Austin Thomas Gray

 Austin Thomas Gray

16 January 1991 - 25 February 2005

Austin Gray, you were an amazing person and an even better friend.  I truly love you from the bottommost depths of my heart.  There has never been, nor ever will be an end for the love that I feel for you.  You are what drives me to do the best in my schoolwork and my journalistic work.  The phrase "Only the good die young," is the most unfortunately true sentiment that I've ever heard.  If you could be here now instead of me, I'd gladly trade places with you.  You deserve so much more than the hand you were dealt.  I love you.

La Hermanita de Pingüino

So, today my little sister got in a car accident because her boyfriend broke up with her over something as ridiculous as a haircut.  They'd been together for almost two years and she cut her hair and he broke up with her.  She was so upset that she was crying while she was driving and she rear-ended someone.  This little prick threw away a wonderful girl over something as trivial as a haircut, and why? Because she didn't tell him before she did it that she was going to.  Are you kidding me?  Why does it matter? It doesn't change the girl you're in love with.  But no, you had to throw it all away over some hair.  This has created havoc for her, and this is probably one of the worst weeks of her life.  Thanks.  Way to be a prick.

State of the Union

Tonight, the twenty-seventh of January, President Obama gave the State of the Union address.  It lasted nearly two hours and he addressed many topics that are near and dear to almost all Americans, some that affected me possibly more than others.

• College tuition costs.
• Don't Ask, Don't Tell
• Clean energy

College tuition is a pain.  Even after Florida Bright Futures (which is a fantastic system allowing me to go to school for thousands less than most people around the nation), I'm still left with nearly a thousand dollars of tuition to pay for, on top of housing, books and spending money for food and laundry.  It's been nearly 4 months that I've been without part-time work, and before that I was without part-time work while at school for my entire college career.  Tallahassee is the hardest city to find work in in the state of Florida.  "In this economy, a high school diploma no longer guarantees a good job."

Don't Ask, Don't Tell is a policy started by the American Military to keep gay and lesbian people from fighting side-by-side with straight men in our armed forces.  This policy was started under the Clinton administration back in the 1990's and it states that gay men and women can serve, but they must prove to be celibate, which is nearly impossible. “I will work with Congress and the military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are.” 


Clean energy is something that President Obama has said that he'd fight tooth and nail for.  Nuclear power is currently used on many Naval aircraft carriers and submarines.  Why can't we harness this clean and safe energy to be used on land to power a grid for much longer and much more efficiently than we currently do with natural gas?  Solar energy is already used in many homes in Florida to heat swimming pools, why can't we harness the energy of "The Sunshine State" to power our homes and vehicles?   “…to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, and more incentives.”




President Obama, you're not on the campaign trail anymore, stop trying to fight for your party to keep the supermajority in the Senate.  Focus on what's going on in Washington and get things done that really need to get done.

A Month-long Hiatus

Sorry that I took a hiatus, y'all.  Finals came up, and then winter break commotion with the family.  But I'm glad to say that I'm back now, and starting a new semester.  I'm beginning my major (communications) courses at FSU and my minor (journalism) courses down at FAMU. This semester is panning out to be a great one so far.  The first day of class was at FAMU and the first assignment was to obtain a death certificate (which is public record).  This was a very interesting assignment.  The next class I had to produce an autopsy report.  That was even more hectic, but I eventually found one on the internet which was ok'd by the teacher.

Overall, this semester is looking up.  I'm in the process of geting involved with the radio station down at FAMU; hopefully I'll be able to DJ down there soon.  I'm a "mentor" for the news department at V89, so I'm excited for that. 

I'll leave you with this.  I'm really glad to be back to writing, and I can't wait for this semester to produce some epic blog posts.  ¡Ciao!

Pearl Harbor

"December 7th, 1941.  A date which will live in infamy. The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that Nation."  Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke these words to a joint session of Congress on December 8th, 1941.  He asked Congress to accept this unprovoked attack as a declaration of war.  Congress overwhelmingly supported this motion, as they gave him nearly a full minute of a standing ovation. This commenced what is now known as World War II.  This came a mere twenty-three years after The War to End All Wars.  This is only for US involvement, for England and the other allies had been fighting German forces for years. 

How far have we come in the last 68 years?  The United States and Japan couldn't survive without each other.  The United States and Germany are closer than ever before.  As many veterans, patriots and surviving civilians have said, "If it weren't for the US joining the war, we'd all be speaking German."  So today, if you see a veteran, or a current soldier, thank them..