PlanetUSF

My home town being Bradenton, I thought this a perfect global issue to write about for this week. Bradenton is a growing city in Florida and now certain people want to add high rise apartments on the manatee river. The controversy is, how tall should these buildings be? Many voters do not want this building to be built because they want to keep the small town atmosphere that Bradenton currently possesses. Another issue is also whether or not 14th street should be built on with these substantially tall buildings. Now if people know 14th street as I knew it you would not want to be anywhere near that place considering that a lot of illegal activities occur here. The street is constant patrolled by cops. Florida’s real-estate has sky rocketed over the past year due to the beaches and nice whether that is found down here. Bradenton is just one town that people are constantly moving to causing more homes to be built, personally I think there should be a limit that is set to how many homes can be built in Bradenton. Streets are flooded with cars and something needs to be done to fix this problem, of coarse adding more people to the situation would only add to the issue at hand. County officials need to support the voters decision in not wanting to expand Bradenton any more until something is done to accommodate everyone. Down town Bradenton has enough tall buildings to pollute the air we do not need any more pollution in the air.

My mamma and I always had a really close relationship when I was growing up until I reached my senior year of high school. I moved out over the summer and moved in with my father. At first we did not talk very much and when we did it was not the sweetest conversations. Sunday I went to visit my mom and brother. We spent the entire day together and it was a lot of fun. We all played around and had several laughs. We went out to dinner at Red Lobster. I left my food in the car over night which was a bummer because I had to throw it away. My brother and I went in this old delapadated two story barn we found. I almost fell threw the floor on the second floor of the barn. We were going to go see a movie but we couldn’t agree on a movie. Well I did not agree with the movie they wanted to see.

I think that some people need to do a lot more thinking before they have children. It has become increasingly apparent to me throughout my life, that too many adults just have kids without any thought of the repercussions. While my childhood has left me completely biased, it still seems obvious to me, that having a baby means putting their life first. They didn’t ask to be born, it was the parent’s decision and now they need to make caring for that individual their major priority. In today’s society, it is basically not an option to not go to college, and having a child and expecting them to pay their way through is just unfair in my opinion. It frustrates me so much to see my friends having to ditch classes to work so they can afford to go to school. That doesn’t make any sense to me. Their education suffers so they can work so they can get an education. It’s pretty damn easy to have a baby, and people need to realize that the hard work that comes afterwards, is not an option.

I have found in my life, that in what seems like second, our lives can go from perfection to disaster. One minute we feel on top of the world, everything is working, our friends, school, work, relationships, etc. and the next we can’t think of a single good thing that’s going on in our life. Fortunately 4 years of therapy have given me a much clearer perspective on things, but it doesn’t change the fact that the ups and downs of life tend to be overly extreme.

In Alabama a fifteen year old boy was charged with the murder of a teacher. The teacher was robbed and beaten and he left her at the school where she taught. The boy cracked the teachers school in the attack and she died a few days later in intensive care. They are not sure if they can try the boy as an adult because of his age. He was also only in the eighth grade. They won’t release his name either. He is also being charged with robbery and burglary. I just think this is such a sad story. It is ridiculous that an eighth grader would knowingly kill someone. It makes you wonder if some parents even attempt to teach their kids what is right and wrong these days. I honestly think that the boy should be tried as an adult. My feelings on the subject are that if you are old enough to commit such an adult crime then you are old enough to be tried as an adult. I think this boy should go to prison for life. He deliberately murdered someone and should be punished.

So I figured out that I just absolutely hate math. I am currently in Finite Math (not for long) and I understand all the work we do but when I get to the tests I just can’t seem to pass them. So soon there with be no more finite math for Whitney Fleming…..disappointing huh?

I cannot belive how cold the weather has gotten over the past few days. I just cannot belive that a hurricane could drop the temperature that much. I do not remember the temperature being this cold last year, isn’t it funny that every year our weather changes to a very substantial degree?

A research team at the university of Nebraska have created a way to perform surgeries in space while being safely on the ground. Up to this point surgery was impossible while in space but wit h this break through doctors can now communicate with the robots in space. The robots are about the size of a lipstick tube and they come fashioned with lights cameras and cutting implements. The only problem with the project is the communication barrier. Since it takes some time for message to be retrieved in space it will take astronaut training to actually perform the surgery through instructions given but the doctors on the ground. The robots are place in to small incisions in the body and give the user a better view than the naked eye.

“We think this is going to replace open surgery,” said Dr. Dmitry Oleynikov, a specialist in minimally invasive and computer-assisted surgery at the University of Nebraska Medical enter in Omaha.

