Why did Simon & Schuster make the Hardy Boys terrible?

If you’ve been a fan of the Hardy Boys for a long time, read the classics and all, you’ve probably given the newer books a try. Published by Simon & Schuster, the revised series was called “The Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers.” Before I go further, I’ll just list out my pros and cons with their approach.

Pros:

• First-person narrative – I liked it. We get to go in their heads, and see what they’re really thinking, instead of some omnipotent 3rd party’s readings. It gives the characters more realism.
• ATAC – I like the whole “American Teens Against Crime” thing. It makes sense, as far as putting teenage agents into situations where it’d be hard for a full adult cop to fit in, but I wish they would offer more details and give a better root of where it exists within the government bureaucracy. The Hardy’s fit in line with that, and it provides a realistic means as to where they get their funds to do their missions.
• Nancy Drew crossovers – I loved the original “Supermystery” crossovers, and these were pretty good too. There’s good chemistry between Nancy, George, Bess, Frank, and Joe such that it’s not like they’re all too goody-goody with each other, but it’s not like they hate each other either. I liked these slightly more than the regular books. Frank still likes Nancy too

Cons:

• It’s targeted towards ‘tweens’ – Not even really tweens. 8-12 would be pre-teens really. 13-15 fits more of the tween type. They used to be geared towards tweens or high school students. As a result, the writing is a bit dumbed down and too goofy at times.
• The boys’ images – If you’ve seen the covers of recent books, they have Bieber-like haircuts or shaggy hair, and they’re not even athletic looking or anything. The original Hardy Boys had short(er) haircuts and they were involved in football and worked out a bit. Now they seem kind of lame, and I hope their style isn’t a trend.
• Few old characters – Where’s Biff? Tony Prito? Callie Shaw? Iola? Chet is barely there. New ones include Playback, a parrot I find rather ‘meh’ and a bully named Brian Conrad. Plus his hot sister Belinda. The local enemy thing is OK, but it doesn’t add much.
• No boating? – I don’t think they’ve mentioned Barmet Bay once. Or that they had boats or anything. I wasn’t a fan of that in the original, but I’d think they’d have it for nostalgia.
• Graphic novels – I don’t like the idea of them existing. Sorry for being so traditional. Plus the storyline involves different characters too!
• Trilogy series – Annoying. Initially, they were cool, but looking into the last few, it’s just basically one long book divided into three, to get you to buy more. At first, there’s was at least one person apprehended in each book, where the following book revealed there was someone else involved too. Now, it’s just let’s make a long story where some things get figured out in each.
• The computer games – The first was OK, but definitely not as good as the Nancy Drew ones from HerInteractive. I don’t like Jesse McCartney and Cody Linley’s voice overs. It fits with their whole stupid dweeb image S&S keep putting, and I had so much trouble with a scene I almost just gave up. Didn’t even play the 2nd one because it was a dumb hunt-and-click thing which is boring in my opinion.

Overall I’m disappointed. Plus I’d really like to know who these ghost writers are. Make yourself available so we can directly communicate our opinions. I like to know who writes the books I read.

Anyway, it seems like they sacrificed a lot of the good hard-crime elements, in favor of a more humorous-oriented, slightly wackier storylines.

Plus I find the whole bit about them not being to tell their Mother and Aunt Trudy they’re agent to be pretty dumb. It’s a distraction from the storyline, and it just feels like a filler piece as they try to find a way to worm around making up a story to get out and do their missions. CIA agents can tell their family, but the Hardy’s can’t?

Also the mysteries are less complex and intricate. Instead of trying to find who the bad guy is, and use their deduction skills, they have a specific target and their goal is to just find some evidence. Though several times there are cases where they need to use deduction skills to find out who the bad guy is, but the whole mystery plot just seems to lack any depth. Maybe because these books are geared towards 8-12 year olds? I don’t know. But the mysteries are just watered down.

Anyway, apparently there is a new line of Hardy Boys books called “The Hardy Boys Adventures” in 2013. Hopefully their new formula will take my pros, attempt not to deviate too much from the original Hardys, but still have a modern take as well.

Please don’t ruin this one Simon & Schuster.

Pizza Hut rip-off–Personal Pan Pizza

I recommend that people  don’t buy Pizza Hut’s Personal Pan Pizza. It’s a rip off for what you get. It’s well known that in many cases, the larger the volume you buy, the cheaper per unit it costs. This was not an exception. But it seemed grossly overpriced in my opinion.

