Biloxi Baby!

I'm in BiloEleven, It has a lot of casinos. Jimmy Buffet and the founder of Barq's Root Beer were born here. There are more Waffle Houses than McDonalds. It was a cool 75f this weekend. It also has beaches. We're starting construction tomorrow. I never have homework. Never.



NOTE: blogger seems to load everything in the inverse order, start from the bottom to avoid anachronisms.

Selecting Waffle House favorites

Place of talking on the phone, it has a camp fire pit that we have utilized.

Storage tent, RV living spaces for guests, 'the offices', coolers, parking lot

Climbed up a gutted fish factory, you can actually see the Marina Authority truck in this picture, they weren't thrilled.

Yup

You can buy fresh shrimp here for two bucks a pound.

FEMA home, pretty cool, except that anyone living in one of them is being evicted because they don't reach the mandated height.

Katrina hit hard, but Biloxi is back... and this time they have a secret weapon.

Paul, Mike, Jonah, Aaron, Deanna, Fun Factory Van

Island Counsil

Some pretty serious inkz right there, no toys on this campground, just str8 urban piecez.

Too much november furs.

Killin peeps in da house.

Kitchen

That trailer is our home, the thing with the pink door is our kitchen, those doors in between are the outdoor showers, the plastic table is our dining room. It's like an island oasis.

Outdoor showerz, sinkz.

Town Square.

Just Scoopin' it.

Pshh welcome to Biloxi, this is the view from our backyard. What did I do to deserve this?

Welcome to Texas!

This whole day was like being on another planet.

No Country for Old Men Jawn

New Mexico post blizzard

Yup snow

Random Blizzard, looked like heaven minus everything being perfect, cause it sucked for driving.

New Mexico, some rain

Bears! New Mexico has it's public art priorities straight.

Colorado in the rain

Liam, Last Cookie

Last Supper

Leaving Campus, The Rockies between two old as crap buildings.

Crappy Picture of the View from Campus (#1)

A really crappy photo of our awesome view.  I look at this every meal.

Pictures from CTI (#2)

Say Word Son
Steve, looking so haggard
Could you be anymore Jersey than to be named Patti, drive a 1990 Crown Vic, have worked on a boardwalk painting faces, and want a dog that swims in the ocean?  I think not.
Dunes Jawn
Glenn is insane, he is on wild fire, unfortunately he is an alternate which leads me to wish injury upon my teammates
My original Team Leader, Demian, he has a little boy haircut.
The wild fire classroom, this place is a time vortex.
My room, post CTI, wild fire teams had to move into new dorms to allow the class before us to move back in for graduation.
My roommate, Rob, and a very realistic Yoshii from MarioKart
Kyle was the first person who is not also a cartoon character, to actually dress up as a ghost by using a sheet.
Yoshii from MK64.  Not that awesome of a costume, oh wait..

Images from CTI (#1)

Jonah and Will shaving heads in my room.
Obama speech.  Just a subtle picture taken at your average political rally.  No big deal.
Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was snowing.  Another Unit hike. LOTR Jawn.
Rocksbury Park in Co.  Did a Unit hike there.  My Unit's name is Earth.  Isn't that lame?

Life in the Clouds

Hey,

I have my laptop so I'm gonna attempt to do a quick wrap-up of the last 4.5 weeks.

