Kevin's Blogarrhea: Houston

I haven't blogged in a while, and with a little push from Adam, I figured I'd get on here and try to spark my interest in writing again.

It's a little hard with my job now, because the office internet is ridiculously locked down, so I spend half my time looking for loopholes in order to post to twitter and read news and stuff. I still haven't found a way to update the blog, and when I come home, the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer. The previous 9 hours of the day have kind of ruined it for me. Kind of like college and textbooks did with reading. I'm actually reading The Watchmen right now, and while it's only a graphic novel, I consider it a big step up from not wanting to read ANYTHING during college. Plus, The Watchmen is really good. I recommend it for anyone who liked Sin City and/or is interested in seeing the movie.

Anyways, life here in Texas has been pretty good. It's been cool lately (mid-70's), I've met some cool people, and I'm getting to the point of training where I understand a lot of stuff, so it's a lot more fun than it was 2 months ago. I'm going to Albuquerque this next week for a training trip with another employee who's been at it a lot longer than me. I'm heading home to Portland the weekend before (this weekend) and am really looking forward to it. I haven't seen Hayley in a while (or Bella!), as well as Mom and Dad, so this will give me a chance to see all of them. If anyone else will be in town, I would love to see you all, so just let me know and we'll figure something out. I'm only in Texas until Christmas, and will be home twice before that, so I think these next couple months are going to fly by, which is more than welcomed.

However, until then, I'm finding a lot of ways to enjoy my time in Houston. It's a pretty ridiculous city, and you'd have to be here to know exactly what I mean, but it has its perks. There is a LOT of good music that comes touring through here. I went to a Ben Kweller concert last week, which was great. My brother actually saw him this weekend in Eugene, so that's pretty cool. I also went to see The Kooks, but they canceled because the lead singer was "ill" (hungover), so the opening band The Whigs played as the headliners for free, and were actually pretty darn good. Next, I'm going to see Kings of Leon later this month, as well as Keith Anderson, and (hopefully) TV On The Radio. I thought Portland was big on live music, and they are, but not on quite the scale that Houston is. You can go out EVERY weekend and see good live music anywhere, as well as check out tons of concerts, so I've been doing that a lot.

I've also been exercising a lot with Allen, a buddy I met down here who's going to Orange County. He's the one I've been going to concerts with, too. But we've been getting up every morning to run and then going to the gym most nights after work. It gives me something to do, and keeps my mind off of missing home, as well as get me into shape, so it all works out. We are starting to drive out to Memorial Park by 6:00am, get a solid 30-50 minutes of running in, then head back in time to get to work by 8:00am. Running in the morning really makes me feel good at work. I'd never done it before, but it's a really nice way to wake up. It's relaxing for me, but also gets my body going.

Last weekend I played 36 holes of golf. The first 18 were in a company tournament. I helped my team to a solid last place finish, but it wasn't my fault. It was a scramble, but we had to use a certain portion of everyone's shots. First off, our A (best) player didn't show up, so we were already off to a bad start. But then, the guys I was teamed with were awful. I mean, we struggled to take any of their shots. We used almost all of my drives, approaches, and inevitably (after they missed) my putts. Anyone who has golfed with me knows, from those statements, that the team was pretty bad. I mean, I was our best player? Come on guys. Plus, I was using a friend's clubs, which weren't anything like mine at home except in the fact that both sets suck. But anyways, Allen, Rob and I decided to go out for a second round right after we finished the first. Rounds at this place (Blackhorse GC) were typically $75, but we got the "replay" rate, which was $16! We couldn't pass that up. However, we did go get a bottle of Pendleton and some beer. That helped us through the second 18. But when I come home, you better believe I'm going to be wanting to go out on the course. Anyone in for a round this weekend?

I have been trying to keep up on the Ducks, but aside from a few games that they have at sports bars, I haven't been able to catch many. Last week's was just ugly, so I played Big Buck Safari instead of watching the end of it. Franklin has done a pretty good job of keeping me updated, which I really appreciate. Him and Rob Moseley have been my only links out here. Oh, and if I have to hear anymore bullshit about the Texas - Oklahoma game this weekend, I'm going to shoot myself. I hate both teams, but that's all I hear out here. Ugh. I can't wait to get back to Oregon where I can watch football without all the stupid shit. Well, not counting FSN...

