New Website

So I'm starting a new site called "Adventures on the Gold Coast". It will follow me as I travel around the world during these next few months. Check it out over there. It should be a great one. I won't be posting here until I get back. Which really won't be until September. I'll be in Ghana from February till June. Then I'll be in Spain during July and Turkey during August. AWESOME! I"ll probably make a second blog for the Spain/Turkey trip that I'm making with Vicky/an NU class. So, yeah, check out those stories, you won't regret it. Peace - see you in a few - tamu

My photos are live

So I just spent all morning setting up a picasa web photo account. This way I can put pictures up on the web for all to see. Before, I only put them onto Facebook, but that way only people with fbook accounts could see them. Now they are freed of that proprietary loop. I just want to welcome my memories to the life of freedom.

Check them out here.

Although right now I only have recently liberated pictures from from facebook. Bot, I'll add more when I"m squeezing my baby in Boston(she has my computer).

University of Oregon

This week I was at U of O

Here's a blow-by of the trip. I arrived on Saturday and saw Ty for the first time in way too long. After dropping stuff off, we went to a show of the K.R.U.M.P Kings. They are a Christian Hip-Hop dance troupe. K.R.U.M.P stands for Kindom Righteously Uplifting Mighty Praise. They were pretty good. A little unorganized, but it was nice to see people using hip-hop for something cunstructive. All too often its bling, parties and ho's.

Sunday, we dropped by Cimone's place to cook her breakfast. After that we went to Church... a place called Jubilee. We were a little late since we were told they sarted at the wrong time, but the preacher was cool and I enjoyed the sermone. He mainly spoke on the need to read the book and in general apply the Word to our lives. All around nice.

Perhaps Monday was the day of our great hike. I can't remember because I'm writing this post soooo late. But if this is the right day.... Ty and I went on a powerhike up to the top of this peak with a great view. We could see for 20 miles. It felt so good to just sit up there and enjoy the beauty. We nearly sprint-walked the hike. There was a couple that we passed twice(once on the way up then again on the way down). We were fast.

We played a lot of Wii aswell. Golf with Jimmy. I showed Ty how to box.

Then we went to school and I shadowed Ty. Went to his Black Student Union meetings, his classes and his basketball game.

Next I hung out with friends from high shcool. Andrew, Rebecca and I went bowling(she's obsessed with it as of late). The next day Ben, Sean and I ate lunch and played pool, then merged with Jimmy, Andrew and Brian for some dinner and Rock Band. I rocked the mic and Bass. The other stuff(especially the drums) were just too hard. For those of you who don't know, Rock band is a video game where you get together with friends and form a band(with actually video-gamey instruments).

The week wound down with a few more rounds of Wii at Ty's place and then I got to meet Ben's girlfriend. I've been looking forward to that for a couple of years.

Then I went home(barely catching the bus) to Portland.

It was a great time, and I'm glad I got to see everyone.

Building and Remembering

These past couple of days were spent on crafts. I built a chair for my mom out of an old coffee table she didn't want anymore. Its not done yet, but, I'm working on it. We also bought materials to line my pea coat with fleece. Irene bought it for me in a thrift store. Its really heavy... however what it lacks is real warmth. I'm fixing that up so it will have all the style of an East coast coat and all the functionality of a West coast coat. Hopefully, it all works out. I won't be able to finish it until I get back from Eugene.

Oh, I also chatted with Vicky a lot. I love Meebo. Thank you interweb. With Meebo I get to interact with Vicky through text, audio, video, games, etc. Its great.

I also played racket ball one more time on Friday. But what sucks is I missed out on going to Salem with the Rodriguezes to watch Lincoln's Constitution Team debating. Luke Rodriguez is on the team this year. I was on it my senior year. I loved that thing. I've never studied so hard. At one point I was putting in 40 hours a week to that group. In the end my team lost: 4 of our six groups won; 1 group was even with its competition; and 1 group performed so poorly that they killed the lead the rest of us had earned and we lost the thing by 4 points.... out of 1,000. I know, I know... I'm still pissed and should probably drop it. But oh well, a grudge is a grudge right? Our team used to be the best in town but now we've lost the past 5 years in a row. Its mainly because other schools have seniors take the class, while Lincoln is institutionally set up to push sophomores towards the team. They can't compete. We'd have seniors but, all our seniors are too busy doing advanced I.B. coursework. Plus, in my day Lincoln's team was was a part-time, extracurricular activity. Grant High School(our main competitor) had a regularly scheduled class that met every day. Those two things will plague Lincoln until they restructure the program. I hear from Luke that they have it as a regular class now. Great. Now tackle that second thing. I just want to see Lincoln excel. My alma mater deserves it.

Travel Plans and Evan

Wednesday The 16th. Two great things happened this day. The first, my baby went in for her interview with Professor TanyeriAbur. They got to know each other and the Professor wanted to meet Vicky to see if she'd let Vicky go on the Spain/Turkey trip. Well, the great news is that TanyeriAbur liked Vicky and told her she's getting into the program. AWESOME!!!! I'm so glad that she gets to go. Its great. Also, she told me that the Prof. said that she was going to accept everyone else into the program as well. Which meant that I was going to get in too. While that was great, I didn't really feel like rejoicing unless the professor told me that in person, or at least named me specifically, when telling Vicky who was going to be in the program. That being said, it was great news. Yay!!!! for Vicky. Yehaw! She's never really traveled. hasn't seen much of the US and hasn't been out of the country. Not even to Canada. Crazy! And her mom's from Jamaica, but never went back. What I'm trying to say is when I found out that she'd never been anywhere. I immediately set out to correct that. I tried to get her to apply to a semester abroad program. Even my boss(Dawn) had a good talk with her imploring her to travel. Since Vicky looks up to Dawn, that talk was very successful. She was on the brink of applying, but over the weekend she overcame our persuasion and didn't. Boo. But, now she is. So I'm happy. This is a GREAT thing for her. You really can't undervalue experience. It opens up your world, your mind, your being, to new ways of existence, news ways of living, and new things that just can't be described. There's a great travel guide company called LonelyPlanet. Their company had this slogan "Do Something Good for Your Country: Leave" I can't agree with that mentality more. Travel/experience exposes us to this far reaching world and teaches us more about our own our place in it.