I don’t know about you, but are you as confused as i am. I like how the article starts out by saying that, “Up until now, if you needed surgery you were pretty much out of luck.” Has there ever been an instance where someone needed surgery while in space? I am all for the furthering of technology in outer space and I think this is a good concept but it just doesn’t seem to practice to me.

Whenham, T.O., “Surgery in Space will be Possible with Robots” MobileMag.com 30 Oct. 2005, 31 Oct. 2005. http ://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/313/C4955/

I find myself in moral question. What is it some one should value more friendship or love? Lets say hypothetically speaking, you have been friends with someone for awhile, they might even happen to be our room mate. They start dating someone who you were friends with before they got together. Everything is going good for months and you are a good friend to both. But when their relationship is not doing as good as it once was and it is obvious that it is a one sided relationship. Is it okay to step in and take the other one away causing a lot of hurt which you know would destroy a friendship but at the same time you could gain an even better friend. What would you do in this situation? Is it wrong to steal your friends girlfriend or boyfriend even know you make that person much happier?

The activity within the broadcast journalism group I have chosen to join is very slow and a bit mediocre. Most of the messages are about different projects that different members of the group are currently working on. There are also a few group posts on technical errors and problems members are encountering with things like video cameras, microphones, and things of such. Some members have posted about job fairs where members can go and talk to various employers about interning or maybe even signing on as a full time employee. The member doing much of the postings and the one who is most involved within the group is the owner herself that goes by the screen name honeybeef82. Also another active member within the group is Tammy Bejar. She has posted the most on the group’s bulletin. Most of her posts are about technical problems and some solutions that may fix them. Charlene Chua is a member who keeps the other members informed about job fairs and such things as that. She also has posted bulletins with schedules on them to keep other members informed about what is going on. She seems to be the organizer within this group. Unfortunately, no members in the group have taken advantage of the calendar option or use the chat forum located in the group itself. The members mostly communicate by ways of posting bulletins. As I look under the member rooster there is just an owner of the group, but no moderator has been listed. It is a small group only containing ten members, but the communication seems decent.

This weekend was very enlightning. It’s very strange how you seem to find yourself in the strangest ways, but I really think I found out a lot about myself this weekend. I missed three days of work this week because it was closed since they didnt have power until Saturday. Friday night I got a call saying that it was going to be open Saturday and I worked 12-6 that day so it was sweet to be able to get back to work. I got my first red bird tip ($5 chip) so that was pretty hot. I did pretty well at work, walking out with like $90 which was fine. Mark and I knew that we were driving up to Ybor city that night to go to Guavaween which is like a big ass block party in Ybor. It turns out that Ryan and Samantha were going in a separate car and going up there with us to party it up. We arrived in Tampa at like 9:00pm and I found out my boy Bobby was hosting a poker game and he wanted me to stop by and play. It was a simple $1/$2 nl cash game and I knew the players hadn’t been playing cash games very long so I planned on taking advantage of that. I bought in for $80 and so the games began.

I folded my first few hands dispite getting some playable cards. I needed to figure out where the strength was at this table, where the deep stacks were, and who I needed to take advantage of. I had posted a couple of blinds when my first big pot came up. I picked up AQ in late position and had one limper in front of me. I raised to $9 (pot sized raise) and only the limper called. The flop came out A84 and the limper quickly checked and I did the same behind him. The turn brought a King and he checked again. I decided to put out a feeler bet here to see if I was going to get any action off of this hand. I bet $5 into the pot and he made the call. The river brought another Ace, which give me trips with the nut kicker. The other guy put out a $5 bet which was strange for all sorts of reasons. The only hand I could put him on was a King so I decided to raise a modest amount up to $20. He called and I flipped over the best hand. He claimed to have the other ace with a worse kicker but he mucked his hand before I got to see them. I wish I would have realized how weak/awful this guy was because I could have probably raised a larger amount and got him to call. That was a misread but whatever, I took down a decent sized pot.

I spent the next hour building up my table image as a loose aggressive player that’s capable of making the same move with all of it or nothing. I did a perfect job setting up that table image and did fun things like raised in late position with 9Td, winning the blinds, and accidentally flipping my cards over and showing people. Another interesting hand with the same player came up. I was in the big blind with QJ and checked to the flop with one limper and the small blind (the weak player from the previous example). Another safe flop came with Q75 rainbow. I joined in the slowplay fever that had been going on at this table and it checked around on the flop and turn. The river brought a J, giving me top two. The weak player bet $5 at the $6 in the pot and I thought about it shortly and decided that raising overly would be a good changeup because I value bet the shit out of him last time so if I overbet he might be convinced I’m bluffing. So that’s exactly what I did, I raised it up to $25. The player agonized and thought about it for a while, eventually bitching outloud something along the lines of “I really really want to see his cards”. Sure enough he threw the money in and flipped over AJ. I flipped my QJ and took down the pot.