I would equate one Personal Pan Pizza to 1/5 a large pizza at Pizza Hut, meaning I feel it had the same volume as 2 slices out of 10 slices in a whole. Of course, it won’t be priced at 1/5 the value, because you’re not buying in bulk, but I would gander it’d be reasonably priced around 1/3 of the value. Pizza Hut promotions have been going on about their $10 large pizza (probably $10.83 including tax where I live), so I would say 1/3 of $10 would be $3.33 not including tax. If it included tax, I would pay $3.60.

How much did I pay? I paid $4.29 including tax. I know I sound like such a whiner; I don’t have to buy their darn pizzas, but after going through one, I just didn’t feel like I was getting my money’s worth. I only went to the one on campus here, because the Subway next door was closed. Anyhow, I’d at least like to say that if you’re looking for some bang for your buck, this tiny pizza will probably not satisfy this.

Beyond Sealine Express shows recovery

 

A southern subsidiary of NorAm Shipping owned by shipping magnate Stephen Gerrard, Beyond Sealine Express Corp. (BSEC: NYSE), has started to recover after a month of fixing issues related to the disturbances that took place across much of the Eastern Seaboard, and southern region of the United States.

Daniel McKernon, chief executive officer of BSE, has commented to the press that “The company has been back on track for almost a week now. We are approximately 85% complete with repairs on vessels, cargo containers, as well as dealing with the issues of damaged or lost cargo that took place during the incidents.”

BSE’s largest port of operations in the United States, The Port of New Marais in Louisiana, suffered only minor damages during the crisis. William Jones, port operations officer of BSE’s New Marais offices stated that, “During the crisis that unfolded, we indeed had to vacate our offices, warehouses, and other port operations due to warnings issued by a certain party that took over governmental affairs during the incidents. Our company’s number one priority is to ensure the safety of our employees and partners, and with the United States government out of reach at that time, we had no choice but to remove all essential data and equipment that we could, and keep it at a special storage facility designed for such emergencies.”

Hapag Lloyd Mass Distribution International (HLMD International), a major global transportation company, also suffered similar issues as they worked to recover from the crisis as well also. HLMD Intl. is the chief competitor of BSE at its ports in the southern United States, particularly the New Marais location.

BSE’s operations in the Port of Houstorn in Texas managed to evade any damages, though the Port of Midami in Florida only had a few weather-related damages. While Florida was lucky enough to not be in target of the beast that cruised a path across the eastern half of the country, the state did experience strange weather phenomenon.

NOAA scientists could not figure out how exactly hurricane-like wind speeds and thunderstorms moved into the area while the crisis occurred. Data from the National Weather Service has shown there to be air pressure disturbances across Louisiana that managed to knock into the Gulf Stream. Several New Marais residents claimed to have witnessed mini-tornados or even ‘vortexes’ that appeared to erupt spontaneously from nowhere, accompanied by lightening in the sky. However, there is not much visual evidence given to suggest this.

With BSE’s reputation as a company that ‘goes beyond and above the Gulf of Mexico to transport goods fast’, there is very little doubt that BSE will soon be up to one-hundred percent recovery by August.

BSE’s current stock price is 39.23 per share, with a monthly difference of –2.5%. Several Wall Street analysts contribute this to the company’s ability to rebound fast after many incidents, and has faired well in comparison to other companies after the crisis.

Why the idea of recycling is getting flawed

If you didn’t know, I’m the kind of person that doesn’t mind helping out the environment. After all, I do care about the air I breathe, the water I drink, and the food I eat. Who wouldn’t? I don’t see any issue with trying our best to minimize our impacts, but within a reasonable expectation (not exactly a global warming believer). That’s why I want to talk about recycling, and how the idea of it has been beaten to death that it’s no longer a really good solution if you want to build up your green quota.

When you think of trying to be green, you probably first think of recycling. Companies that often make a lot of disposable products, like Coca Cola, love to promote recycling as a super green solution that will solve everything. They couldn’t be more wrong with reality, despite how much we like their products.

I recycle. I try my best to recycle paper, plastic, and aluminum. This comes to my first flaw of recycling: Recycling is NOT simple. How so in my case?

