that there weren’t many cars going down, but it was almost pitch dark. Going along Fairbanks was even worse, and I had to resort to walking with my bike in the median as cars raced down the roads. Ugh. I was also pretty darn angry when I reach the corner of the Valero station, and the corner was just messed up! A thick wire coil stuck out from the ground for like 2-3 feet, and I almost got really hurt. There were also chunks of concrete around, like there was an explosion or something. How are people suppose to walk and stuff if you’ve got dangerous stuff like this around? I made it home, and that was it.

I went to the Rodeo on the last Saturday before the break ended. I went with my cousin Minh and his girlfriend Nancy. We walked around, ate, I went on a few rides (they didn’t feel like going on rides), and then we left to go see “Knowing” at 4:25. Unfortunately, due to the traffic, we got there a bit late, and ended up getting tickets for the 7:25 showing instead. So we drove over to Memorial Mall, hung out, they let me stay there while they went off to a Korean restaurant off site. I like this mall better than Willowbrook. It’s much bigger, there’s a section where the storefronts look like Main Street USA, and the food court is also larger, and there’s beautiful artwork displaying iconic Texas stuff we know, and maps printed on the tables, etc. Awesome. There’s also a merry-go-round and an ice skating rink there (NHL regulation size too!). There’s also a lot of domes throughout the mall, and they’re all unique and it’s just cool. There was also this classic clock stand in the center under a dome, and it just looked so awesome, I really wanted to photograph it. Great place to shop.

So they picked me up, we went back to SMG, and the entrance at the stairwell was PACKED as people wanted to get in. Luckily, we squeezed through and got in because we bought our tickets earlier. The movie room was a bit smaller than a usual standard theater, but it was fine. I ordered the Grilled Cheese (5.99) that came with one grilled cheese sandwich with fries, and a Pepsi. When I ate, it tasted SO good, in my opinion. It was like toasted to the right degree that it was crisp and buttery on the outside, but warm and cheesy on the inside. The fries had a good seasoning and tasted great too. Mmm. They should open up a cafe. Knowing was all right. I thought since Nicholas Cage was in it, it would be more action/suspense type of film. Also, since it involved a code, I was expecting something similar to National Treasure (which I liked!). The beginning was great, the middle seemed slightly weird but still good, but the end was just too weird for me. It’s not too bad of a movie, but I just don’t like the ending, period.

The next weekend, on during Sunday, I went to Studio Movie Grill again, only this time with actual friends. I got free movie passes from my cousin Huong, and everyone thought it was a good deal. So we got there (after getting my dad to hurry up and take me, after moving stuff from mom’s shop for the biannual floor waxing), and we just made it in the nick of time. So who went? Well Brianna, Tyler, Kayla, Chris, and this girl whose name I never catch went and we had a blast. We saw Monsters vs. Aliens. It was all right, but I’m not into animated films done in this style.

So after the movies, we wanted to hang out around the new development, but my dad already arrived so Kayla went on without us.

The other Friday, I took a “sick” day from school, because I had so much work to be done, 3 tests, that I just didn’t feel like going to school. NOT something I enjoy, but it had to be done. Of course, I do have to make it up later, which I did. That’s about it so far.

I had a busy weekend, and a Monday. So let’s start off with last Friday, 3/6. I called my aunt, and she finally answered after calls I initially made earlier during the week. I’ve been hoping she would be able to take me to the Houston Livestock Rodeo ever since Athena suggested she might take her and Cousin Alexandra at Alison’s birthday party in late February. Aunt Nicole said she probably might at the party, after teasing me about only talking to her about taking me to the Rodeo and not saying even a hello, so I had some hopes. I tried calling earlier this week to establish a schedule, since I had this conference I wanted to attend during the weekend, but she didn’t answer my calls, and I HATE leaving voice mail. I hate my stupid voice, and I don’t want it left on a person’s device to hear.

Unfortunately, her plans to take me during 4-9 collided with my conference hours, which took place from 11 AM on Saturday morning, all the way to 11 AM on Sunday morning. So I had to make calls, and see if I could leave and go at those hours. Problem was, even if I could, my aunt did NOT want to drive for almost an hours clear across from NW Houston, all the way to NE Houston to Channelview High School.