• I am copying Hank's use of bullets
• I've travelled every weekend except the first.  The second weekend I went to Alamosa, Co to see the Great Sand Dunes National Park.  Third Week I went to Boulder and drove the Flatirons (a switchback highway up a mountain near Rocky Mountain National Park).  Last week I went to Colorado Springs and went to the Garden of the Gods National Natural Monument (a grouping of bizarre rock formations).
• I also hiked in Rocky Mountain National Park and in Rocksbury.  I saw Red Rocks.  I saw Barack Obama speak in downtown Denver.
• I passed my basic Wild Fire physical test.
• My team leader is a Phillies fan and he is the man.
• We are headed to Biloxi, MS for our first round of spike.  Seven of our ten team members will be doing construction while the other three will be working in a soup kitchen.  Our bunkhouse has a dirt path that leads to the beach.
• We have been stationed in Denver for a week longer than everyone else to take classes on wild fire.  It has been brutal and a waste of time.  8 to 5:30 everyday with only a half an hour break for lunch, learning about nozzles on hoses.  It's all info we won't really be able to retain until we get in the field.  On the plus side it has been like 80 degrees in Denver all week.
• We go into the field mid January.  I'll most likely be stationed in Pikes Peak, by Colorado Springs.  Apparently when there is a fire you work 24 to 36 hour shifts.  I'm very excited for all of this.
• The Phillies won the World Series and I have only been able to see about 15 minutes of post-game coverage.  I won't lie, it was depressing.  Fox is one of the few stations we get here and they went to Obama's infomercial 15 minute after the Phillies won.  I went to my room and felt like crying.  I've waited my whole life for the Phillies to just be in the post season.  I've payed ridiculous amounts of money for playoff tickets (Nineteen days pay at Americorps to be exact).  I would honestly say that I shed a little inferiority complex last year when they made the playoffs.  And then to watch them win it in a little room with three or four (perhaps a little fair-weather) Phillies fans was crappy.  I realized that it is so much more than the team name that matters to me.  It's the massive amounts of people that you share the championship with that counts.  Whatever.  When they repeat next year, Philly better go even more crazy than it did this year.  None of this Redsox crap where they get a couple rings under their belt and people only pretend to care.
• I have four or five days off for Thanksgiving so I'm going on some type of adventure.  I'm not sure where, but all signs point New Orleans right now.
• I ship out on Monday.  We spend a couple days on the road in Texas.  I'm very excited. 
• There are some awesome people here.  I thought this was going to be a group of idealistic morons, or people who get off telling other people about how much service they've done.  There definitely are some of those, a lot of those maybe.  Still, I have met some of the coolest, open minded, realistic people here.   I'll see them sporadically throughout the year.  I'll see some of them over my Thanksgiving break.  But there are a lot of people I'll miss.
• I miss my friends and family from home.  It's hard staying in contact because we are always so busy.  It's also just an incredibly different experience and I feel like I'm in my own little world out here.  I can't wait to see you all at winter break.
• I was Yoshii in a MarioKart for Halloween.  It was fun.
• Shaved my head last week along with two of my friends.  It feels good.
• I'm doing No Shave November along with all of the other males on my team.  Forgot to shave beforehand so I already look like Adam Morrison.
• I spoke with Hank briefly and it sounds like his first round job is one of the best possible jobs.  I'm really curious to see how it turns out.  I'm hoping to cross his path at Thanksgiving or while traveling through Texas.

This is horribly written and disorganized, pictures to follow.  If I can find time to update more frequently the posts will be better.  I love you all, Peace.

Happy Halloween (3 Days ago)

Happy Halloween!

Like Daverd said, sorry I don't ever post.  Basically this is what's been going on: 

• I've been assigned to a permanent team with 10 others, who are awesome people and are all interestingly enough from the Midwest.
• I graduated Corps Training Institute (CTI) on Oct. 31 and left the next day for my first project.
• I am currently in Austin, TX after a 3 day road trip from Sacramento.  We left at 6 am Saturday morning and have spent the last 3 days driving down California, through Arizona, New Mexico, and half of Texas.
• You're probably wondering what I'm doing in Austin.  My team's first project is a joint effort with FEMA where we'll be traveling through affected communities in Texas's gulf region (i.e. Galveston, Beaumont, etc.).  Although most of the details are still uncertain (FEMA hasn't proven to be the most reliable agency...), we will probably be working with Disaster Relief Centers (DRCs) doing a variety of tasks like damage assessment, surveys, etc.  I'm currently in Austin for two days of training with FEMA and then we ship out for our next destination on Wednesday.  My campus in Sacramento currently has 16 teams down here, and the other campuses like Denver have even more.
  

So that's what's been going on in my life.  It was pretty sad leaving Sacramento on Saturday - I made a lot of great friends there and probably won't see them again until late spring, but that's life in Americorps, for better or for worse.  Sacramento's been good to me; we stayed in the lovely North Highlands area, renowned for its shady Russian storefronts, gang presence, and fine Thai dining.  I had a lot of great times there but It's been great getting out on the road and getting my project started.  As far as I'm concerned, my year begins now.  I'll try and be better with updates but as I won't be staying in any one place for any longer than a week or so, it might be a little hard.  PEACE.

Dunes

Sorry we don't ever post. So busy. I'm doing Wildfire. We went to these 1000 foot dunes this weekend, I'm attempting to post some pictures. Hopefully I will be able to to a content filled update soon.