• Collecting recyclables – You need more bins or bags, you need to have extra space, and ensure it’s contained safely. Bugs and bees love any remaining liquids in beverage cans/bottles, rodents love paper, and so on. Depending where you live, recycling service may be irregular compared to the trash schedule, which also brings me to my next point…
• No curbside recycling – My HOA won’t do it. They claim there are some extra fees and that there is some requirement we have 10,000 residents here, even though the 2 subdivisions close to us have curbside and don’t seem to have 10K residents. So I have to drive to the elementary school nearby to drop off at least the paper and aluminum stuff. Luckily they’re part of the PaperRetriever program and the PTO offers an aluminum can collection for money. Only plastics I save come in the beverage bottle type. Save those to take to the University of Houston or any other spot, but usually have to drop in one by one. No way I can recycle glass, unless I’m a city resident (I live in unincorporated Harris County) since county services don’t offer it. It’s a greater pain when you know some family that has curbside, but doesn’t use it.
• Sorting what CAN’T be recycled – Different recycling services often have different rules to what can and can’t be recycled. It’s a pain having to sort. No number 6 plastics in most places, so no Yoplait yogurt containers. Paper products soiled with grease or food remnants are a no, so too bad pizza boxes and fast food containers. Broken glass is a no. The list goes on and on.
• Overfilled bins – Very often, bins get piled up. Trash is checked on daily, but expectations on people recycling are low, so they don’t get checked enough. You want to do the right thing, but with the bin stacked over the top and no way to leverage it on there, are you going to hold onto it until you reach the next closest bin, or would you throw it in the trash bin instead? It can be a tough call when you have to sacrifice convenience.

The 2nd flaw about recycling: Most people don’t care. Do you know what’s worse to a greenie than a person that tosses an aluminum can in the trash bin, than a recycling bin right next to it? People who toss garbage in the recycling bin. It’s disrespectful, very lazy, and can spoil the whole container depending on the severity of what was tossed in.

As someone that has volunteered with recycling pick-up at my middle school, high school, and now my college at the university, I have found ridiculous amounts of abuse with what lands in the bin. The worst is a mixture of either leftover sweet soda, water, or coffee that peoplee hadn’t finished and tossed in. Worse when it lands in the paper bin. You also have dirty tissues, soiled napkins, and other ranges of nastiness. Then there’s stuff that can’t be recycled, that most people don’t know about like pizza boxes, and other junk even when we have signs posting what can’t go in.

My roommate, who I have very close bonds with, can’t take himself to recycle. He’s a good person, but he drinks lots and lots of Diet Cokes all the time. Maybe 6+ a day. I can always hear the clang of a can or bottle as it hits in the trash can under his desk, even when there’s a recycling bin right down the hallway of our dorm! Paper products too. My former roommate at my first dorm was at least cool enough to take my offer of him leaving bottles/cans on my dresser so I could take down to the nearest recycle bin (which was usually overfilled). So our waste stream probably has tons of stuff that could potentially have been recycled, but didn’t have the access or were too lazy to put in a recycling bin.

Which comes to my third flaw: Recycling process isn’t totally efficient.

It’s said that even a small or minor contaminant in a bin or collection, could potentially make the whole bunch be tossed out in the garbage. Essentially, those people who recycled might as well have tossed it in the trash and not need someone to drive it over.

According to the Alkaline Paper Advocate, 73% of paper collected for recycling ends up tossed in landfills, 11% are in storage or in use, and the remaining 13% actually ends up in recycled paper products. So if you really wanted to make it worth it all, you need to support the purchase of products that are made of recycled content to show those companies that it does matter. Obviously, there’s too much supply but not enough demand.

It’s also said that the recycling process can be very anti-green. Fuel for transportation, water and power for processing, and special tools needed to make it work probably isn’t very environmentally-friendly. It’s wondered if the downsides outweigh the benefits for the environment.

So much money is spent invested in the collection, transportation, and processing of recycled materials, and only very little is gained both environmentally and monetarily.

I’m still going to try recycle, because I’m the kind of person that thinks every little bit counts, because it does. But considering the major flaws about recycling, I strongly encourage industries and societies to make it easier to minimize waste by having better methods in promoting conservation and reuse of materials, rather than a world where we have so many disposable junk.

New tech blog

I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a Microsoft fan because they come out with some pretty interesting technology, they’re the largest software company in the world, and their technology really has the potential to change the world.

So I got a separate tech blog called Macrosoft, where I take a look at the bigger picture of Microsoft’s activities. Here’s the link:

http://macrosofter.wordpress.com/

Updates for the past several months

Well a lot of things have happened. So school has been ok. Classes are usual. Easy classes are Food Nutrition Science and student assistant for the Attendance Office. You just need to remember some nutrition information and cooking skills in FNS and some weeks we set-up and cook. I’ve had some very delicious meals there, and it only tastes more better because I helped make it. Most of my work in student assistant for the Attendance Office is just filing some dumb notes, schedules, or disciplinary things. Oh, and writing passes too. And then giving out passes to students in the school. Very boring, but sometimes, I get all the filing done and have time to myself. English isn’t too bad, if you do your work. But because Mrs. Parham only takes a few grades, what you do really does count. We’ve been using Turnitin.com lately, and it works sometimes and sometimes it’s quirky! Calculus is a mixed bag; There’s like HW every day, and we gotta bundle it together to turn in on the test day. I’m just glad I didn’t take the higher level Calculus BC, because I’d be in such a mess. Government is easy-peasy for the most part. Environmental Science is mostly easy too, but more difficult than Government.