Well on Saturday morning, my ride, Jonathan Hart, failed to tell me that he couldn’t take me. He claimed he sent me a text message (25 minutes after he was suppose to be there, and finally answered his phone!), but I never received it. So I had to wait for my dad to come. Aunt Nicole kept calling at that time, seeing if I could come later, so since Jonathan couldn’t take me, I didn’t see any point in going all the way over to CHS. So I went home, and then dad took me camera shopping again. We went before we left to go to my ride, but there wasn’t a lot of time, and Best Buy didn’t have the stock I was looking for (I really wanted a digital cam for the day’s events, and I wanted one NOW!). Unfortunately, I was only slightly a bit late (my aunt is usually late btw), and she got really ticked off.

So we head downtown in her Lexus. We parked at someplace along Main St. new the Metro Transit Center. Here’s a picture:

Earlier, my aunt had stopped at Randalls to get some fresh twenties out of the ATM. Unfortunately, machines in downtown don’t like big bills. They often want exact change which is kinda stupid. So we parked at a spot, remembered the number 133 and went to the machine for the transaction, but it was pretty complicated, but we managed to get through. She put the receipt underneath the windshield, and we left.

We crossed over to the MetroRail station, and the machine thing there is also kinda weird. I’m not sure, but I don’t think my aunt successfully paid for the party of 6. As we got on, this lady also explained her trouble with the machine, and you could still see the dollar bill hanging out. Turns out Metro doesn’t check fares. Kinda sad that honest people like us, that try to get on legally have to deal with some dishonest people just hopping on when they can. It’s a wonder how they get funding. Would be nice if it were free.

So it seemed to take like 20 minutes to get there. Kinda surprising, since the current rail line is only 7 miles long. It only got crowded as we got closer to the rodeo. Good thing they’re finally expanding the rail line to 20 miles and adding more rail cars by 2012. So we got there, and went to buy our tickets and entered in.

To make a long story short, we entered into the carnival grounds, and we went on tons of rides. I really liked the rides like the very big Ferris wheel (La Grand Wheel, the largest portable ferris wheel in the Western Hemisphere), the mini roller coasters, the spinning-type rides, and the Sky Ride (1700 gondola sky ride). My aunt bought a lot of tickets to go on the rides, and we used some of the coupons to get food. I really love the plate of fries at Juicy’s! It’s like a whole big chunk of fries. Last year, it took me awhile to each the whole thing, but my cousins, bros, and my aunt helped eat it up real fast! It was about 9PM when we left.

So as we were heading over to Channelview, I made constant calls to see if it was all right to go in, and I got the OK. Aunt Nicole stopped at the McDonalds on Sheldon Rd. at I-10, and I ordered a Chicken Selects. We drove onto Sheldon Rd. until we finally hit Channelview High School. I got out the car, took my stuff, and thanked my aunt for the wonderful day and the ride here.

I ran to the front doors, and kept banging the doors to the place, and motioned for the group of teens standing next to the statue inside to open up the darn door. It took more than a minute to get their attention, and then I realized it was Chris Charles who opened the door. Finally! I got in, and my aunt drove her Lexus away. So most of the day’s events already went by, and they already had their enchiladas for dinner. So I walked around, studying the way the school was designed. I liked the wall of paned windows that stood out in the cafeteria and the main entryway. The main entryway is sort of like an indoor courtyard, and there’s a falcon statue right in the center of the mini pavilion. Funny thing is, is that the JVHS mascot is also a Falcon. This school was kinda like the opposite of ours.

I also noticed like 2-3 flat-screen panels very high up on the columns in the cafeteria; pretty fancy! As you stepped in from the main entrance towards the cafeteria, you notice that it raises a few levels – probably because of floods? I saw octagon and circle-shaped tables, which is much cooler than the boring rectangle ones we have at JVHS for the most part. There was a wing we were allowed to go into, but there weren’t any classrooms – just the more prominent areas like 2 gyms and dressing rooms, an auditorium, and the front office and administrative stuff. It was a big hallway, with high ceiling, and skylights built-in along certain edges. The first gym was a place where you could drop your bags or sleep (however, an alarm kept ringing randomly from certain time intervals the ENTIRE night – so much for sleeping! ), the 2nd gym was for those that wanted to play basketball, the auditorium was for movie-watching, and there was dancing and food going on in the cafeteria, and in the main entryway, for awhile was a little casino thing. Now, they weren’t betting real money of course, but they just played with chips, and you could exchange those for raffle tickets for the morning’s raffle contest. Blackjack, poker, craps, and whatever gambling stuff I don’t know.

