buhler track n things today

TB

tom and the pigeon

So I was drivin around looking for rainy day pictures today and for some reason I had this dumb idea that a picture of a bird splashin about in a bird bath would be appropriate and a surprising amount of yards in Hutchinson have birdbaths in them, sometimes 3 or 4, but there weren't any birds playing in them and I had to go take a picture of this guy dropping off this humungous dumpster as part of a city cleanup thing and then i was about out of time before the swim meet and I saw this gimongous pigon walking around in this carwash and I thought OMG that pigeon's as big as a chicken! and I pulled around behind the car wash and the pigeon had hopped on top of the carwash and then i thought well thats not the picture I wanted, so I waited. And I waited some more and i drove around again and he got off the roof and decided to hide inside the carwash on this bar with these lights on it and I got mad at him cuz I wanted his fat ass walking around on the ground with traffic blurred behind him, and the stupid pigeon never came down.

So I took a picture of this dumb robin that flew in and stood there a second, with a truck driving by perfectly centered behind him and it was stupid, even more stupid than the good picture of the fat chicken-sized pigeon would have been, even though at the time I thought it would look cool with blurred traffic and puddles and fat pigeon. He was really huge, like in the picture above if I could hold a quarter up next to him, you wouldn't even be able to see it, thats how huge he was.
This photo ran today I think. There was this anhydrous ammonia leak in this little almost-a-town called Iuka and the guys there said I couldnt take pictures so I had to back up way to the street and take a picture like this and the guy is holding up some kinda restricted area tape around the tanks, so I figured that's where the leak was, or around there.

Also I went the Hutchinson High School swim meet today at the YMCA. HHS is cool enough to have an orchestra, I guess they're cool enough to have swim teams too. My high school never had that stuff.
Also, this is what Kansas looks like mostly when you drive through it. I got to go to Greensburg, the town that was 90% destroyed by an EF5 tornado last year. It's about 80 some miles away from Hutchinson. I cant show the pictures I took there yet. The story is about a family that's now moved into their new home after their old one was destroyed.

In other news, Ive been reading about Afghanistan and the Taliban in the book called Taliban, by Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid. It's good. and interesting. Even though it only covers up to 2000, before 9/11 so it doesnt mention anything about the US/Canada/others driving the Taliban out of Mazar, Kabul, Kandahar, Herat and into the hills where they now reside.

After I finish that one, I think i'm going to pick up my history of islamic societies text book and start it, but its like 900 pages so it might take me lots longer. Also I befriended a Muslim guy named Mouhmad I think who's a Tech guy at HCC.

TB

golf n things

TB

student teacher

TB

Mennonite Relief Sale

TB

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KU shirts

-TB

cows and track

I visited an 8th grade art class a couple times this week to take pictures of them painting "Classy Cows." Plastic cows theyre painting to sell at an auction theyre going to have. Each one represents a certain organization or good cause as well as a certain artist's painting style. I also made a video to go along with the Ad Astra and it can be seen at http://www.hutchnews.com/Videoexclusives/cowpaintingstory

Also went to a track meet yesterday. It was extremely windy. So windy that they had to delay many of the sprint races because the finishline camera couldnt read what was moving right in front of it. Also the hurdles were getting blown over. I shot hammer-throwing, long-jumping, and lots of track events. It took about all day. I wasn't too worried about getting tons of good shots because I knew the KU game was going to take the whole first couple pages of the sports section.
I had to stay a little late because of the KU game, but not too late. They won. UNC lost. Haha. Now Kansas is in the championship with Memphis. I wish I could be sent to San Antonio to shoot a game like that.
Also, I'm still losing weight. I ate a whole bunch last week and got up to the 280 somethings but now I'm back down to 275.

TB

st.patsday

Okay, i haven't posted a blog on here in awhile... like a month... I went home and had my gall bladder removed and that went okay and then when I came back to Kansas I broughtmy computer to work so I could work on video stuff there, so I never really thought to upload things to the Daily Tom. Other than that, i've been playing lots of Oblivion on the PS3 and now I'm into online Hold Em Poker. REALLY into it. I think I was on it for like 12 hours straight yesterday. www.WORLDPOKERTOUR.com Also, www.PokerStars.com - I finished 4th in two different tournaments last night on WPT at the same time, out of 80 some and 140 some players each, so I'm getting better I think. If you win enough tournaments on WPT.com, you get yourself a $10,000 seat at the World Series of Poker. won't ever happen for me I'm sure, but there's lots of cash prizes and things.
I went to Topeka, KS for four days last week and shot the KSHSAA state basketball tournaments at the Kansas Expocentre. Lots of free food good pep bands. Also the sportswriter Patrick and I went to a casino north of Topeka called Harrah's Prairie Band Casino. He gave me $20 to play with and it was fun. Now I'm going to have to go "to the boat" with Amber's grandma Bonnie when I'm in Illinois sometime.

Oh yeah and I got engaged while I was in Illinois for surgery. I proposed to Amber whlie she was working on Saturday afternoon at the Great American Bagel. Lots of her family showed up for it and she didn't suspect a thing and it was perfect. And she said yes. So now I'm more in debt than I was before.
Speaking of debt, credit card bills are getting to be a bitch and I put my video camera AND my computer up for sale on Sportsshooter.com today. Yes, both my video camera and my computer. For a total of $4350. I really have to get out of debt. I'll probably replace my computer with a $1000 laptop or something. Maybe a Dell.

Also for sale is my Italjet Dragster 50cc Scooter and my 1993 Honda Civic! No wonder I'm in so much debt, eh??

Today's St. Patrick's day. I wish I was in Illinois so I could to visit Jared and Blake and drink so much beer we die.

-TB