Feeling... Content.

I wish I could get more views of Houston's Night Skyline because it's damn nice. This was taken around 8:30pm on top of TSU's parking garage with my 70-200 f4L. I've never had the chance to shoot Houston's skyline at night so I brought my camera along with me to school. I knew class wouldn't end until 8 so I was ready. I kind of got in trouble because I needed permission to shoot on TSU Campus. Apparently I need to "read" the student handbook. He let me go because I was a TSU student. I could've just told him I was shooting for photography class but I don't think TSU offers a photography class.

Other great news today: I made an A on the Microbial diseases exam and I'm upgrading to a different Canon body. Yeaaaauhhhh!

Here are some pics from Boba Zone tonight.

Crunch Time

So far I've passed 3 exams and bombed one horribly. I have one more tomorrow and my brain is not just soaking in the material. It would help if it was more science related but it's more about law and regulation requirements. It's so damn boring. I'd take Organic Chem over this anytime of the day.

Tuesday Afternoon

What an interesting day today. I volunteered to have my blood drawn today in Hematology lab (not a good idea) by a first timer. I haven't taken anyone's blood or stuck anyone with a needle before, but how is it to find a vein? The sucky part of being stuck by the needle was it was a butterfly 19G needle. The diameter of the needle looked huuuuge.

So she feels around my arm for a vein with a pulse.

I look at her and ask her, "Have you found it yet?"

She tells me in her nigerian voice, "Yeah I think I've found it."

You think you've found it? WTF? That was the expression on my face.

She tells me, "Okay, I'm going to stick you now."

I say to myself, "Oh shit!"

Everyone in the class watches her stick me because I was the first to be stuck by another student. Her first stick was not successful because she stuck it in an area of muscle and no veins. Ahhhh! The professor tells her to stop and pull out the needle.

She asks me if she can stick me again and me being the nice guy (or sucker) I say, "Sure."

This time she chooses one of the veins that can be seen much better. I had to be more cautious this time so I asked the professor to watch her. Smart move on my part but she still stuck it in a little too far. The nigerian still got one tube of blood from me. *waves fist in air*

I will get my revenge next week so no grudge here.

After lab I head to downtown to look for a suitable spot for Sahba and company's photoshoot. There are some possible places to shoot at but I'm not sure if we need permission because some places look abandoned. From what I've read you could get in trouble for shooting anywhere downtown without permission. I might just play it safe and shoot in a park or something. After driving a good 20 minutes around downtown I headed back home. I took a little rest and headed towards George Bush Park to play with my 70-200mm f4L. I haven't shot with it in awhile so I had to put it to good use today.

September Birthdays

Happy Birthday to my nephew, Anh Vinh, and Jennifer (Korean girl)!

Pictures from the birthday party:

Commuting

Why does everyone in Houston wake up at 7am and have to rush to work/school at the same time? The nightmare of traffic begins as I hit Eldridge at Alief Clodine. It takes me 5 minutes to get to that light from my house and then 8 minutes to get to Dairy Ashford. That's a total of 13 minutes while I have only passed up 5 lights from my house. !$!@%!@%!% Add another 10 minutes and I have only traveled to Wilcrest. As I am waiting I'm thinking Houston should have a better mass transit system like the light rail except that it should extend around Houston and not only Downtown. I know we have the Metro but they are slow and they make frequent stops not to mention if the bus breakdowns you would have to wait for another bus to come and get you.

Once I get beyond Gessner, it's a game of dodge the cars. These jackasses drive down the wholesale street, brake suddenly, and take lefts and rights without signaling. I dodge at least 3 cars a day and have not been in an accident on that street yet (knock on wood). I get to Hillcroft where I usually take my right turn but I'm on the left lane. I look over to my right and there is a sweet old lady in a white Cadillac pacing herself at 35mph. So I do what every other Houstonian would do in my situation. Speed up, signal, and pass her. It wasn't that simple. As soon as I signaled this sweet old lady turned into a crazy speed demon not letting me in. If I sped up, she sped up. If i slowed down, she slowed down. I think she claimed the right lane to turn on Hillcroft as hers that day. Stupid old bitch.

I finally get onto 59 heading towards Downtown. More traffic awaits. I accelerate from 10 to 20 to 35mph. I'm thinking to myself, "Yesssss." And then once I pass the 610 bridge I slow down from 35 to 25 to 20mph. Now I am yelling out, "FUUUU......" As I look to my right there are cars and buses zooming past me. Damn carpoolers.

It's now 7:45am and the sun is shining right in my face. I don't know about anyone else but when it is hot I tend to fall asleep. So as I am waiting in traffic I doze in and out. I start dreaming about myself in a flying BMW 1 series while waving, laughing, and pointing to the suckers down in traffic traveling at 100mph without a care in the world.

A car honk wakes me up and I return to consciousness. Damn...

I move 1 feet per minute towards my destination. As soon as I see bums and crackheads in the street I know I'm near my destination. Sarcastically I say to myself, "Mayn it feels great to be in the ghetto." I fear of stray bullets and thugs everytime I pass through that area though. I finally get to my destination, park, and lock my car. It is now 8:25am.

I would like to thank everyone in Houston for waking up at the same time and causing tons of traffic!