So I met up with friends I found, got them to tell me what went on, and then I had a little fun. The movies playing in the auditorium were Hoodwinked, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Yours, Mine and Ours (love this one!), Casino Royale, and that’s all I remember seeing up to. So the night dragged on, and I just walked around a lot, had conversations with people, and I even did a little homework with my textbook there. This chaperone even came up to me, and said she was proud of me . I just thought I should get some work done while I was ahead, but I didn’t even get much done really. There was Papa John’s pizza that came in, and I tried some, but I didn’t think it was as great as people led me to believe it was.

So eventually morning came up sooner than I expected (darn the Daylight Savings Time!), and I enjoyed some delicious kolaches for breakfast. Then we had to file into the auditorium so we could hear who the candidates for president and VP of the District could be, but I didn’t really care too much about this. Then came the real excitement: the raffle contest!

There were things like gift cards ranging mostly from $5-$25 from places like Starbucks, Wal-Mart (a lot from El Campo High School), Chili’s, Barnes & Noble, etc. Other stuff included gift baskets, toys, and even 12 3rd row tickets to a Rockets game. I didn’t win a single thing

We had to clean up afterwards and go home. I mingled around with other students to get my last chance at meeting people across Houston, and that was it! Luckily, the girl’s mom could give me a ride, but it was taking forever! I talked to the foreign exchange students of Rotary, and I became interested in becoming a foreign exchange host. I’m still going to see if it’s ok with my parents. Finally her mom came, and then we left. Again, I was a bit disappointed when she asked what my ethnicity was, because I looked Asian, so I told her what I was, and she asked if I spoke the language, and I said no. I wasn’t surprised when she started saying I should know the language since it’s part of my ‘culture’ but the girl shushed her mom and we got outta there. I fell asleep a bit, and woke up at a Shell gas station. I wonder what took so long when her mother went into the convenient store, but I was happy to see her bring some drinks. That was mighty gracious of her. I chose the Tropicana apple juice, and was delighted at how tasty it was (I’m usually a Minute Maid fanboy), and thanked her. We finally got to JVHS, and my dad was there. Yay!

Later that day, my dad left to go somewhere, but I needed a ride to go to work. Darn! I called him to come back, and he was pretty upset, and even though I was like 15 minutes late, my manager there which is a good thing.

On MONDAY, I had to help volunteer for this Book Fair/Family Literacy Night at Frazier Elementary. I walked all the way there, since I didn’t know of anyone who could give me a ride, and I grabbed some Dominoes pizza along the way ($4.00 for a 10” pizza seems good to me!) I chose the easy job of manning a raffle ticket (not again ) table. There were some neat prizes including games (drat, I forgot what they were, but they weren’t half bad!) Prang markers, colored pencils, letter magnets, and 4 individual $25.00 gift cards for the Book Fair (books only). Wow. However, I was astonished at how very few people came (usually at Reed Elementary, there’s a LOT of people that come during book fair night) and it was a rather scant crowd. They put a lot of effort into this, and I’m still flabbergasted that not many students came to check it out. There were 14 prizes, and I think I only submitted 17 tickets (or at least less than 20). I moseyed towards the cafeteria where they just had storytelling and milk & cookies, and I got 2 cookies along the way from a teacher.

I called my mom, and she was suppose to come at 7:45PM to get me, but she came at 8:09PM. I really wanted her to bring an hour log form, so I could confirm my hours were actually accredited, but by the time she got there, almost everyone had left the building, but the janitors. Sigh. This is what happens when you don’t have a car in suburbia, and depend on others.

Well that’s about it so far. I know I wrote a lot, but hopefully you’re not dull to death.