Guess which one is which:

Well today I learned that she's going Spain and Turkey. So that is great. She will triple the number of continents that she's been to. Plus, we could get to go together. I'll get to e there with her when she has that first experience. That's what makes me the happiest. Mmmmmmm.... can't wait. It will be an awesome trip. It will be lead by Prof. AnyeriTabur. The students will be a group of Northeastern students. And we will take classes that give us NU credit. You can check out more info on the program right here. In each country we will take one class on culture, history, geography and art, then another class on economics, politics and sustainable development. They sound really interesting.

Vicky called me as soon as she found out. At the time of the call I was doing the second thing that happened that day... hanging out with my good buddy, Evan. Before I start on that, I'm going to go grab some food. It is 11:30 and I'm hungry. I haven't eaten yet today. BRB

OK, I'm back. I had the leftover veggie lasagna from last night. It was warm which is nice. Even though I'm wearing a sweatshirt, I'm still cold. On to the topic at hand: Hanging with Evan.

So a couple weeks before he had sent me an email because him and I were going to be in Portland at the same time. I hadn't seen him(or anyone else from Lincoln) in the past couple of years. What's more, he's been one of my best friends since 2nd grade. So I couldn't wait to see him. Sadly, I never responded to his email because I figured I'd just call him when I got into P-town. But I wasted a week in town without calling so in the end we were only able to see each other once. Which is fine. I love seeing the guy, just knowing that he's still around and that we still care about each other, is enough for me. It warms me soul. Well, we met up at Powell's(a huge booktorium). He was with two guys. A friend from college who's from Oregon and that guy's little brother. Their cool guys. I like them. Although the younger one is all about random play. He told us a story about how he went from eligible lay... to 'that guy' who all the girls stay away from. I thought it was funny for the irony. He wants to solve that issue not because he's seen the errors in his ways but because he wants to be able to go a party and find girls who will be willing to sleep with him again. Lately whenever he meets someone, mid way through their conversation the girl pauses, takes a step back and says something like 'Oh your _____(insert name here), I can't talk to you.' Haha. I think its funny because he's a freshman and he was only in college for one semester before earning his toxic reputation. Then on top of that, his school is tiny... some 2,000 students. So its not as if changing his circle of friends will help him meet people who don't know him/know of him. I told him that he has two choices: either not be a dog anymore or wait for each successive freshman class to hunt and take down the weak before they now he's on the prowl.

So what did we all do? We went from Powell's to Cha! Cha! Cha! (a great Mexican half fast food, half sit down chain restaurant). The food is succulent, the service is speedy and the cost is tiny. I hope the chain continues to spread. I think they started in Portland, maybe somewhere close. Another Mexican place that started in Portland is Taco Del Mar. Andrew and I used to
eat there all the time. Spent a ton of money in that little shack. Well, Cha! Cha! Cha! is better than Taco Del Mar. A lot better. Evan and I had burritos and the other two had some sort of platter. I thought it was telling of the closeness of the pairs sitting at the table. The two brothers of the same genome shared their genes and tastes for messy Mexican platters, while us brothers in upbringing shared our preference for a food thats clean and whole.

We drove over to Evan's and along the way stopped by my dad's to pick up some athletic gear. The four of us decided to play some racket ball, so I needed to suit up. My dad's house is on the way because he moved into a house that's on the same street as the Rodriguezes'(that's Evan's last name). Pat fixes up houses and sells them. But they get a huge tax break if they live in the house for something like a year or 2. That way they're selling it as residents not business people. I think it saves them 25% or so on the profit. After my house, we hung out at Evan's. We played some Wii and a Cranium card game. We traded stories and I got to see his mom, Molly. I've always felt like she was another one of my parents, since I've grown up going over to her house so often. Not only did I have a strong friendship with Evan, my brother had a strong friendship with his brother Alex. So we were over there a lot(I'm saying 'so' too frequently). I didn't talk with Molly since she was on her way out. We basically hugged as she left, but like my one short sightings of Evan... it feels good just to know she's still around.

After our games, it was off to the YMCA. There were five of us(Evan's brother Luke joined the show) and we split into a game of three and a game of five. With the winners and losers switching rooms. I lost every game. Evan won all of his games. In the end we played one game, after he came over to the losers side. I think we played 5 games. After which we were pretty well worn. His college friends drove home and I had dinner con los Rodriguezes. It was Pizzacato, an upscale pizza joint. His dad brought it and shared it with us and their foreign exchange student. His name is Robert and he's from Spain. Very quiet guy. It was just cool that Vicky had just gotten into the Spain program and here I meet someone from Spain. I love how interconnected life seems to be. Whenever I learn about something new, I find a connection to it in some other part of life. That's something I love about experiences and knowledge, its always relevant. Even if it takes a while to find out how.