I've made some more improvements on my happy site:

And I'm redesigning SCD so the rants may no longer included. I might try to RSS feed the rants from VI over. We'll see.

The old rant is classic - it's the official recap of the fires that plagued chapter 4 back in August of 2004. This is where my life back then started to get interesting.

[OLD RANT FROM AUGUST 2004]
Here's an update on me for those who haven't seen it. Monday, while on my way to Brookhaven College to turn in my transcripts, Rally (my 78 Camaro aka my child) overheated and caught fire. I luckily got her off the interstate and into a parking lot before she shut down. I popped the hood to see a small fire burning off the exhaust manifold. Rally has a small leak in the fuel line so needless to say my life flashed before my eyes. I ran into a chinese restaurant that was nearby screaming, "Fire!" and to my dismay the poor little lady (who was the only one there - they weren't open yet) didn't know a word of English. About five minutes later after she tried to hand me a jug of water I find the extinguisher, grab it and run, knowing the entire time that the fuel line could go at any moment. That's car's all I really have that truly makes me happy (Keith excluded) - my friends have kids, I have my car. I wasn't going to let her go like that. I got Rally's fire out, got her towed to the shop, and after we all looked her over we found that it was just a small grease fire that started due to the overheating and the extreme. After checking the weather I wasn't surprised. Our heat index Monday was 110 degrees with at least 60% humidity.

So get I over the stress from almost losing Rally by taking a trip to my favorite coffee shop last night which is right down the street from my apartment. While there, I notice about three fire trucks go by and some ambulences. Coincidently enough I make the comment to Patrick and Keith, 'I hope that's not my apartment building' - Well, certainly enough, it was. We walked back to see the entire block sectioned off and at leat 5 trucks on the block (who knows how many on the other side). First I heard the roof was on fire. That wasn't so bad. Then I find that actually an entire apartment on the fifth floor had caught on fire. That's two floors up from me and down the hall. They move us to another building and announce that floors five, four, three, and two have water damage from the sprinklers going off. Immediately I realize that all my papers of SCD are in there uncovered... my computer is on... my laptop bag is open... my paintings are in there... worst of all, Angus Pea is in there. I expected the worst. I figured my computers could have been salvaged but that was it. I spent two hours hiding in a corner preparing myself to deal with this. I didn't cry once and I'm surprised about that but I really thought I had lost everything. Fortunately a couple hours later we find out that my part of floor three was not effected and everything was okay. Luckily no one was hurt. The owners of the apt weren't there and as far as I know so far they still don't know.

I was lucky and I thank God for that. I'm pretty freakin scared right now though, I'll admit. Two fires in two days; first my car now my house. I was afraid to wake up today. I'm still sitting here waiting for what's next. Was it an omen telling me to beware or an omen to remind me how lucky I am? Either way, I don't think I'll be leaving the house today. But tomorrow I will go on about my life. You can only hide from fate so long I guess.

I'd like to thank all of you who sent me emails and left guestbook entries in regards to this matter. I especially want to thank the kind people who have sent in donations. I'm trying to be able to email you all and thank you personally. But thank you, everybody. I'll be honest, it's tough up here by myself without very many people to lean on. It's really awesome to know that you guys care and it means the world to me. Thank you.