Last Saturday, I went to the Mr. Falcon show at Cypress Ridge High School (the auditorium at school is kinda in disarray with all the construction and moving around and stuff). It’s basically sort of like a beauty pageant, but for 25 lucky senior guys at JVHS. Among them were (by contestant/sponsor/escort :

1. Ben Martinez – Freshman Friends – Sarah Amason
2. Patrick Scott – Girls’ Soccer Athletic – Rachel Motl
3. Tyler Bench – Athletic Booster Club – Haley Howell
4. Kyle Calbat – Freshman Friends – Katelyn McCreary
5. Jeremy Friedrichs – Athletic Booster Club – Mandy Esparza
6. Joseph Flores – Falcon Forensics – Eugenie Yang
7. Victor Lopez – JVTV – Christie Skipworth
8. Jesse Pyle – JV Players – Brittany Gergen
9. Trey Woodruff – Gold Dusters – Cynthia Le
10. John Wilkes – Athletic Booster Club – Bethany Evans
11. Robert Ottmann – Cheerleaders – Megan Hodges
12. Justin Cantanese – Girls’ Soccer – Mallory Mayes
13. Brett Childress – Senior Ladies – Kristin Anderson
14. Tyree Chism – Athletic Booster Club – Blake Herbert
15. Barrett Cliett – JV Volleyball – Taylor Coen
16. Michael Connor – Senior Ladies – Shelby Buchanan
17. Trey Briggs – Athletic Booster Club – Ryan Smith
18. Cody Parkinson – Cheerleaders – Kelsey Luciano
19. Lee Barker – JV Players – Kristen Troxler
20. Tyler Cox – Varsity Girls Volleyball – Courtney Stone
21. Hunter Gregg – PALS – Becca Rogers
22. Billy Schoelman – Varsity Swim – Lauren Shadle
23. Evan Klinge – Gold Dusters – Suzi Waak

The lady from Channel 2 (KPRC), Mariza Reyes, was the hostess of the show. I think she did a pretty good job of entertaining the audience, and even delved a bit into her past to spice things up. Of course, she couldn’t help but mention, “Oh, and did I tell you I’m on Channel 2?” Jokingly of course. Someone in the audience (can’t recall who) asked, “Hey, will you marry me?” She would reply, “Young man, do you want me to go to jail tonight?” Laughter.

The judges had interesting backgrounds also. Mandy Geserick, of Ms. Texas American Dream 2009, was judging. Two football guys from University of Texas, Steve Moore (was even in Mr. Falcon 2006!) and Britt Mitchell. The other judge was Cody Hendrix, a current senior at JV (I wonder how he got chosen…). UPDATE: Kristen was nice enough to read this blog post, and tell me that he recently had cancer or something, and can't go to our school anymore. So I think it was a nice thing they did, letting him be a judge.

So the talent portion was pretty sweet. There were a lot of dance routines, but my favorites had to be the Matrix Ping Pong and the Beyonce skit. The Matrix Ping Pong was pretty neat – Kyle Calbat and Robert Ottmann were two figures playing in the dark, illuminated by glowing stuff, and they played ridiculously fast. Well cameras started flashing from the audience, and it became quite obvious there was a third person wearing black clothes helping move the ping pong and whatnot. It was amazing how fast they changed angels, including sideways, and how very versatile they got around. I thought it was pretty neat, and hadn’t seen this before.

The Beyonce skit was nice too. I’m not sure who was in it, but I think Cody Parkinson and Trey Briggs were in this one. I don’t recall seeing Trey (I sat far back), but I guess those were the only two that could have done it. So there’s some movie director shooting a music video with Beyonce, and she want two sexy slim female back-up dancers. Well Trey and Cody come up, wearing some really tight black clothes (you could see their thick abs and legs sticking out) and they were wearing high heels! It was hilarious. As they’re dancing to the beat, Beyonce keeps interrupting, saying she’s not sure she can do it with these two. In the end, she gives in and they do a quick dance. Hehe.

Then there was the swimsuit portion. It was ok. The guys’ escorts were all wearing beach/summer clothes, and as the guys walked upstage, the escorts greeted them and they walked to the front and waited along the sides for everyone to finish. Then came intermission. I scurried around, looking for a ride home. The same usual replies: “Can’t, have a ride with someone else” or “No room in my car” or “Going somewhere else after” and whatnot. Sigh. I mingled around I guess, but as usual, I wasn’t happy on the inside.

There was a silent auction going on, a raffle, and last chance to vote for Best of “Eyes”/Best of “Smiles”/Best of “Pockets”. I forgot who won those.

Then there was a formal wear portion. Classy looking suits (by Al’s Formal Wear?) and then Haylee Hoelscher, from Houston Christian High School, sang some song with words like ‘big money’ or something where she looked like a prima donna (which she isn’t, as far as I know) and it had a 1930s-like vibe and she’d come up to each guy and ‘sass’ them, and they’d respond very shy, or drop to the ground, sweat, or something of that effect. It was also humorous. Probably planned. In the end of the act, all the guys whipped out some pretend money and showered it all over her. Pretty cool. UPDATE: Kristen, again, was nice enough to tell me that it WASN'T PLANNED. It all happened with improv. Neat!