I picked up a few small pots here and there, a new player moved into the seat next to me after the idiot donked off his last $17 by CALLING with KJ high on the flop of rags and right when he called, one of the good players at the table was like “I think I’ve got you with AK high, is that true?” and sure enough the AK held up. Anyways, a new player moved into that seat, it was psycho Rob and I knew I could bust his balls enough to make him make a donkey play. He lost a decent amount and was down to about $20 left. Right when the dealer started getting the cards out, he’s like “I think i’m just going to move allin the next time it folds around to me” and he was on the button this hand. Sure enough I was like “you won’t you sissy”. Sure enough he moved allin on the big blind and I noticed that he hadnt looked at his hand yet. I looked down at A5o and instantly made the call. The big blind folded and the one good player got up and was like “wow an instant call, what do you have like Jacks or something?” I flipped over my A5 and he flipped over Q7 (How average lol) and everybody was like “WTF is going on” and eventually the two good players laughed and commented what a great call that was. I held up and won another pot.

Now it started getting shorthanded and I made a comment (to continue my table image), something along the lines of “geez now it’s shorthanded I can play even more fun saucy starting hands!”. The better of the two good players left the table and we were 6 handed at this point. The one remaining decent player made a raise from the big blind after I limped in with queens. Outloud I was like “what? You think you can move me off my limp? Not likely” so I threw in the chips and called the raise. He just shruged and said something along the lines of “that’s fine, i’m sure you’ve got marginal holdings”. Little did he know lol. The flop came out KJT with two hearts, he instantly bet out $7, which was the same as his preflop raise which was very awkward because he hasn’t made that move before. I made the call and the turn was a blank. Sure enough he bet out $7 on the turn as well and I instantly called. He checked the river and the hearts did not come so I put him on some sort of busted flush draw, so I figured I was value betting and I put $20 out there. I flipped over my hand and he quickly mucked. “Marginal holdings huh?” He mumbled something under his breath but kinda laughed at himself at the same time.

Another player left the game and we were down to five handed. I raised with AQ from UTG to $7 before the same decent player made the call from the button. The flop came out KJT with two diamonds. Yahtzee bitches, that’s what we call flopping the nuts. I had been called out for slowplaying before so it was known that I had no problem with slow playing hands and in order to mix it up a little bit I decided to play this one fast. I bet $15 on the flop and he quickly called. The turn was an ace which counterfeited me but I still had the nuts. I thought he could have a hand like K-Q/J/T. I figured him for top pair with a draw or possibly two pair on the flop. Seeing as how he quickly made the call on the turn when I bet out $30, I should have erased all of those hands from my mind. However, I didnt, and when the river brought the 4d, I thought it was only appropriate to bet out $60. After about five seconds of thinking, my opponent moved allin over the top for my remaining $83. I sat there thinking about a lot of different things, but for some reason I never thought about what hands he could be moving allin with on the river and have made the call so quickly on the turn. Sure enough after long thought I decided to make the call and he had the nut flush. I should have realized on that board the very worse hand he could have been calling with is Aces-Up, but only AK would have made him instant call the flop. Also he probably would have raised preflop with AK so I couldnt have put him on that. So removing aces up, he would have had to have made at least Broadway by the turn and a flush draw was most likely. However, I didnt realize this until it was too late and I shipped it all.

I definitely learned a lot about this game and plan on avoiding one small disaster like it in the future. Until then, adios.

In Philadelphia the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority has had to shut down due to its workers going on a strike. This transportation service usually takes about 920,000 trips during an average week! The effect is being felt mostly by students, teachers, and workers in downtown Philly. The city is trying to prepare for this by adding extra bicyles racks in places and trying to get poeple to car pool. Strikes are always serious and the effects of them can be very drastic. This seems one will effect alot of innocent people who have nothing to do with the problem. As some are forced to walk long distances to get were they need to go. Hopefully the strike is over before the weather gets bad up there in Philly.

