Since the Hurricane...

Well, since Katrina, here's what's been happening. I dropped that math class that was giving me trouble, leaving me with only 1 class this semester. I know, it sounds bad, but I still have research and that second job with the government on my plate, so it's not all free time. I've still been messing with the stock market, and am finally up overall about $200. I went to a six flags waterpark, which was so-so, but I got in for free so that made it a lot better. The coolest ride was a 100 foot tall water slide that was almost straight down. That was intense. Let's see, after that there has been 2 home football games (UNC-win, and UCONN-win). The UNC game involved a tailgate party at Shuo's apartment, and the UCONN game involved an 8-hour tailgate in the parking lot before the game (night game). That was very fun. This picture sums it up, Ryan getting yelled at by the old people who set up RIGHT NEXT TO US and then complained to him about being too rowdy and whatnot. Get a clue, you're on a college campus on gameday.
During the last whole month intramurals have been going on as well. Megan likes to make fun of me by asking what obscure sport am I playing this month. Well, the newest one is Ultimate (frisbee). That's not that obscure though. Ultimate has grown on me, I really just like to throw a frisbee back and forth. I'm getting better at the "flick" (throwing it forehand), which was impossible for me not too long ago. It's definitely more fun once you learn to throw consistentely. Also I am on the beach volleyball and flag football teams. Beach volleyball is already over, and we were 1-2 (only 3 games). It was one of those teams that was a hodgepodge of talent, so we couldn't really compete with the teams that are hardcore... as is usual in intramurals. For example, our last Ultimate game we played the kids who are on the school's club team. We didn't really have much of a chance. Flag football is probably one of the most fun though, because I had never played any sort of organized football (surprise, huh) and so it was a good learning experience. I finally learned all the positions and what they are supposed to do. I play the center, so I get to snap the ball and then hope to get a short pass. I also subbed in as a cornerback one game and nabbed two interceptions, which was very gratifying. We entered into the school's flag football tournament, which starts tomorrow. We probably won't get very far, but at least we get a t-shirt out of it! And it should be a good time anyways.

Ok that's all for now, I will try to post more frequently as events occur. I'm sure you, oh faithful blog reader, will not be disappointed.

A stellar picture of the ice louge. Stellar picture of Bhuan and I as well. This is from Spencer's ice-louge party (see older post)

Hurricane Post (I have to)

It has been one month since I last posted. This is mostly because of hurricane katrina and I felt I had to at least address it before I could continue posting about my activities. And I am partially glad I waited, because what a mess that was right afterwards. In my last post it was the day before katrina hit, and pretty much what I said happened. New Orleans was inundated as predicted, even though it missed a direct hit of the Cat 4 storm. What followed was basically a free-for-all in the city, and widespread speculation of 10,000 dead, drowned in their homes. Through all this there was looting (apparently gangs from out of state came in to loot?), evacuations, and of course, the blame game. I really hated the blaming of everyone because it was right in the middle of the crisis, how about you spend your on-air time trying to help people, not bring politicians you don't like down. Idiots. It was basically a time for anti-bush people to say it was all bush's fault, and pro-bush people to say it was blanco or nagin's fault. And overall, it didn't matter one bit at that point. Michael Brown does not seem to be capable of running FEMA, however, I'll give them that. Whether or not FEMA could have even handled a disaster like this with good leadership is a question that I suppose will be probed soon.

As far as how I was impacted by the hurricane (I'm ignoring Rita), the only people I know in New Orleans were my friend Alice's family, who luckily were on higher ground and rode out the storm in their home. It never got flooded but they did end up moving to Baton Rouge and then Houston. Now I think they are actually heading back. Also, evacuees from New Orleans were housed temporarily in the GA Tech basketball stadium, which was donated to the red cross for a week or so. I actually volunteered there to check it out, I don't think they really needed me, but I got to talk to some evacuees and see what they were going through. I met a guy named Bill whose house was fine but motorcycle shop got destroyed. He said he was out in a boat helping people right after the flooding, but eventually had to evacuate when he started getting sick from the nasty water. Other than that, I guess personally I wasn't affected too much. Gas prices spiked in Atlanta but I had a full tank and soon after they returned to normal. It was kinda humrous to see huge lines at gas stations as people freaked out. A lot of stations ran out of gas, which was a unique sight for me. I actually made money off of this because I had stock in some energy companies that did quite well right after the storm. I don't consider that profiting from people's suffering, because it had nothing to do with new orleans being hit, just the oil/gas pipelines. Plus I donated some money to the Red Cross, probably about as much as I had made in the stock market anyways. But really, I don't have to justify myself to you... don't judge me!

Ok so I am glad that hurricane post is out of the way... now I can get back to my usual lame posts.