Then came the Contestant & Escort Choice Awards. I think my friend Kristen got some prize.

After that was the 50/50 Raffle Winner, and then Best Eyes, Best Smile, and Best Pockets Awards.

Then it came down to the five finalists. They were asked questions.

First was Tyree Chism. When asked what would he do if a freshman asked for help or directions to his class on the first day of school, someone in the audience yelled “TRANSFER!” and that brought the whole auditorium into laughs. I even saw Tyree, and other guys (including the audience) slapping their knees and laughing so hard. I’m not sure what he answered with, but it got him 4th runner up.

2nd person, I think, was Justin Catanese. He was asked if he could go anywhere in the world, where would he go. He first responded with “a beach”. He described why he would like a beach, but when pressed for a more exact location, he finally ended up with “California”.

3rd was Tyler Cox. He was asked who would he meet if he could meet anyone he wanted. He said he would make his grandfather, who died and he never met (I think) and went to Texas A&M and played football there, and he seemed to be a cool guy, and I think it brought quite a tear-jerker around the audience, and you could hear the females with their sympathy.

Then there was Brett Childress. I don’t remember the question, but the audience roared with laughter when he cracked his voice. Mariza is like saying it’s all right, “Guys do that all the time around me” :)

5th was Trey Briggs. I don’t remember his question or answer.

So Tyler Cox was the ultimate winner (forgot the runner-ups), and then people started leaving. I’m happy for T-Cox that he won. I had him in SAT College Prep last semester, and he was always a goofball, and I found that he was kinda funny. He’s nice, like a bunch of other guys, and I think he wanted to go to LSU, but he mentioned a different college, up North that I can’t recall. He has B lunch like I do, but I don’t see him often.

Oh, and the Texas Aggie Wranglers came to perform. They said they’ve been to lots of places around the world, and they can often do it for free, if they can. Their performance was pretty epic. It was like country dancing, but with really bold moves. The guys can really swing those girls! I’ve seen them go under their partners, tossed around the partner, in the air, and all over the place. They did a pretty slick job, and it’s incredible how they have such flexibility.

Right after the show, I instantly started searching for rides. I was desperate! My parents went off to a wedding, I don’t have my own ride, home is 9 miles away in the dark, and my aunt was babysitting 5 children! I got tired of being rejected. It always usually happens like this. Argh. I hate depending on people for transportation. I’d love it, if we could live with a car-less society, but it ain’t happening anytime soon. So I finally resorted to calling my aunt. I bought a booklet of the event for $1. I went in the backstage area, and I could see volunteers, escorts, and contestants milling about, but I guess I must have missed Tyler leaving. I helped Jasper Gates move one of the contestant’s drum set out.

As I was waiting on sidewalk near the stage area, and seeing cars emptying the parking lot before my eyes, a kind woman asked if I needed a ride, but I said it was all right. So she left, and someone who I presumed was her husband, asked if I could use a ride, and when I declined, he said he’d wait until my ride came, because he really didn’t want to leave me alone. There really are good people in this world.

So we chatted a bit, and I found out his wife was like a co-chair person or something, and that his daughter, Courtney Stone was a contestant. I didn’t find out until later, she was Tyler’s escort, and I missed a good opportunity to shoot some questions. So we chatted and chatted. He smoked a cigarette, and I usually really dislike that, but considering his gracious waiting, I just sat. He had some yellow Volkswagen beetle with lumber and stuff sticking out the trunk.

Finally my aunt came, after I barked some more directions, and I thanked him for standing by, and went home. Car was packed, and we lucky to get home fast.

I really enjoyed Mr. Falcon, but as usual, going to any school functions always brings me sadness. I often wish I was capable of doing the fantastic stuff that people display to the audience, but I grew up the wrong way, and I’m practically cruddy at doing almost ANYTHING right. I guess a bit of jealousy is in there, but it’s my fault. I just don’t have confidence in myself, and I feel like I’m always falling apart. Same old story. When people are nice to me, I often think it has to do with politeness rather than actual geniality. I just don’t have the components that make a great guy. I just feel inferior in comparison to great people I meet everyday, and I just don’t think I have a promising future.

