August 20, 2007
Willik's World
This has been a week of research and blog installations. This morning, I created a new site (and registered a new subdomain - willik.mircats.com) for Willik. He loves to read and has been getting into writing. Glaucia and I showed him Microsoft Word to introduce him to story writing on the computer. So I decided to make a blog for him to upload his little stories to. He's about to enter first grade and I'm sure that throughout the year, we'll see his stories improve and get a little longer. I think he gets tired because of how long it takes him to find the characters on the keyboard.
So, go check it out! He's got two stories already written and uploaded. His site will also be seeing some drastic changes as we figure out what looks right for him. Who knows - we may even create a blog for Phoenix, where he can showcase his artwork.
Posted by fabijo at 04:10 PM | Comments (1)
August 19, 2007
Yippee! New Site!
I just started a new website - Fab's Adventures. I'll be using it to focus my writing. Of course, I could just as well use this blog for that purpose, but making my own domain is a symbolic and encouraging move. Plus, since my life has been and still is full of adventures, the name is more appropriate.
So if you really like to keep up with me, keep checking out the new site. I'll be updating it plenty in the coming weeks. For now, it just has a simple design template someone else created. I've got big plans for it - I just hope I can get the bulk of it done prior to school starting back up (September 20th).
Thanks to you who keep up with this sporadic blog. I hope I'll be more proactive with Fab's Adventures.
Posted by fabijo at 11:40 PM | Comments (1)
August 10, 2007
Once upon a time
Since I want to write regularly, I figured one way to do that is to just occasionally write about some other times in my life. No time in particular, just stories from my memory. If you know me well, especially if you grew up with me, you'll know I've gotten myself into plenty of odd and crazy situations.
A small, exciting adventure:
I was probably about 15 years old. The story takes place in Philadelphia, where most streets are full of row homes that have alleys behind them.
Down the street from my house lived my aunt and a couple of my cousins. One of those cousins, J, was a few years older than me. I was convinced that he sold pot and made lots of cash. As I think about it now, he was probably just good at saving his money from his work as a DJ. One day, my younger cousin, T, told me that J was not home and that there was a large roll of twenty dollar bills on his dresser. I immediately went into the house, entered J's room, and took two twenties.
By that time, I had heard about a guy that was selling fireworks out of his garage. I got in touch with him and spent all the money on the biggest fireworks he had. In the mix, I purchased some M-80s, bottle rockets, firecrackers, jumping jacks, and 12 small mortar shells with launcher. If you do not know what some of these are, the main one you need to know is the mortar shell. It comes with a tube launcher. You have what looks like a ball with a long fuse. You drop the ball into the launching tube, light the fuse, step away (some people run away), and wait for it to launch. The mortars are small versions of what you would see at a regular fireworks show. Only at close range, it feels like it is just as big.
Me and a few friends got together in an empty lot and began enjoying some of our new fireworks. This lot only had one main entrance from the street. It was behind some houses, next to a factory on one side, another side was bordered by a small wooded area, and the other side was adjacent to the train tracks. While we were lighting some firecrackers, a couple of police cars and firetrucks showed up. We ran through the small wooded area till we got to the corner of the next block. When we got there, I realized that I left one of the bags at the site. My devious mind came up with a classic plan - diversion. I put the mortar launcher on the ground, dropped a mortar in, and lit it up. By that time, my friends ran down another street and into another alley. Right when the mortar exploded in the air, I heard sirens as the police and firetrucks started to drive to my location.
I ran back through the wooded area, peeked through the trees, and ran to my other bag of fireworks. I grabbed it and made a dash across one street, then down my back alley right into my house. It was very thrilling and filled my body with adrenaline. Soon after I got into my house, I heard more sirens and a helicopter circling around. I felt like I made it big time when I saw the spotlight shining in people's back yards. I'm now thinking about the tax dollars wasted on a couple of kids having fun.
I'll never know for sure if that helicopter was really searching for me or if some other crime had been committed around the same time. At the time, I was certain they were looking for me. I just stayed in my house, feeling very clever. Sure, I could have gotten away without shooting off another firework, but then I would have been missing a bag of fireworks. Besides, where's the fun in getting away without much risk? Pushing my limits is the story of my life.
Posted by fabijo at 11:32 PM | Comments (1)