tdaxp

"Houston Rain," my friend Rob said, "is like any other kind of rain, but worse. It is worse than South Dakota rain. It is so thick that you can't so the front of your own car. It will be like a wall, which is just there, in the distance. Then you drive closer and closer to it. Then you are in the rain, and you're blind. I hate driving in Houston Rain." Obviously Rob's thoughts were absurd, I thought, as the morning in Nacogdoches was warm and sunny.



Until we came closer to Houston

I am currently in Texas visiting my close friend Rob (he of Trumpy Productions). Rob left our common home of South Dakota to move to Nacogdoches some time ago to prepare for a career in film. Now a graduate assistant at Stephen F. Austin State University, Rob has made everyone proud with his original, technically demanding, and often hilarious work.

In the middle of the University is a giant statue of Stephen Austin, the "Father of Texas" and the Republic's first Secretary of State.



Interestingly, two nearby plaques appear to have been written by a tumultuous committee. Both are polite towards Secretary Austin, though the first refers to him as the one person whose vision and leadership led to [the Republic's] creation and the other uses a somewhat more Leftist formulation



But whatever one thinks of the past, the present of the campus is beautiful. Read more, and see for yourself!

Leaving Nac, East Texas today. No posts until tomorrow evening at the earliest.

Thought: Texas considers itself a country. How does this affect immigrants? Is Texas's assertiveness contributing to its relative ease in assimilating immigrants, especially when compared against California?

Mindi and Damion, you are good friends. Rob, I love you as a brother.

Texas Trip Update:

In Texas, the state flag shares pride of place with the American flag. It's shocking. And Texan heroes are venerated like the South remembers Confederates or anyone else remembers Americans.