Well that’s about it. Just been more and more work at Quiznos lately. I got my first paycheck, and after taxes, I got around $123. Not bad! Considering it’s 19 hours. But work often leaves me exhausted. I’ll get through this ordeal somehow.

It’s been awhile, but I’ve been working at Quiznos. It’s been exhausting, but at least I’m making some much-needed money. I started training on around January 10th, and did training for 3 days, 3 hours a day. They felt I did a great job, so Kelly, the manager I see often, hired me. I started getting paid on January 30th.

Making sub sandwiches isn’t as easy as you think. You have to listen to the customer’s order carefully, so you don’t bother him or her by asking to many questions. You have to remember the types of sandwiches really well, or you can take a glance at a cheat sheet on the wall, or the menu in front of you. Often times, customers are picky about what they want/don’t want on their sandwich. The three questions I’m suppose to ask are:

1. For here or to go? (determines if it goes on a silver or black toaster tray)
2. White or wheat? (if not already mentioned)
3. What size? (if not already mentioned)

When you’re done creating the core part of the sandwich, you send it through this toaster, which acts as a conveyor belt and toasts the sandwich to make it really warm and melt the cheese a bit.

Then you add lettuce, or whatever onto it. Then you wrap it. There’s a certain way of wrapping too. The employees want me to package it securely, leaving almost no gaps so that the sandwich doesn’t tumble out too much. The cash register is ok, and I’m getting the hang of it.

All the cleaning stuff, making to-go bags, washing equipment, is really easy-peasy. I can handle that, but I don’t like making sandwiches. Too demanding! So I get paid about $6.55 an hour. I guess that’s not too bad.

My manager also allows us to have a free sandwich and fountain drink, as a complimentary part of a workday.

However, work can be so time consuming. Commute to work can be hard – if it weren’t for a good friend who often drops me off on the way home after school – but waiting for my mom to pick me up can be quite a hassle. Also, on weekdays, doing a shift 4PM in the afternoon, all the way till 9PM on the night, doesn’t leave a lot of room for free time. I’m usually exhausted after a day’s work, and homework starts piling up. Sigh. I just really need the money, and don’t want to ask my parents for the moolah. If I can get my own money, I can start having a real relationship with a girl. Being broke, and depending on your parents to provide money and transportation for a date just doesn’t feel right. In every book or movie/tv show, the guy is always able to provide for himself and his girlfriend. So should I.

I was late Sunday, because I thought I came in at 4 just like I did on the weekdays. Boy was I wrong. She put me on the schedule for 10-6. Sigh. I came in at 4, and my coworkers were saying, “Hey, you were suppose to be here at 10…”. Poor Victor got called in, but at least he was being paid. I still felt bad I let Kelly and Victor down like that. I decided to help them close shop, and we closed at 5, since it was the Super Bowl (good thing I wasn’t missing that!). I’m being more careful of what days AND times I’m working now.

Hopefully as I get more into my job, it will be less stressful and become more of a routine. Having my own money would be great though, and I hope my grades don’t suffer. That’s what working at Quiznos is like so far.

It seems that everyone knows I work there now.

Ok, last week was finals week – One of the most easiest weeks of the school year. You just study up, and the classes we did take that week, were just reviewing and free time. A good number of people even skipped the classes in between, because it wasn’t necessary. I wish we could have finals week all the time. I think I learn and remember more during that week than any other week. I’m good at retaining some memory.

Of course there are rules this year like:

• No more than 3 absences a year to get the exemptions
• No bad marks or whatever to get exemptions
• Freshmen – 1, Sophomores – 1, Juniors – 2, Seniors – 3 :  The number of exemptions given if you can
• Classes will still go on during the week, though just a few different assortment of periods per day, between the finals
• Technically, you’re not suppose to skip the classes in between OR leave after you finished your final, but most teachers let it slide; Nobody really cares

So Tuesday was 6th period final- SAT College Prep. The first final. It was a snap: Write a letter to your parents as if you were in college describing your first week and thanking them for getting you there. Then write another paper describing how you thought the class was the whole year: What you liked/disliked, and how the curriculum was in your opinion. EASY! A lot of people finished before me, fast. Then they just left off to go to their cars, or to a teacher’s classroom they wanted to go to. I didn’t have a ride, so I was pondering what to do, and my friend Vanessa invited me to go to Post to help her grade papers for TAFE. We walked along with this girl named Pam, until her ride pulled up. I helped her sort out papers, and then we went on the bus. Got a 100.

