Super Ginormous

Author: Chris Harrison

  • Superman No More

    it’s early. i just got into work and i feel tired. i woke up early to go to the hospital for a blood pressure check. i haven’t felt all that great lately. i’m sure i hadn’t mentioned it before so i’ll go into a little detail with this…

    my health sucks. i tried to give blood a couple of weeks ago, and was denied because my blood pressure was extremely out of whack. usually, it will run somewhere around 120/80 and that has been pretty consistent for me. when i was denied… my blood pressure was around 60/109. i was also running a temperature of 99.3º.

    definitely not normal.

    so, i scheduled an appointment with a doctor here at the local military hospital, where i still enjoy medical benefits through year’s end and i got a checkup done. my blood pressure was out of whack and my weight was way beyond what i thought i weighed.

    well, maybe not beyond. but definitely beyond the point i wanted to believe that i weighed.

    well, the doctor tells me that my condition is probably a result of the stress my weight has placed on my body. he also thinks it could be a genetic problem possibly as well. ( test all hypotheses we must!) so he schedules me for several blood tests. i’m still waiting on the results.

    i’ve got a follow-up appointment scheduled for july 3, the day after i return from virginia, and an appointment with a nutritionist on july 6. between now and the 3rd, i need to get my blood pressure checked 5 times. this morning was the first in that series, and it looks promising… my diastolic wasn’t so high as it was… but my systolic was a little high… 150/83.

    so now, i feel the most scared i believe i have ever felt. it’s not a good feeling and i’m concerned and so are my closest friends and family. i’m 22 years old and i thought i was invincible. i wasn’t prepared to deal with this crap.

    i guess now i do.

  • Feelings

    i don’t do feelings all that well. my girlfriend tells me that a lot. i know this to be true, and yet, i don’t really make the effort to change the fact that i don’t allow myself the pleasure of “emotions” all of the time. my achilles heel i suppose.

    i’m actually feeling pretty good right now. and as i stated in my previous posting (see below), i’ve been going through some feelings of fear and confusion as of late. it’s to be expected, of course. i’ve never really had to deal with many problems during the course, unless of course you count my various financial difficulties.

    speaking of finances… a strange thing just happened to me recently. i broke down and finally got a copy of my credit report, which is dismal at best. it mainly told me that i owe a lot of people a good deal of money. i suppose if i’m patient and i work hard, i’ll be able to pay off my debt soon enough. but anyways, that’s not what i wanted to discuss. anyways… on my credit report i discovered that a delinquent jcpenneys account somehow made its’ way onto it. i don’t really care for jcpenneys nor have i ever had a credit card account through them. the funny thing about this account is that it was establish in 1987. last time that i checked, i was 9 at the time. they give credit cards to nine years olds? i don’t think so. so i call jcpenneys today to figure out what the hell is going on and why i have an account showing up on my credit report. come to find out, there isn’t one, and somehow or another this damn card made its way on to the report. so now, i have to write a letter to equifax and to jcpenneys explaining how someone f*cked up and put this on my report.

    so now i’m having to deal with this on top of everything else. fun huh?

    ’nuff bitching for now. i’m sure you’re tired of reading such ‘negativism’.

  • a new beginning?

    as you can see, i’ve pulled my site offline. don’t worry, it’s temporary. i’m going to take a little time off and try to get things better organized on the site. i know a few of you may be disappointed for my doing this, but the site is not getting the attention it deserves from me. for that i apologize.

    i’m still not sure what I want to achieve with my site. i originally intended it as a portal of sorts to give people an intimate look into my life. the more i think about it though, the more i realize that few people would care about a closer look at my life. when i first started this site, i figured i knew where i was headed with this… now, i have no idea which direction to turn. i guess it was always supposed to be like this. i’m not always supposed to know what things are going to be like, or how things will turn out.

    so what is to become of me and this site? well… only good things can come from a little time off now and then. i’ll be able to devote more time to keeping this site up to date once i figure out what i want on here and what what v3 will be like design-wise. i won’t let you down, don’t worry. with every new look i’ve gone for, i’ve aimed for something a little more special… and a little more unique then the predecessor. hopefully, i’ll be able to achieve that once again.

    i’ve got a ton of work ahead of me, and i don’t anticipate it will be easy at all, but i will be working on it. no need to worry about that. so please, bear with me. even if it takes me all summer long to get things straight on here, don’t give up on me.

    thanks for your patience.