I went to the hospital last Tuesday. I had a sharp pain in my right side. The pain was so bad that I could not move an inch, and I have a high pain tolerance. I sat in the waiting room for five or more hours before they called my name to go to the back. Usually when you go into the emergency room you get a room to go in. When I went into the back I got a rolling bed in the hallway to lie on, but first I had to put on a hospital gown in the bathroom down the hall from my hallway bed. As I walked down the hall I had to hold the back of my hospital gown so my entire rear end would not show. The worst part was the fact my boyfriend and Father were there with me. To most people that would have been the worst part, but for me two hours later was, when they decided they needed to run a bunch of test which included using needles. I hate needles; they freak me out, and make me cry like a baby. My boyfriend turned my head the other way, held my hand, and talked to me the whole time keeping my mind off of the needle. I was stronger than usual, but I still freaked out a little bit. After that they rolled me into my own room finally, it only took three hours of sitting in the hall way. After that most things were a blur from everything they injected into me and made me drink for the tests. I ended up having an ovarian cyst that erupted.

Halloween festivities have always been a favorite of mine. There is just something about all the goofy costumes and crazy antics that I really enjoy. This, being my first Halloween actually in America, turned out to be quite exciting at least for me. You see, back in Belgium we had Foshing, which was quite similar to halloween here in the states. The big difference being that each area had it’s own time to celebrate, as opposed to having one real national holiday. I found it quite fun though, to dress all up and go out to party with friends and many others wearing costumes just as ridiculous as mine. Fun weekend and i cant wait until next time.

Music and Art are very important in my life. I feel that anyone can express themselves like others but when you create a new medium and become a groundbreaker you truly are creative. Artists and musicians have always been viewed in a weird light in our society, they seem to be outcast and always under pressure. Andy Worhol has recently interested me after viewing the Doors movie depicting the life of Jim Morrison. I wonder how accurate the portrail of him was, did he get into to transgender mindset as they portrayed him to be? I looked here and found out much more about him.

New JOb! TOday I got hired at Bennigans on Fowler by the University Mall. It seems like a good job and the pay is outstanding for the position. Time to go back to working again.

This weekend was a really enjoyable time, as I spent time with my family back home; home for me is the beautiful city of Lake Wales. I spent a lot of time with my younger sister, niece and nephew, and my grandmother. My younger sister Carlen is fourteen years old, my niece Kiara is five and my nephew Montrea is six years old. Unfortunately (not in a bad way) they are not my only niece and nephew. Not including Kiara and Montrea, I have six nieces, four nephews, and one in the oven. Back to my weekend; on Saturday I took my niece and nephew to the park for about two hours and they kept me active. They ran from slide to slide and swing to swing, and thought it would never end. But it did and afterwards I spent time with my grandmother. It was a time of relaxation, as we took a scroll down memory lane. Although most of the stories my grandmother told me I had no memory of, but because I heard them so many times, its just like I was there. She told me of her childhood and the lateral part of her marriage before my grandfather died. But most importantly she gave me some advice and taught me things that is far more precious than fine jewelry, and will always remain within my heart. After spending some quality time with my grandma, my younger sister and I ended the night with a night out to the movies to see “The Gospel”. Finally on Sunday I went to church and had a great time. Sunday evening was ended with a church festival, filled with activities and plenty of food.

Chris Simms…
You’re fired. He is young, granted, but still that was an ugly loss to a 49ers defense that is struggling, to put it mildly (dead last by many metrics).

The next four games are against teams with winning records.

Carolina, Washington, Atlanta and Chicago

If we don’t get it together, we’ll be lucky to go 9-7 which would be very unfortunate given our great start.

–Joe

What would you be willing to do for the one you love? Some say anything while others are willing to draw the line. Say the one you love had to move to another state. Would you trust them enough to stay with them, is your love strong enough to handle the distance? Would it depend on how long they are gone, or would you move with them if they asked you? There is so many different choices that you have, but could you really just let your love go. I think that if two people truly love each other, no distance can separate them, and it they wanted to be together they could work it out. Even though, many guys are pigs (Oink Oink) and would cheat (without telling you), and the girls are usually faithful, so you have to be careful and read all the little signs he gives. I do admit, I have tried the long distance thing in the past, and it did not go well, many others would say the same thing. I think if two people are meant to be together, they can manage the distance for a certain amount of time. If it were up to me, I would be willing to do whatever it took to be with the one I loved! So the next time someone asks me if I think they should stay with their love, I would say it won’t hurt to try; and if it doesn’t work out, it wasn’t meant to be.

This week has been, strange, to say the least. I have been to the cardiologists two times in the last week to get more tests done and I have to go back in on Nov. 22nd to get the results. Monday before last my car broke down so I had no way to get to class and then last monday the hurricane “tore through Tampa” and school was cancelled. My car is finally fixed and I will be in class tomorrow. Wait a minute, we had class last Wednesday which kind of makes the last statement irrelevent. Oh well. Ah! This week has been so terribly hectic and crazy. I finally got a chance to relax on Saturday night and I went to halloween party. That was a lot of fun. I really want a chance to just sit at home and watch a movie or something. It seems like everyday I have plans and obligations and its getting old fast.