Wednesday: 1st period and 7th period final

Physics is my first period, and even though I exempted it, I just took it to see if I could accomplish an A. It wasn’t too bad, as it’s been questions we were asked before on other tests. We even got to use the review. But I didn’t finish enough, because of my long restroom break, and I decided not to bother turning it in. Classes came. Pre-Calculus was my 7th period, and it was REALLY easy. Like the easiest test we’ve probably taken all year. I was happy I got a 90, but my SA turned out to be an 89. So close! I asked my teacher about it, but if I just gotten one more question right on the final, he really could have. Sigh. I took a walk home that day, and applied for a job at Quiznos.

Thursday: 2nd period and 3rd period final

Dual-Credit US History is my 2nd period. This was probably going to be as difficult as it gets. There were 160 questions on this test, and probably half of them were matching events in US History to which president’s administration. Like ‘The Midnight Judges’ goes with Thomas Jefferson. So on and so on. There was also a section on if these events were colonial or post-Colonial (after 1776). That was easy. The rest of the test was questions we’ve had on other chapter tests, and some vocab. I got a 91 on it. Not too bad. Most people in the class do crud on the chapter tests. During BCIS, I looked up my grades on the PIV (Parent Internet Viewer) and wanted to see what I’d need to get an A for the SA in English, my 3rd period. Even if I got a 100 (very unlikely – English is my worst subject), it would only make my 86 for the SA and 88. So I asked people during lunch time if I should bother, and most said no. Your GPA is just based on a letter grade, and an 88 wouldn’t mean anything more than an 86. So I just didn’t bother trying. Mrs. Reinhardt said it wasn’t too bad, but there’s no point anyway. I got a ride home.

Friday: 4th period and 5th period final

No classes in between today. Just takes the finals and go. BCIS final was another online test, and when you were done, you submitted it. Pretty easy. 120 Questions though. I got a 96. Quite surprised – I usually get a pretty bad grade on those. But I actually did the review this time, and most questions were really easy. There was a Tech Theater final after that. She already told us what the assignment was 2 days ago (though she didn’t say it was the final, or something else because she’s not technically suppose to tell us what the final was). I fell asleep in a big slumber the night before, so I didn’t work on it. Most people in the class walked in, turned it in, and vamoosed. I stayed to finish the paper, a few other guys. At first, she said we could work on the theater set for the upcoming play as a way of doing the final, then she said we couldn’t the last few days, but on final day, she said it was ok. As long as you actually work for the whole 2 hours, she would accept it. I decided just to finish the paper and go. Got a 100 on it.

I was invited to this special thing where my cousin (I think he’s my cousin) was suppose to bring some fancy trays of food and formally ask his girlfriend’s parents if they can be bestowed or whatever, and if he’d told me earlier, I’d have helped out. But I was tired after a week of finals, and just wanted to stay home and eat some Church’s Chicken. I really love the honey biscuits at Church’s Chicken btw.

So yeah, that was about it. For my semester averages:

• Physics – B; 89
• Dual-Credit US History – A; 90
• English III – B; 86
• BCIS – A; 92
• Tech Theater – A; 96
• SAT College Prep – A; 100
• Pre-Cal – B; 89

Still bummed I got so close to an A in Physics and Pre-Cal, but I’ll really try harder for spring semester. I heard some elite colleges only look at your grades for your Junior year, and NOT your senior year. Argh.

I had a pretty nice Christmas. For breakfast, I had eggs, ham, bacon and toast. We opened presents later, and I got a sweater and a jacket from my sister. I liked the sweater, because it was simple and pretty cozy, but the jacket wasn’t my size or my style.

Then we went to my Aunt Christiana’s house, and of course the whole family was there. We had a nice Christmas brunch, and I enjoyed the mashed potatoes, and corn and mini chain-link sausages as usual. I played around with their nice Kawai piano. Then we played monopoly, and my three girl cousins opened their presents. I also got some additional presents from other members of my family, like $120 in total, a hot chocolate packet, a bag of popcorn, a pen with a game built-in, and a darts game.

Pretty great gifts this year. I’m hoping to save enough money to buy a good 8MP camera.

So that’s about it. I’m trying to get homework done, but it’s not easy. That’s it for now.