I can't wait to start watching Blazers games, too. Hopefully they will play the Rockets in Houston while I'm here. That would be awesome. Tonight they're beating Sacramento in their first pre-season game. Can't wait to see Oden in action!

This is an interesting time in America. The presidential elections are a month away, the economy is the worst it's ever been since the Great Depression, and yet here I am, displaced and feeling totally removed. It's a weird feeling. I am following the debates and everything, and will vote, that's a given. But I don't have any money invested in the stock market (if I have to hear Wall St. vs. Main St. one more time...), no house, no mortgage, not much money in general, so I really haven't felt the hit. And it's kind of scary. I know all this crap is going to affect me, especially when I go to get a mortgage, or eventually start contributing to my 401k, but I just can't make it seem real right now.

Alright, well, I've rambled on long enough. I want to keep up on the blogging thing, but a little nudge now and then won't hurt. I plan to come out with a Top 5 Albums of the Year list soon, as I've been listening to a LOT of music lately. Any other ideas? Just ramble about life or what?

You can always keep up on my life somehow. I'm always trying to find ways to communicate, and have a few methods:

Hopefully I can catch up with everyone somehow soon. I miss everyone and home, and am excited to come home soon. I'll do my best to keep you and this blog updated, but if not, yell at me (or just call...)

For those of you wondering how I am down here in the midst of hurricane season, I'd like to give you a little update. First of all, I'm fine. Even if a hurricane were to hit Houston, we're far enough inland that we would likely get flooding and a little wind, but nothing much more. Gustav came and went with little more than a few clouds, and the chances of a hurricane actually staying that far south in the gulf until it hits Houston is not very likely.

However, that sounds a lot like New Orleans before Katrina, so everyone here is still preparing just in case.

I've been tracking Ike for a few days now, and have learned a lot about hurricanes in general, but also a lot about Ike himself. Namely, that hurricanes tend to slow significantly when they hit land, such is the case with Ike and Cuba today. He's a 1 right now, which dropped from a 3 earlier today. However, they tend to pick right back up when they hit the gulf, and that's when we'll really know what we're dealing with. Until then, it's all speculation really. Odds are, it will pick up to a 3 again in the gulf, but turn to the north in the process, avoiding us. At least that's my opinion after doing some homework the last few days.

One thing to keep in mind though is there is a high pressure system moving south off of the Atlantic into the gulf right now that has the power to push Ike south. That's what most projections have in store for it right now, anyways. In that case, the odds are higher it will reach Texas.

But again, we won't know until we see what it does in the gulf, and that will come sometime later this week.

Like I said, I have been tracking it, and you can too if you'd like. There are two great, easy to understand resources I use to track the storm. Check them out below.

The first is the projected path from the National Hurricane Center. The second is a mash up of multiple projections from different organizations, including the NHC, the Navy, and others.

If you click either picture, it will take you to the updated projections. These are current as of 11:30pm central time on Monday.

So, a little interpretation, if you will. Houston is located (for these maps' purposes) right on the little inlet on the coast near the Louisiana border, if you can see that. As you can see, most projections say it's going to make landfall to the SW of us right now, which is bad for two reasons: 1) the hurricane can likely turn to the northwest anywhere in the gulf and either miss us or come right at us. 2) The east side of a hurricane is the worst side. That's the side where you get tornadoes, the fiercest winds, and most of the debris, which leads to the most damage.

Now, it's projected to hit land, wherever that may be, sometime Saturday, so there's nothing to worry about yet. Well, I wouldn't say that, but rather there are too many variables still lurking out there to assume it's going to hit Houston. Gustav was projected to hit Houston days before it made landfall, and in that time, it took a sharp turn northward and missed us completely, hitting the coast of Louisiana (Boy, do they deserve a break though, right?). That could very well happen again, but we just don't know yet.

So, keep checking those projections, and maybe head here too. That's a bunch of satellite imagery that's actually pretty cool to watch and play with.

Again, just wanted to give you a little heads up on things in case anyone had any questions. I'll keep you posted through twitter with more little tidbits I get, and hopefully talk to everyone soon.