Homecoming time was fun. I went to the parade, game and dance this year. I tried my best to get Environmental Club a float, but apparently most of my members and officers already had commitments with their other organizations. Of course, none of the other organizations I’m involved in had floats, so I had to try to find a float I could hop on, because I like being a part of everything. I tried Spanish club, and insisted on helping out where I can, but they didn’t need any help, and there were already too many people on a simple pick-up truck bed. So then I found Journalism/Yearbook and that was the one I achieved. They had a pick-up truck hitching a trailer bed, so that their group could be on the trailer bed. I helped out of course, with the decorations on the outside, though I did wander around a bit and managed to sneak out a hot dog that was meant to be for the sophomore football team (they wore purple shirts, i wore a purple shirt). So after being 15 minutes late, we finally started. I don’t remember exactly, but I think the float in front of us was a baseball team, and the float behind us was a football team. I remember seeing Mr. Higgins standing throughout the parade on the back of the pick-up truck. There were crowds of people standing for candy, and we tossed them out at random people. A couple people tried to make targets for us to throw the candy at, with umbrellas or even a hand-made bulls-eye or even bags. Personally, I think tossing out candy is pretty stupid since most of it might fall on the ground and be a bit dirty, and some people may even choose to ignore them if they don’t like it, and it’s kinda like littering, which would be rather a waste and all. But we tossed ‘em. Then at the end of the parade, we gathered around the football field and saw our candidates again, and the band played a tune, the Hola/Step girls did a routine, and the gold dusters did their thing. Oh, and the cheerleaders too.

On the Homecoming Game day, I managed to arrange a ride with Kriselle Yap, who graciously let me rid with her and her mother to the game. I don’t think I could have gone to the game without them! The game was all right. I mingled with lots of my friends and classmates, and watched the game. NEVER buy any food items from the concession stands at the Berry Center. It’s overpriced and not even good! I got a pretzel for like $1 or $1.50, but it was like super salty! Kinda good but they need to add less salt. The hot dog was just plain nasty. It’s not even grilled; it’s just barely cooked in warm water, and still tastes raw. If you must, buy only drinks! I don’t know, but I think you can smuggle your own food or at least bring candy in your pocket. Anyway, we lost like 27-6, but oh well.

The dance was pretty neat. I thought they could have at least decorated the court yard, or even turn the lights on, but they didn’t. It was a European theme this year. The biggest decorations were a pretty life-like black Eiffel tower (which Marco Luz told me came in an assembly package) with Christmas lights around it, a London double-decker and Big Ben tower, and then there was a Venetian gondola. I danced with some girls, but my friend, Vanessa Rivera, who was suppose to come with her boyfriend (who couldn’t make it) wouldn’t dance with me! She said she can’t dance, and doesn’t even want to try to dance! Oh well. The DJ was ok in my opinion, but my friend, Jeremy Niederheiser, didn’t like him so much. I took a video, but it wasn’t that great. Overall though, I was satisfied, and managed to go home with Richard Chu and his dad.

Battle of the Falcons happened about a week ago. It’s a new thing; it’s pretty much a talent show with the proceeds from the ticket sales ($5) going to charitable organizations that each act represents. Most acts involved a musical talent. The first act seemed good, if only the girl could be more audible, because she was singing so darn soft! Another act I remember was this girl named Gabby Barrios (I think) and she sang pretty well on her guitar. I don’t remember the song, but it was very good, and I casted my vote for her. Long Pham and his group did a pretty neat job with their dance and jump performance and did win 1st prize. Tim Mardis did a hilarious routine showing a ‘sensitive side’ and then singing the Titanic song “My Heart Will Go on Forever” or whatever it is in a very soft voice. Somewhere during the middle and end of his singing, Nic Dutcher came from behind the curtains and grasped his arms around Tim from the behind, and bowed his head down, and that of course brought a lot of attention. You could see everyone standing up, waving their cellphone screens to the music and such, and they won 2nd place. There were some more acts, but those were the memorable ones in my opinion. Emily Whittemore did a pretty good rendition of “Hallelujah”. Josh Dolittle and his band made their own song and Josh sang while on the cello. Josh Kunkel and his group had technical difficulties in the beginning of their act, so they had to let Guitar Girl (Gabby Barrios) step in while they fixed it, and performed right after her. I didn’t like their music so much, as the one they kinda hummed while behind the curtains. So it was pretty good, and the top winners had most of the ticket sales go to their organization. I don’t remember Long and his group’s organization, but I think it was To Right Love on Her Arms.