  • A Long Overdue Update!

    Here it is… Memorial Day weekened. The sun is out. It’s totally beautiful outside, and here I am, making updates to my website. Have I got my priorities out of whack or what? Oh well. Who cares, right? Like I really need a tan… hehehe. Actually, the reason for this update is quite simple: I haven’t made one in nearly a month and the site hasn’t changed all that much.

    Many of you now know that me and my brother Matt now share a townhouse in lovely Augusta, Georgia… just minutes from the Augusta National and Hooters and countless other landmarks. Things have gone rather well after this first month, and I am looking forward to the 11 months we have left on our lease. It’s nice to be on my own again. It’s nice not having to check in with my folks all the time. Independence is fun.

    This summer looks to keep me pretty busy. I’ll be heading to Virginia in just over a month to be in my best friend Heather’s wedding. My wonderful girlfriend Kim will be making the trip with me…Hopefully, I will be able to show her where I “grew up”. I’m looking forward to it. Also, with no school this summer, I will be working a hell of a lot more. Anyways… just a brief update. I will try to get better at this, I swear. I will be porting this site over to ASP or ColdFusion soon so I can set this damn thing up with templates and manage it more easily. Oh, did I mention my cable modem finally is hooked up? hehehe… Off to surf I go… TTFN.

  • Man, it is so nice to have a break.

    Man, it is so nice to have a break. School is over. I got an A in Publication Production II (whodathunkit?) and a B in Political Methodology. I did alright. And the grades raised my GPA a little bit. I’ve got a 2.25 now. I’ll raise it up higher! I swear! And my cumulative GPA jumped to 1.895 from a .57. Not bad huh? I’m definitely taking steps in the right direction. As you can see from the image to the right, I signed up with Cingular. My phone is pretty sweet. Feel free to drop me a line sometime. My new number is (706) 414-0549. (And it’s the easiest way to get in touch with me, guaranteed!)

  • Wow. It’s May already.

    Wow. It’s May already. Can you believe it? Yesterday was quite cool. Though, I’ve got to admit that I am tired as hell this morning. The townhouse I’m now living is pretty roomy. We got about 95% of our stuff moved in. Now comes the fun part of trying to get everything unpacked, put in the proper place and making my new home “home”. One of the nice things about the new place is that it’s pretty close to school and to work. It’s only about 3 miles from Augusta State and only about 7.5 miles from work. Translation: I’s gonna be saving a hell of a lot of gas now ) (Which, I might add is quite nice. Especially when you consider that gas might hit $2.00 a gallon in the Augusta area this summer.)

  • God, this weekend has been hell.

    God, this weekend has been hell. I worked until the wee hours of the night trying to get my paper on the emergence of right wing groups in France finished. I’m a moron for procrastinating for so long to get the damn thing done. I’m praying to get at least a D on the paper. Fortunately, most of my classmates are in the same boat as I. So I don’t feel as bad as I did this morning. My problem now is dealing with the fact that I probably took too many NoDoz last night in order to stay awake. I feel ill to the point where I want to get sick, but can’t. It’s a severe pain in the ass. I barely slept last night. The 5 pills I took all kicked in at the same time and had me severely whacked out. I’m a dumbass, I know. I’ll be moving into the new apartment tonight. I guess that has compounded things as well. Had I not had to pack up yesterday, I probably could have used the daytime to write my paper instead of staying up so late. Oh well. C’est la vie. I’m hoping I feel a little better later. Anyways, I’m going to take a nap. Check back for another update soon.

  • A quick update

    Progress has been slow on updating this site to the point where I had my old one, and for that I apologize. I’ve got a 15 page paper to wrap up for Methodology before Monday and some packing to do this weekend in preparation for my move on Monday night. Needless to say, this weekend will be rather hectic and I don’t plan on getting much done with the site, if anything at all, until later next week. I appreciate your patience with me as the dust settles. Drop me an email sometime, k?

