So I have a new bestest friend. She lives in SoCal. Her name is Lauren.

After giving her mention last night (as well as putting a message on her little chat box), she gave me a mention on her page today! Whoo-hoo! My first off-site plug! Needless to say, she's cool in my book.

Reading up on her blog more closely today, I did find something intriguing. Namely, the discussion of her sister's snake. And I quote..."come to think of it, he's probably not a huge fan of the fact that i'm an alcoholic, pot-smoking agnostic lesbian, but like i said--i shamefully hide."

You know, such is the beauty of the Internet. Only through the magic of cyber-space can a person like that and a person like me have any sort of connection. I know, college is supposed to expand my bounds socially, mentally, etc. But I feel like I haven't fully explored my social boundaries. I've never hung out with a Hindu or Indian person for any length of time. Never had a conversation about religion with a Wiccan. (Or a Christian for that matter...) Never dated a lesbian. (Though I did kiss a bi-sexual girl once, but that was during a game of Truth or Dare, so it didn't really count...)

Just made me wonder whether Ms. Lauren and I would actually hang out in the real world if the geographic circumstances permitted it. Anyway, I need to get going. Me and the family are celebrating my pa's 55th birthday by eating barbecue. Yi-pee-ki-yay!

(Alrighty...back-to-back posts...dear Lord, I must be feelin' it now...)

Okay, random link of the night. LAURGASM. From what I can pick up, she's a nice rawk chic white girl who goes to Southern Cal. I do like that she posted lyrics to 311's "Amber." (Their latest album is a favorite in my car.) Gotta love the "Recently Published" list on Blogger....

Okay, so I submitted a lesson this afternoon. Five more to go before I can take the final. Here's hoping I pull it off.

You know, I wonder about this whole "becoming a grown up" thing. I mean, having to separate myself from all the things I held dear in my early days (Whammies, Big Red soda, etc.) to become my own person in the "real world." Take today for example. This whole thing with the Pledge of Allegiance has got me thinking. Yeah, what about the atheists who feel forced/coerced/whatever to say the phrase "One Nation Under God"? But then again, even though the concept of the separation of church and state does not have a mention in any official document, isn't there some sort of thing of religious freedom mentioned somewhere? (I said American Studies was my major, not history...)

Anyway, a short, mindless rant. Off to bed with me.

Whoo-hoo! Somewhat fixed the offset columns...now if I can actually change thet text there, I'm in business....

Corporate deception...
Out-of-control wildfires...
The criminalization or the Pledge of Allegiance...
Foreigners infiltrating the NBA...
Shopping with my mom....

FOR GOD'S SAKE, STOP THE HORRAH!!!

Before I get to the juicy stuff, let me introduce you to my friend, Michelle. Apparently, after hearing my rave about my illustrious blog (insert laugh track here), she got inspired to start one. And she also got her idea of infrequent posts from me as well... But check it out, she's surprisingly well spoken for someone who can't buy her own liquor...

Okay, course update. I'm still at the same point that I was when I last posted, but I finally made a timeline for my dad. If I follow it (and trust me, that's a pretty damn big if), I'll have all my lessons completed by July 3. Hopefully I can pull it off. Your prayers are welcomed.

So let me tell you about a girl I know named Suzanne. We met during the Spring of 2001 at a mixer between the fraternity I belonged to, and the sorority that she was in. We hit it off immediately. We talked, we went to a club, we danced, we kissed, we went to my place, we kissed some more....well, you get the idea. Since that time, we've been on and off more times than a lamp powered by the Clapper. I mean, she's a nice girl. Pretty smart, easy on the eyes, laughs at all my jokes, loves UT football... what's not to love?

But there are some bad points, and that's kinda what I want to riff on. She has a tendency to be a bit clingy at times. A few months after we were going out, she had a dream about me proposing. When I bought tickets to head to Montreal to see a friend of mine get married, she was less than thrilled. Even worse, when I got back, my friend Amy came in from Michigan to see me for a few days. That wasn't awkward at all... Well, now we've broken up for maybe the last time a couple of weeks ago. (Of course, if I end up marrying this girl, I don't want to read a bunch of "I told you so" e-mails...) And it seems like she's still being somewhat clingy. She talked about wanting to come visit me here in SA this weekend. I told her no, but she's still coming next week for an interview with a modeling agency. (That's only one day, what's the harm in that?)

Anyway, the reason I'm trying to put some distance between myself and her is because if I'm around her for any length of time, I start remembering how nice making out with her is, and I begin to get all grabby. (Good ol' American male libido...don't you just love it?) Bad thing is, I don't know any women here in SA to be grabby with. If you can help fix this, please e-mail me... ;)

So another lengthy rant comes to a close. More to come...

P.S. If you happen to read Amy's blog, tell her to update it, will ya?

Okay, so it's been a while since I've posted. (Two weeks, to be exact...) But I had good reasons. Between not working on my sex course and wrenching my back taking stuff to the attic, I just never got around to it. And when I did try and post, my stupid comp crashed, thanks to Yahoo! Messenger. But since my beautiful friends Amy and Shala told me I should try updating this thing more often, here I am. (Doing stuff for women... what will I do next?)