So let’s see what else. I have been kinda dating someone, but it’s more of a group thing. I’m not sure if we can call it a date, but I think it is. Anyway, we met at the Galleria after a botched attempt at doing an Interact club volunteer event at Hermann Park, and it took off from there. We’ve done 3-4 dates, and they were pretty wonderful. The last one involved going to a block party on Westheimer (which was a bit funky than I’m used to), walking my date’s dog, Grizzly (mix with Australian Cattle Dog), spending some time at the house and then going to Russo’s New York-Style Pizzeria in Midtown for dinner (very good and BIG slice of pizza and my date’s calzone was tasty!), and took a drive through River Oaks.

I’ve already accomplished paying my cap and gown, and most of my other dues already. I am NOT buying a class ring or all that other junk in the catalog, because it’s just an object and won’t give me any more memories than the photos and videos I’ll take. I don’t need fancy invitations either or jumbo tassels and whatnot. I’m also NOT buying the senior portraits. They’re outrageously expensive, and it’s not like they even took place as it supposedly happened. I still need to pay my Senior fees, and perhaps my club’s t-shirt fee. Senior fee is $100 and should cover my prom ticket and senior breakfast stuff. T-shirt fee for Environmental Club is $15.

I’m like trying to apply for college apps, but the process is rather difficult and the deadlines are so fast! I’m going to work on my essays today, though I’ve already done Essay B in English. I hate application deadlines.

Thanksgiving was pretty good this year, like usual. Unfortunately, with my Aunt Nicole in St. Louis (transferred to a new job from Chicago there), my mother’s parents in Vietnam, and my Aunt Phuong and her household not coming, it was a pretty much unusually smaller Thanksgiving this year. Minh and Nancy didn’t come either. The mashed potatoes were good as usual, and the ham and corn. My Aunt Christina made some pretty good spinach dip for the chips, which she kept hoping seemed as good as the ones in restaurants. I rifled through some of my sister’s cooking magazines, looking at the scrumptious items they had, then rode around my sister’s neighborhood on my bicycle that I brought along. This neighborhood is GREAT for biking. There’s a lot of lakes (ponds) around and trails you can go on, so biking is much nicer here. It’s pretty much higher-income here too, with the obvious bigger houses than my neighborhood and of course, gated. Kinda annoys me a bit though, to see the outside lights left on some EMPTY houses in the early afternoon; such an energy waste. I really do like my sister’s house though. Even though it’s one story, it FEELS big. The little black iron gate outside their porch is pretty neat, and I love the cavernous nook on the porch, that’d seem like a good place to eat breakfast or relax in. They even have some neat light scones on the wall, and the architect did a good job of not obstructing the windows, so that’s they’re more easily accessible so that’s it’s easier to wash on the outside. The interior is very nice too. Kinda wish our house (just a few years old) had the same touches too. Personally though, I couldn’t imagine living Lakes of Cypress Forest. Even though it’s more ideal than most suburban subdivisions, the maintenance and costs seem to be too much for me (even if I did make good money), and I like being closer with people and not having to rely on a car to get everywhere.

On Black Friday, I ordered a Zune HD for just $197.99! Usually, the 16GB version costs $219.99, but Amazon.com had a good $22 off bargain and there’s also NO SHIPPING FEE, NO SALES TAX, and most important of all NO LINES. I should be getting it by December 1, Tuesday. It would be so much cooler if there were always online deals. Of course, I hope the state govt. isn’t going to start demanding sales tax on online purchases anytime soon…. I mainly bought a Zune HD, over something like the iPod Touch, because I like the Zune interface better, I KNOW the desktop software is better than iTunes, among other neat Zune features that outdo the iPod Touch in my opinion. So I’ll be gladly getting it for my birthday. Though it’s kinda coming out of my bank funds…but will be returned when I get birthday and Christmas money hopefully.

So that’s about it for now. I’ll post some pictures of recent things later.

How to: Survive a Major Hurricane comfortably when it hits Houston and the aftermath

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.

First week of school was ok, went my great-grandmother’s funeral

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.

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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.

Saw “A Perfect Getaway” with Eric and worked on a trifold poster board with Mandy & Vanessa

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.

Went to Splashtown, ate at Fuddruckers, saw District 9, and just about 1 week left before school starts

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.