The stone stairs in the Stone building

The Stone Building is never very crowded. Students don't congregate and smoke cigarettes to talk about novels; education majors' motivations tend to be more extrinsically driven as compared to the (stereotype?) typical liberal arts student, so they tend to stay away. Maybe they hate school as it pertains to classroom learning because that's their life.

Like the engineering building at UCF, Stone has been renovated in the fashion in which you can see the outside walls of the its old brick self in the atrium. The stairs in this large, open yet echoey, sterile place are made of polished steel-colored stone. The edge of each step is smooth and rounded making it easy for your shoe to slide down with the pull of gravity. I am surprised I have never slipped on these stairs with the variety of unsafe shoes I wear.

Almost every time I go downstairs (not upstairs) I have this intense urge to plop my ass down on the top edge and slide all the way down. This might be because I am exhausted from the full-time experience of graduate school, but it's most likely because I miss being a kid. I can't remember the first time I thought about sliding down Stone's stone steps, but now I can't stop.

Some of the Most Beautiful Women

Never heard of the Cotton Club in Harlem even though I have visited a couple of times. This is just one of the clubs where the Harlem Chorus girls danced in the 1930s. Some of these women still dance together in the group, The Silverbells. Check them out! The documentary about them, Been Rich All My Life is currently playing instantly on Netflix.

Things to Read about Alcoholism

Jellinek's etiology of alcoholism (1955, 1960)
Social Cognitive Models of Alcohol use (Marlatt, 1978) & (Wilson, 1978)
Neurobiology of Craving (Wise, 1988)
Medial Forebrain Bundle

Children of Alcoholism: The Struggle for Self and Intimacy in Adult Life

Jacksonville and more

After going to Jacksonville at the end of July, I realized how huge the city actually is. It's the 13th largest city in the U.S. based on population. I got to explore Riverside, the neighborhood on the other side of the St. John's River from downtown. This was taken near Memorial Park I believe.

On the way home from Jacksonville, there was a last minute addition to the agenda: Manatee Springs in Chiefland, near Gainesville. The water was so clear; the divers were out and about exploring the caves.

River Sink

One of my favorite places in Tallahassee. Since the beginning of July I think I have visited this place about 6 times. I have gone in both small and large groups and have found the swimming hole both empty and occupied.

Some of the people I have met there include, college students (alone and with parents), high schoolers, stoners on parole, old breakdancers, locals, and lovers. We have even spotted tiny alligators, but swam anyways. The current is a little strong so it's such a workout to keep afloat for me.

We use this old rope swing to jump in. I was afraid to use it at first, but like many other fears, I got over it!

Every time I go I find something different about it to admire. I took these photos with my dad's auto SLR. I think I will buy a new camera soon.

If I was studying a teenage drug ring...

I would be a little more interested in what makes these people tick and what they think about the outside world. What does the outside world think of them? The what ifs are endless really. This is the ethnography I'm reading right now, The Cocaine Kids. It's short and sweet. It takes place in the late 80s in Washington Heights. The researcher basically just hangs out with these teenagers that are pretty big time in the cocaine biz. They are all Dominicans so this is a very nice view of one tiny slice of that time.

EDIT: I finished it this afternoon and I think what I liked best was the way the kids described their families with such pride. One chick's dad was santero. How she described the saints, orishas, beads, etc. was very familiar to me. At the end there was a sort of epilogue that explained that happens to each person. One person got shot - it wasn't even the way he died; he drowned accidently at the beach. What are the odds?