Me vs Hurricane Harvey

3:49 P.M.

Well then.

A hurricane has appeared out of nowhere. The hurricane, named Harvey, has formed in just a few days this week and everyone in my state has dropped everything it has been doing up to this point in order to brace for the worst. Stores are being cleared out of food and water, gasoline is being yanked from the pumps en masse, people are staying inside their homes to be safe, and I'm just sitting on my desk writing about all of this.

According to a lot of forecasts, Hurricane Harvey is expected to drop a great amount of rainfall on Houston that ranges from 12-18 inches. This is also expected to happen tonight or tomorrow morning. My city might get flooded again.

Christ.

If my neighborhood gets hit by a lot of rain, the power will no doubt go out; and if the power goes out, there might be no wi-fi for me to have fun with; and if there' no wi-fi for me, there will be complete chaos. This hurricane might be the threshold for our devastation. I can't afford that to happen. Please don't do this to me, Harvey. I don't want to experience the same shit I went through after Hurricane Ike 9 years ago.

Not like this, Harvey. Not like this!

P.S. Reader, I may update this entry as this day enters nightfall. I'll keep you posted..........hopefully.



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10:40 P.M.


Not a lot of rain has hit us yet. The bulk of the rainfall has dropped on the city of Corpus Christi. It should be about now where the hurricane has finally reached land. I hope everyone over there is safe. We don't need to see any deaths tonight.

As for me, reader, since you're so worried about my well-being, I'm perfectly fine. In the place where I'm living at, only drizzles have appeared throughout the day. On top of that, a gentle but endless stream of cool wind has been accompanying the rain. It has been cloudy too. The sun didn't even come out once during the daytime. I feel the setting right now is giving an ominous tone saying that something bad is going to happen soon. Think of this as the "calm before the storm", reader. I hope this isn't the case though.

Did I just make an uncalled-for pun? Damn it.



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The next day.

6:27 P.M.


It is a new day but it doesn't really feel like it.

The clouds are still here within my vicinity. They have become ubiquitous. Nothing has changed. I've only experienced drizzles like yesterday. Business is the same as usual. I can't say it as such as to what has happened in Rockport, Texas though. Last night, I saw some guy live streaming on Periscope the destruction Harvey was inflicting on in the town. It looked amazing albeit terrifying. I'll give you the link so that you can see what happened for yourself, reader. Like I said before, it was amazing. I've also heard that a person died there. That's very sad. My thoughts go with the victim's family.

Please stay safe everyone.



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Some time at 8:20 P.M.


Now it's pouring. The heavy rainfall has shown itself in Houston, and with the way it's going right now, it's not letting up anytime soon. My best estimation is that the rain began at about 7 o'clock this evening. I fear it might get stronger. I could hear a faint sound of lightning going off in the distance from where I'm sitting. It's getting louder and louder by the minute. It's probably coming closer. I hope the power doesn't go out from where I'm living at. I'm not a good fan of the dark. Sure, I can bear with it, but if I stay there for while, I might get scared due to the absence of light. Please don't get worse, rain.



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The next day.

12:11 A.M.


It's still raining.

If this keeps up, the city will be flooded. I don't want to live underwater. I'm not ready to be Aquaman yet. If there's anyone out there living outside of Houston who wants to send me supplies, please do so. Just go to downtown, drop them at a nearby McDonald's, and leave them there. I'll arrive to pick them up soon after. Still though, I have to power through this weather. Fuck off already, rain.



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Some time at 2:00 P.M.

I did a stream! Take a look!



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9:15 P.M.


It is STILL raining. My goodness. This just keeps going on and on and on and on and ON. One hour it stops and the other it restarts. The city has flooded. My neighborhood has largely flooded. The bayous are overflowing. This is bad, REALLY bad. My worst-case scenarios are actually coming true. I really hope everyone is okay. Please take care of yourself, reader, wherever you may be. If you're wondering about my status, pay no heed. I'm perfectly fine. No need to worry.

Damn you and your rain, Harvey.



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The next day.

12:25 P.M.


I'm so fucking lucky the lights are still on here; and just as I say that, the rain returns. Fuck. It stopped about 30 minutes ago and now it's back in full force? Damn it. Oh well, I'm going to have to pull through.

Anyway, when the rain stopped, I walked out of my house to see what my street looked like. The area in front of my house was flooded by nearly 1-3 inches. I was a little bit surprised when I saw that but I eventually brushed it off. On top of that, the deluged part of the street was only that small chunk of concrete, so that's good.

Man. To the next night we go...



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4:28 P.M.