  • Referendum Passes

    Here’s what we voted on:

    FINAL RESULTS LOCAL REFERENDUM

    “Shall a one percent sales and use tax for educational purposes of the Columbia County School District (the “School District”) be reimposed within Columbia County for a maximum period of time of 20 calendar quarters, for the purposes of providing funds to pay (1) the cost of acquiring, constructing, and equipping one new elementary school and one new middle school, adding and equipping new classrooms at existing high schools, acquiring land for future schools, adding to, renovating, repairing, improving, and equipping existing school buildings and other buildings and facilities useful or desirable in connection therewith, and acquiring any necessary property therefor, both real and personal, (2) the cost of acquiring instructional and administrative technology improvements for existing schools and acquiring school buses, the maximum cost of the projects described in clauses (1) and (2) above to be $42,067,795, and (3) the cost of retiring a portion of the School District’s General Obligation Bonds, dated September 1, 1976, General Obligation Refunding Bonds, dated December 1,1992, General Obligation Refunding Bonds, Series 1993, General Obligation Refunding Bonds Series 1994, General Obligation Bonds, Series 1994-A, and General Obligation School Refunding Bonds, Series 1998, by paying or making provision for the payment of the principal of and interest on such bonds coming due on April 1, 2003 through October 1, 2007, in the maximum amount of $27,932,205?”

    “If reimposition of the tax is approved by the voters, such vote shall also constitute approval of the issuance of general obligation debt of the Columbia County School District in the principle amount of $16,000,000 for the purpose set forth in clause (1) of the above question, to pay capitalized interest incident thereto, and to pay expenses incident to accomplishing the foregoing.”

    Final Tally: YES 4841, NO 626

    Taken from the Columbia County Website

    “So?” you’re probably asking. “What’s the big deal?” Well, for one, it is a good thing that the referendum passed. Columbia County has long been touted as having one of the best school systems in Georgia, and the money the one-cent sales tax generates will definitely be of great benefit to the county and to its schools. It is also a good thing that it passed so overwhelmingly with 4841 voters for the measure and only 626 against. But, when you consider that the number of voters only accounted for roughly 9% of the county’s registered voters, the figure is pitiful. Reports have indicated that the only people who really voted for the measure were primarily teachers and parents with school-aged children.

    The county advertised the measure pitifully. Sparse sign placement, random radio announcements and an editorial in the Augusta Chronicle were all that made mention of the measure. It’s no wonder hardly anyone voted. No one knew about it! If they wanted people to participate, they should have advertised the measure better!

    I, for one, did vote. I was among the 5,467 voters who did make it out to the polls. Voting is important, regardless of the issue. Why? Because these kinds of things affect the whole county. A one-cent sales tax raises prices, albeit rather insignificantly, but it can possibly make a difference for some people. It’s important to get out there and vote. That’s the whole point of democracy. People that don’t vote shouldn’t bitch, because they didn’t join the few that DID decide.

  • Letter to the Editor

    Sent to the Bell Ringer, Augusta State University’s student newspaper on 3/21/2001:

    Marriot Food Service’s decision to trim its services does a great disservice to the faculty, staff and students here at Augusta State University.

    I think that the decision to cut the hot line from the school lunch room was a bad idea. Not only can we now look forward to a more limited menu, Marriot Food Services can look forward to an increased loss of business. Do they honestly believe things will get better for them by doing this?

    Students are losing their reasons to eat here on campus. Now, you either have pizza, salad, soup or a sub or you go somewhere else with your money. If that’s all the cafeteria has to offer, how many times a week do you think the average student will eat here? Once, maybe, if they even utilize the facility at all. Cutting the hot food line was a very bad idea. Think the lunch room is losing money now? Wait until they see what it is like when it’s not used at all. Fewer people are using Washington Hall now. Think this is a coincidence? I don’t think so. I think this is definitely one decision that needs to be rethought.

    The school needs to look for better alternatives to encourage the usage of its facilities. If our school had some sort of swipe card system, we could simply charge meals to a personal account. Something like this could be hooked up to be used on soda and snack machines, in the book store and in both the Washington Hall cafeteria and the Butler Hall snack bar. The Technology Committee has $266,000 to spend before June 30, 2001. Part of it would be wisely spent on developing a system such as this for the University. Making it easier to use the facilities here will probably increase the amount of money coming in and will increase usage. Universities and colleges our size within the University System of Georgia are using these kinds of systems. Why can’t we?

    I know the swipe card system is something that has been under some consideration by the university. The Phoenix even recently ran an article on it. Now is the time to move forward. If more adequate services are not provided to our students, we’re not going to have any reasons to stay here. Getting a system such as this in place is a step in the right direction. Let’s not waste this opportunity.