[image via amivectio.com]
I woke up early this morning to a mandatory evacuation of the county i am staying in here in TX, Jefferson County.  Hurricane Ike is on his way.  Now, intuition would tell you that a mandatory evacutation is just that, mandatory.  Apparently, not so.  After hearing about the evacuation, I went into work, a fairly large construction site, where the construction crews were hard at work securing the site for hurricane conditions.  Many of the folks on site i talked to were planning to evacuate north toward Dallas, or east toward Louisiana, or even west into Houston (where the storm is expected to hit directly), but a lot of the guys i talked to from the area are planning to ‘hunker down’ as they call it and brave the storm.  As it turns out, I am hunkering down as well (at least until I hear further word from my boss).  Needless to say, I have been glued to all the weather websites, my favorite of which is weatherunderground.com.  Just in the past hour Ike has been forecast to downgrade to a Cat 2 when it hits the coast.  Here are some images:

The above image shows potential maximum storm surges.  For reference, Jefferson County is right there on the TX/LA boarder in the orange 24′ potential storm surge area.  the weather channel is telling me to expect a 10-20′ surge.  i have been told that the sea walls in this area hold until the surge surpasses 14′.  So yeah, I am starting to get nervous.

The red areas, which will see the highest surge, happen to be right in the Baytown area, where Exxon-Mobile has their largest oil refinery which, if you look it up on google maps, is the size of a small city.

Meanwhile, in happier news, i was shocked this evening to open an email from the ninjas over at amivectio (friends of the revolution) and find my face front & center (ok, bottom left) in the message.  amivectio is the blog-child of Hector Estrada, founder & creative mind behind Triko, a dope street-wear collection for ‘progressive and eclectic individuals’ that embraces environmentally friendly practices [we are big fans & have covered Triko here … I still have my fingers crossed for some ladies threads].

Several months ago Triko sent out a quick survey to their mailing list that I responded to, and this is the result:

Name: Jessie P.

What do you currently do for a living?
chemical engineer & part time ninja (green.myninjaplease.com)

Where are you originally from?
new england & tucson AZ, i can never decide which

How would you describe your style?
comfortable but with flavor

What inspires you in your daily pursuit of Life?
good people working for good things. bad people making us work a little harder

How do you feel about the environment?
it teaches us, we waste it away. in the end, it will have the upper hand

Do you prefer shopping online or in person?
in person. i have to be able to feel the textiles & see the colors. besides, fit is always tricky

Do you believe in extraterrestrials?
i believe it is ignorant to think we are the only beings in this massive universe

What books are you currently reading?
GRUB: ideas for an urban organic kitchen, by Anna Lappé & Bryant Terry; Oil!, by Upton Sinclair

What’s your favorite sound of nature?
a horse neighing in recognition

What does success mean to you?
making steps toward something you believe in

Many thanks to amivectio for calling me a friend of the revolution!

A few words on amivectio from the source:

Our new blog: friends.amivectio.com is clean and simple.  We’ll be covering progressive people and lifestyles with features on art, world affairs, music, friends, events, our daily grind, and of course fashion, style, and design.  If you submitted an “Art of Life” entry, these will now be feature at friends.amivectio.com, under the “friends of the revolution” category.  Please stop by our community blog and leave us a comment.  Enjoy!

In summation:
.:: for peace –> stop war

.:: for safety –> track Ike & get the hell out of dodge

.:: for fly earf-friendly street-wear –> check Triko, amivectio & become a friend of the revolution