Want to know something, reader? Want to know what's happening right now? You guessed correctly! It is STIIILLLLLL raining here in Houston! Goodness gracious.

Well then, today I took a walk around my neighborhood to see if there was any damage here due to the rain. Turns out there wasn't any. The most damage I've seen outside were tiny specks of branches laid around the streets that had fallen from the trees. Other than that, I've seen nothing but rain.

Additionally, earlier in the day, the lights in my house went out twice in quick succession. It would suddenly turn off and then go back on soon after. I was scared for just a split second before the lights went back on. I thought, "Oh great, now the lights have gone out in our place too. I guess our time has come as well." I'm glad that wasn't the case. Since then, the lights haven't gone out.

Steve Harvey, you better explain this shit once your hurricane is long gone.



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The next day.

5:27 P.M.


The weather is cold and I feel like I'm in the season of winter. However, it is not raining right now. That's great to see. The rain before it stopped was less powerful than before--like, from Sunday or so. Today has only shown cold wind and light gray clouds. Because of the absence of rain, some stores have opened up. This gives the families who are short on supplies an opportunity to restock. Once again, great.

I've also received a notification from my university saying that class will resume next week after Labor Day. I guess I now have an extra week of summer vacation because of the Hurricane. I want to say thank you for giving me the extra vacation time, Harvey, but I don't really want to since you caused a plenty amount of devastation to my city. Nevertheless, I'll just give you a look of acknowledgment and that's all. Now fuck on out of here, Hurricane Harvey.



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6:14 P.M.


The clouds are opening up.

I can finally see the blue sky.

Thank goodness.

It is all over.



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9:33 P.M.


I think I'm going to end this entry here on the day of the 29th of August. These past few days were filled with--hmm, let's see; ah, that's right!--rain. I can't give any concrete thoughts about this since I'm still taking this all in and coping with it. I'll probably reflect on this when I'm ready and able to; but until then, though, I'll see you later, reader.

A Trip Back to Memory Lane.....Again

* written at approximately 7:00 P.M. today


This is my third time doing this walking thing. The weather outside is nice again. I'm currently sitting on a bench in the shade in a park whilst writing on my little blue notebook. The calm breeze slowly blowing past me feels as relaxing as when you're laying down on a grassy plain and looking up at a blue sky on a beautiful day. It's great right now.

It has been a long time--and I do mean a LONG time--since I came back to this place. The last time I came here was, I don't know, maybe, a decade ago? Everything from back then is vastly different from what this park is right now. The old playground on the far right corner of the park is still there. The color painted on the structure hasn't changed, I see. I guess it hasn't deteriorated after all this time. Most of the seats and tables that were in the park are now gone. There's only, like, three tables and one long bench laying down by its side in these premises. Hey, I'm sitting on that bench!

Some soccer goals are set up in the park's big field, which is next to the playground, so I guess that's nice for those fanatics living in this neighborhood to have fun playing their great sport (Quick fact: I love soccer too! This is just an FYI, reader.). As I write, there's a game going on in front of me in which twenty to twenty-five people are playing together; and within this group, the fat players are either positioned at the back of their teams' formations as the center backs or standing near the goals as the goalies. Man, that stuff never changes. Oh, and by the way, one of the fat players appears to be pretty talkative since I can hear him 30 yards away from where I'm sitting at. I think the noise is based on him talking shit to his friends? Well, I don't know. I'll leave that as it is.

The basketball court is still there to no surprise. Ball will never lie. Ball will never die also. The swings, slides, and monkey bars are still there. There are no kids here today so I don't think anyone is going to use them. I don't think I'm going to use them also. I know my age, reader. I'd never go to that place again. Trust me. I've grown.

All of this reminiscing has been great, but I think I now want to move on instead of always looking back to my past. If I keep doing this any while longer I'll probably come to a standstill. I don't want that. Constant stagnation brings no favorable results. Perhaps I should tone down on these kinds of entries and write about other stuff. Yeah, I should do that. Look forward to that, reader.

Me vs Boredom 8

* written tonight at approximately 7:50 P.M.


I should wake up early tomorrow just to mess with my little sister. I should, should I? I feel like picking on her for her first day of school in the morning before she leaves the house. Even if it's just for a little while, I want to make the most of it. Her day is going to begin at six o'clock in the morning, so that means in order for me to bother her to the utmost degree with fierce vigor, I'm going to have to wake up at that time too.b

Oooph... Waking up at 6:00 A.M... That brings back memories.

