running down a dream

it seems that every fall atlanta goes through a liquid crisis. last year it was a water shortage and our days were numbered. then, a bunch of hurricanes dumped us with rain and a new crisis...gasoline. that's right, the city of atlanta has no gasoline. the refineries in the gulf coast shut down b/c of hurricanes & atlanta has stricter purity requirements than most cities (one of the reasons our car-loivng city is surprisingly smog-free). as you can imagine, in a city of 5 million car addicts, people going a bit crazy. luckily, i bike to school, ride MARTA a lot, & only drive to church (if i can't hitch a ride with someone). so i'm just laughing & hoping maybe this will help some atlantans learn that cars aren't the only way around town.

i used to sneak in, into your room

Boy came to visit last weekend for a few days. We had a fabulous time seeing the sights of Atlanta & just sitting around. Here are some of the highlights:

The Coke museum - in the tasting room. My favorites were the pineapple drink from South Africa & the green apple soda from Hong Kong.

Boy in the Botanical Gardens. He is even mean to baby frog statues. What a horrible person.

Me riding a sheep in the children's garden.

Maybe next year he'll make it to the 4 foot mark

blowin in the wind

well the excitement never ends in atlanta. i came home just in time for some excessive turbulence on the flight in & a few tornadoes blowing through the town. yay.

we are the champions

Atlanta has officially beat both LA & Philly for the much coveted title "Bank Robbery Capital of the US". We went from 249 bank robberies in 2006 to 350 in 2007 to date. That is a 40.6% increase in just one year. Way to go Atlanta!

HOTlanta

Today it was 75 degrees and sunny. It is supposed to be 80 on Tuesday. Is the drought making atlanta into southern california? if only

Bad News

The Army Corps of Engineers say we won't run out of water for at least 200 days. *sigh*
I guess I'll have to wait an extra 120 days to see Atlanta go down in an apocalyptic blaze of water-less glory.

You part the waters, the same ones i'm thirsty for

So Atlanta is in crisis. We have about 80 days worth of water left in our reservoir till the city runs out & no back up plan. Over the weekend the governor declared a state of emergency & called for the state government to reduce water consumption. As great as it is that people are starting to really pay attention to the drought, maybe we should have thought about this a bit earlier...

I can imagine the hysteria now: With Atlanta's main populations being gangster thugs & the NRA members who stockpile guns in their basements, 5 million people + no water is bound to equal quality entertainment.

Bright Lights, Big City

Moving from Bubble-ville to a city of 5.3 million was bound to be a big change. I expected things like horrible traffic (check), getting lost daily (check), & a better night life (the jury is out - it would probably be cool if i had some friends...). There have been some unexpected perks though:

1. Getting hit up by bums for money anytime I venture away from my house or Emory's campus. One dude even accosted me as I was getting in my car at the grocery store. Not that I have anything against people eating, but when you can smell the alcohol on them, you know it is not going to "food".

2. People borrowing my cell phone. In the past 2 weeks, 3 random people on MARTA (the train system) have asked me if they could borrow my phone. Note that I had not used my phone in their presence & they had no way of knowing that I actually owed one. Yesterday the lady next to me used hers & then a girl asked me to borrow mine. WTF?

3. Fun stuff to stare at on the street. Last week a friend & I drove by a car being torched in the middle of the road. Why? No idea. But, I never saw interesting stuff like that in Bubble-ville.

As one of my friends down here told me, "Atlanta is great. You can have all the high cultural experiences of other cities & the all excitement of dodging bullets on the way home. It is the best of both worlds!"

singing songs about the southland

Over Labor Day weekend I went to Stone Mountain with some friends. Stone Mountain is mostly a big rock dome right outside Atlanta, but it also has a large relief carving of 3 Confederate heroes - Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, & Stonewall Jackson. The group I happened to be with hailed from Utah, China, New Jersey, & Canada. A few of them seemed to feel that having a tribute to anything Confederate was inherently racist. I have spent a lot of time in the past years thinking about the South's obsession with "The War of Northern Aggression" & its ties to racist. These are my conclusions:


People who have not lived in the South cannot understand the impact the Civil War had on it. The economy, culture, & society were all irrevocably altered. The South went from being the most prosperous part of the nation to the poorest, sickest, & least educated. And it has never recovered. The affects of the Civil War are still a part of daily life down here. Of course people still talk about it, dwell on it, & honor the people who lead the fight against becoming what the South is today. In educated Southern society, the fall of the South is not about slavery, it is about the destruction of a once successful land. Equating the acknowledgement of the most definitive event of an area’s history with racism is simply ignorant.


Disclaimer: It is obviously a good thing that the South lost the war. A society built on gross violations of human rights needs to be uprooted. And judging people based on the color of their skin (whatever is may be) is ridiculous.

freaks & geeks

so i've lived in the city of Atlanta for about a week now & thus far have not been too impressed with the cultural offerings. everything changed tonight when i happened upon Dragon*Con, Atlanta's premier pop culture/sci-fi/fantasy convention. while wandering downtown with some friends, i saw a man dressed as a star wars storm trooper. and then i saw a harry potter, a man with a large wooden sword, & a plethora of nerds with dragons or wizards on their over-sized t-shirts. eventually i made my way down to a veritable parade of characters. my favorites were the 7 foot tall Chewbacca, 4 guys that collectively made up a tetris game, the lego man, & a girl dressed as the house that killed the witch in the wizard of oz (completely with ruby slippers).

the best part about the event was how excited all the participants seemed to be. i've been hunting for a new hobby lately & i think this might just be the perfect thing. the social implications may be a bit negative. i always thought those people were fringe members of society, but apparently there are enough of them to fill 3 large hotels. and they did all seem very happy. i could always wear a storm trooper mask so no one would know it was actually me...