This blog is going to be about my mother. Her name is Adrianne and she is fourty-eight years old. She was born in Newyork. She happens to be one of the most important people in my life. She is not just my mom but she is also my best friend. I was her last baby . I am her only girl, my brothers might say that I am spolied because of this. They are probably right. From the time I can remember I have always wanted to do everything that my mom did. From the clothes that she wore to the way she did her hair I always tried to imatate her. She is the most caring person that I know. She is always there for everyone and their problems. I know that even if I am in over my head I can come to her and she will not pass judgement on me. Instead she helps me through my problems and we always find a way to fix them.
One of the things that I am so grateful for is that my mother decided to give me dance classes. When I was three years old she put me in my first Ballet class and I have never stopped. If it wasn’t for her and all of her encouragement through out the years I do not know if I would have stuck to my dreams of dancing. She has always and will always be their for me. When ever I am down she can always find a way to pick me back up. I can only hope that I will at least match up to half the mother , wife, and person that she is. If I can do that I know I will be okay. My mom is truley my best friend.

The research topic I am doing my essay on deals with abortion. I did some research on it, but I know much on the topic myself from previous studies. I take a strong stand on what my opinions and beliefs are in the essay. I am for abortion, however I do still believe that it is a big waste and tragedy for a baby to get aborted. But my beliefs on that a woman has the right to choose her own freedom and choices that come with that freedom are much stronger. In my essay I incorporate the idea that the first “accident” women have will be up to their discretion on whether to keep the baby or not. However, the next time an “accident” happens it should be up to the court to decide whether she will be allowed to have an abortion. This way it will ensure that woman do not just take advantage of the law and have as many abortions as they choose, carelessly killing life as many times as they choose. Also in my argument that abortion should be legal, however, with many guidelines pertaining to the law, patients under the age of 18 should also have to get a parents consent before being allowed to abort. Abortion is a very controversial topic with many different perspectives and points of view. However, protecting a woman’s right to choose her own life and her own destiny is of great importance, at least in my point of view.

When I heard some two weeks ago that we were going to get the outer bands of Wilma, I decided that I was going as far away as possible. Being through Charlie and Frances and whoever else decided to come over unwelcomed, I wasn’t going to have any of that power outage B.S.
So I went to see my lovely boyfriend Nicholas at FSU. We had such fun, seeing as it was FAMU’s homecoming and there were ‘Ill Whips’ everywhere. I have 87 pictures of pink oldsmobiles on 27’s (rims, duh!), and crown victorias with suicide doors. They were all parked in the parking lot at Governor’s Square mall. Cops EVERYWHERE. Noise violations, Marijuana/Crack related arrests…It was so much fun.
I also went to Cafe Shisha. That’s a Houka bar. That place is freaking awesome. For those of you who don’t know what a Houka bar is, it’s a place where you can go and relax and smoke middle-eastern tobacco that gets you buzzed but has like…the toxins of 1 cigarette in a 45 minute session, and isn’t weed…and oh man was it fun there. They have excellent Tea, as well.
We also went to Sunland. That’s an ABANDONED TB WARD/LIVING PLACE FOR MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN.
That place is full of death and sadness. One day everyone just up and left. There are still beds, bottles of chemicals, toilet paper, you name it. (although most of the Tallahassee teenagers have taken home ’souvenirs’ so not much fun stuff from the 70’s is left.) People totally defaced the property with spray paint and other junk, and almost all of the windows are broken, but the hospital is massive and awesome and I’m going back up this coming Saturday.
I also bought my Boyfriend some dorm pets! (which he now has to send somewhere else to live because his RA is a jackass.)
I bought him two leopard geckos which we named Anneliese and Lydia. They’re so gorgeous!
I guess it’s better that the RA is making him get rid of them, because their tank wasn’t warm enough in the dorm and they would sleep under their heated rock all day. But Nick can visit them whenever, because they’re going to be in a dorm with his friend who has a bearded dragon. So it’s all good.

The drive home was hell. It was on US19 (where you can go 50 miles with nothing but trees and no streetlights.) at night and there were no cars in front of me, no cars behind me, and i could only see as far as my highbeams allowed.
needless to say, I will never drive there or home from there at night ever again.

So kids, that’s how I survived Hurricane Wilma =]