Anyways, before I begin, MAD PROPS to the UT baseball team for winning the NCAA National Championship today by throttling South Carolina. The game was kinda iffy at times, but the boys in burnt orange pulled through. Epic game, too bad I never got around to catching any of their games this season. Though I'll probably be one of the first on my block to get the t-shirt. ;)

Okay, on to business. Two times during this past week, including tonight, I had a shot to become rich beyond my wildest dreams. If you haven't heard the Lotto jackpots here in Texas were at $50 and $70 million, respectively on Wednesday and tonight. I won neither. That's the bad news. I'm hoping the good news comes when I see that no one else won. If so, the Lotto will have its first nine-figure jackpot ever. But I approached this drawing with a bit of hesitation, and here's why...

My parents are avid lotto players. They have their favorite numbers that they play for every drawing, and they've done somewhat well at it. They've hit 4 of 6 numbers TWICE in the same drawing, and even went off for 5 of 6. Anyway, my dad keeps telling me about their plan for the jackpot if they ever get it. Included in this plan is their offer to pay me a certain share of the pot, along with payments to other family members. If they won tonight, my dad informed me that I was in for an annual payout of over $170,000. That would excite pretty much everyone with a pulse.

But not me. And here's why...

During my time at college, one of the big things that caused strife between me and the rents was money. The fact that I "needed" so much, and couldn't keep a hold of it. I freely acknowledge that fact (evidenced by my taking the option of 25 annual payments over a cash option-lump sum payment of a lotto jackpot). But the fact that they offer this money to me sends up a red flag about the future. Mainly, the matter of strings that may/may not be attached to those payments. I brought this up with my folks this afternoon, my pa stated that there would be no strings attached. But somehow, my pessimism tells me different.

If you don't know or read the Bible, you may want to look into the story of the Prodigal Son. Because I believe that is what probably would happen if this plan were to be implemented. As much as I've been wanting to get out from under my parents' roof, I figure that this plan might be my undoing. Spending all the money on booze and women and gambling, and then going to Las Vegas after that... not a pretty sight. And when the next year's check comes, I would figure that my folks would be less than enthusiastic to give me another $110 G's. (Wouldn't you?)

Anyway, in a round-about way (you'll get used to me doing this after a few posts, I swear), what I'm trying to say is that I want desperately to get out from under my parents' shadow/influence/roof/etc. Of course, there's one thing getting in the way...

SO right now, there's just one course standing between me and the sheepskin. KIN 366- Human Sexuality. I've taken the midterm already, so I am now six lessons and a final away from finishing up. These lessons that I have to do are pretty darn easy, mostly just answering straight from the text. But my infamous procrastination skills have come back to haunt me yet again. From TV to Internet to alcohol, I've always seemed to find a way to put off this work. I know (and I keep getting reminded from the rents) that this work is necessary. (Of course, these moments spent blogging could be used to do that work too, but still...)

Anyway, I think I've rambled for long enough...time to find me a party in this town. (Or at least go online and try and find one...)

P.S. Any HTML hints for me so I can clean this thing up a little, pass them along to brownboyut@hotmail.com.

Alrighty. I'm sure the first installment has just kept you riveted, so how's about I offer some more tidbits?

First off, I'd like to give a shout out to the person responsible for this here blog: my good friend Amy. She learned about this whole "blogging" phenomenon from some guy, Andy. Who that guy learned about this from, I don't know, but I'm sure Kevin Bacon has something to do with all this...

Alrighty...more about me, I suppose. Here we go...
NAME: Gregory (middles and last names censored)
AGE: 24
CURRENT RESIDENCE: San Antonio, Texas, USA, Planet Earth, The Mind of God ($2 to whoever tells me what story that line is from. Seriously, I don't remember, I read it in high school...)
EDUCATION: B.A. in American Studies from the University of Texas.
INTERESTS: Women, sports, beer, women, game shows, women, photography, sarcasm, women, and UT athletics.

Okay, formalities out of the way, let's start doing some useful blogging.

...........

Seriously, here we go...

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Okay, so maybe I'm not one of the politically charged bloggers that John Leo raved about a few weeks ago. Hell, I just started reading Salon.com recently. (Of course, the only articles I've read completely are in the "Sex" section...) And I may not even be very funny, but I am a college graduate (almost), and since I am, I should try and shed my sophmoric ways that I've held on to for so long. So I'll try and write about stuff that has some meaning to it, as well as gush about how cute certain females are. But until then, I think I've rambled for long enough...g'night.

P.S. If you'd like to comment on anything, drop me a line: brownboyut@hotmail.com

Well, here it is. My brand new blog. They say this stuff is becoming pretty popular. Far be it from me to miss out on a fad like this, so here I go.

Before I get to far ahead of myself, allow me to formally introduce myself. My name is Greg, and I am due to graduate from the University of Texas in a few weeks. Just as soon as I finish learning about human sexuality, which, as most people will tell you, really isn't that much of a stretch for me. I'm 24, a Gemini, and (if you couldn't tell from the URL) Hispanic/chicano/Mexican-American/your term here.

Most great texts have humble beginnings, and this is no exception. But I promise more exciting reasons to read on soon....