The feeling of dread hitting you as you're laying on your bed drowsed in sleepiness after you realize you have to go to school is the outright worst. Those irksome melancholic emotions hovering around you as you prepare for your day are things you will be unable to brush off. It nags at you until the moment you set foot on the school grounds, where it then disappears and allows you to take in the toxic high school environment by your lonesome self. While there, you pass through every second, minute, and hour with the impetus of finishing your day and going back to your house to play around with whatever thing you have at your disposal. It could be anything, but as long as you have fun doing it, you don't mind its repercussions. You do these things once you enter your sanctuary after school. However, once nightfall comes, you're forced to go to sleep knowing the fact that you have to repeat this same obnoxious routine the next day. This bothers you to no end right up until you close your eyes in slumber.


I'm sorry. Was I going too far into my past? I think I might've been carried away with my recollection of high school.

Well, have fun, little sister!



Boredom wins Game 8 (Boredom leads series 5-3)

Made out of the Blue

I don't know why, but for some reason, I have the urge to write spontaneously. It has been bugging me for the past 20 minutes. I have no apparent aim. I have no subject in mind. I'm just writing for the heck of it. This must've been like how drug addicts are craving, or, rather, dying for their next fix. Writing is my drug and I want to get my next fix.

Well, since I have nothing to write about, I'll just skim through what I did today. I walked around my neighborhood today with my little sister. We came across a pretty big and wide bayou and met a lost dog roaming the area. It was small, black and white colored, and had an abundance of energy at its disposal, kind of like the relative who was next to me.

The weather outside was nice. I'm talking about the weather in the evening, mind you, not from during the day or afternoon. The heat at that time of day fucking blows. I feel for those people who work under the blazing sun for a good 10 hours every day. It has to be excruciating. All I can do for them is hope for their good health in the future amidst scorching ball of fire and evil. I wish them well.

Now back to the walk. Spending some time with my sister was great. I loved it. She said she enjoyed it too when I asked her how she thought of the activity. This was good for her, I believe. She has nearly 5 days left of her summer vacation before she goes back to school. She needed to have a quick breather. I wonder how she's going to take on high school. I think she'll do well. My other, older sister and I did a quick tour of the school for her after the orientation on Monday so that makes me think we gave her enough information she needed to have to survive there. She better make good use of it.

It's not that strenuous to understand the nooks and crannies of my high school, in my opinion. I'm one of its alumni so I can tell you firsthand that after the first day of my sophomore year there I understood everything. If I did it, then so could she. She should have no problems. She'll be fine.
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God, she's screwed....

And as Such, the New Generation of Students Arrive to My Former School

*written at approximately 6:30 P.M. today in my high school cafeteria




Here I am in the cafeteria for my little sister's high school orientation basking in the always-familiar smell of my past life within these confines. All I see before me are little kids looking a little anxious about what high school has in store for them. This would be their first time being in my high school, I believe, so it would be safe to assume they're pretty nervous about going here. Surely, I felt the same way when I was in their shoes 4 years ago.

I didn't know what to expect of high school either in the leadup to my first day of sophomore year (I went to two high schools: a 9th grade school & a senior high school). I wondered whether it was going to match my expectations. As a kid, way before I went there, I developed somewhat of an image of what it was supposed to be like, more thanks in large part to the multitude of T.V. shows/movies that I watched. In those programs, high school was presented as a "cool and hip" place to go to. One of them was a movie called "High School Musical".


sigh


I thought dancing maniacally on the tables of the classroom and cafeteria was normal. I also thought making friends was going to be a piece of cake. These shows painted a utopian-like image of the high school life everyone of us in the real world dream of. "Yeah! High school is going to be a blast once I get there!" is what I thought.

Oh, how wrong I was......

As a matter of fact, it wasn't a blast.

I mean, it was fine and all, but it was underwhelming. It didn't fulfill my presumptive expectations, to say the least.

Now that my class graduated 2 years ago (Class of 2015 represent!!) from high school, we've made way for the next bunch of students to complete their 4 years in the same fashion, thus bringing in newer faces.

This generational change is already evident in my little sister's orientation. Seeing this happen makes me feel very old, even though I'm at the current age of 20. For a school, it's just any other day in its year-long routine of curriculum; for me, however, it's anything but. It's a reminder of how I'm really just a spoke on a wheel-- the dynamic wheel of generations--that never stops moving. Nothing's ever going to force it to stop. It's infinitely moving but there's no destination in sight. Once this current crop of students graduate in the future, the group behind them will only repeat the same path. Wash, rinse, repeat.

It'll never stop, but it is what it is. I guess I just have to deal with it.