As you may have noticed, I’ve backed-off on the “Question Of The Day” recently. Many of you have questioned as to why. The reasoning behind it all was to give us all a little break as most of us traveled, enjoyed summer, yadda yadda yadda. Another being the “burn out” factor. It’s easy to get sick of something day-in and day-out.

So, now that everyone’s about to get settled-in for the Fall, the QOTD will return one week from Monday. If you have a question you think is worthy of asking, send me an email and I might use it… if you’re cool… or pretty… or if you could beat me up for not using your question.

So get your brains ready and your fingers stretched.

Like many of you, for me Saturday can’t get here fast enough. I’ll be spending my first full day in Seattle camped-out in front of the television.

To get us all fired-up for the 2006 College Football Season, I think we need to take a look back at the 2005 Season, courtesy of ABC.

So… my car overheated due to some “bad gasoline” which in turn caused some minor problems which are changing my travel plans majorly.

I’m still in Sheridan, Wyoming [Population 15,804] which is the self-proclaimed “#1 Western Town In America.” Long story short, I’ve snagged a motel room for another night and I’m hoping (fingers crossed) to get out of here sometime tomorrow afternoon.

This means no Yellowstone. Which, actually, is ok with me. I was looking forward to it but really wasn’t going to have enough time to do all that one needs to do when visiting the National Park.

Today my car literally broke down at door of a Pontiac dealership. However, there’s much to be grateful for…

Sometimes you just gotta make due with what life throws at you. I’m good for now. Just hoping to get the car fixed before Friday (PLEASE Jesus!).

Out.

Sorry for the lack of photo/blogging updates over the past 48 hours.

Cell service in South Dakota and Wyoming sucks.

However I’ve found a Motel 6 (that’s new and quite nice, actually) in Sheridan, Wyoming, which is about 25 miles south of the Montana border. I just finished watching an amazing match between Agassi and Blake. Holy cow. Agassi ain’t gonna retire anytime soon.

Oh, I also watched the sun set over the Rocky Mountains from my hotel. Ouch.

The story of the day is the ‘85′ gas I purchased last night. “85 gas?” you must be wondering to yourself. Exactly. Most gas stations have 87, 89, and 91 gas available for purchase. As I strolled into central South Dakota Sunday night I pulled-up to the gas station where they had 85, 88, and 91 gas. I figured that the 2% difference in 87 and 85 wouldn’t hurt my car at all.

Wrong.

As Monday came to an end I noticed that my car wasn’t really having a good time starting. I didn’t think too much of it seeing as I had a full inspection of my vehicle just before I left. As I pulled into the town of Moorcroft, Wyoming [Population: 807] last night I figured I’d better top-off my tank so that I could leave first thing in the morning to head to Devil’s Tower. So, I snagged some 85 gas.

Tuesday morning I tossed my bags into the car and started the car… which began to hop as I pulled out of the parking lot.

Looong story short, the gas is awful and not even people in South Dakota/Wyoming purchase this crap. So, to keep my car from overheating I’m having to “burn it off”, meaning that I have to sit in my car for 10 minutes at a time burining off the gas in my tank to take away to 85 gas.

The irony of this situation is that one year ago today I could find no gas for miles, and today I have too much.

What a difference a year makes. I’ll have some pics up later.

…that myself and other employees at Mississippi College recieved an email stating that “the hurricane” had picked-up steam and was now thought to be a bigger threat to the state of Mississippi than we once thought. The school was going to end the work day early just to be sure.

Three hours later our power went out. It wouldn’t return for 5 days. I spent the days after Katrina huddled in my office at MC helping displaced students find a college home (I’m so sweet. Such a catch.).

Gas was gold.
Generators were life savers.
Hot water for a shower was fantasy.

Roomie Michael Schut and I stashed 20 gallons of gas in the outside shed. We went and checked every couple of hours to make sure it hadn’t been stolen by a greedy nieghbor. We found a way to make our own power by rigging cords to our car batteries… but we could only run two things at one time, picking between the fan, the TV, and our laptops… for movies… there was no Internet… believe me, we tried.

It wasn’t until January of this year that my cousin Karen and I were finally able to make a trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to see the destruction first hand. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: that was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made to get out of bed that day and head to the coast.

The pictures are here.

Mississippi has rebuilt in part… and will continue to do so for years to come.

While I was 2 1/2 hours from the Mississippi Coast, I still have my own story. We all do. We all remember those moments where we said, “I’ll never take gas for granted again!” or “I’ll never take groceries for granted again!”

But we all have. That’s just human nature.

I have yet to purchase the gun that I swore Katrina would lead me to, but I’ve still got my “muscles” to keep me protected from people who want my gas.

Back away from my gas, sucka.

Praying that I don’t have a work-a-holic boss is imperative at the moment after glancing at the concert calendar around the Puget Sound over the next month. Late nights equal missed opportunities… however in all of my interviews I’ve asked for a work-a-holic position… so, I only have my self to blame.

I definitely won’t make all of the following concerts (due to both a lack of interest and the cost factor) however this is a bad set of options

*Denotes tickets already purchased… so I’m gonne be a little ticked if I have to work late.
~Denotes free concerts… so I’ll still be ticked if I have to work late.

Kanye West*
Snow Patrol*
Carrie Underwood
Keane*
The Beach Boys~
Montgomery Gentry
MercyMe~
Train
The Killers*
Switchfoot~
Third Day~
David Crowder~
Anna Nalick~
Teddy Geiger~
Hilary Duff
Ben Kweller
Devo

A lot of Christian bands, eh? And ya’ll thought I was gonna lose my religion.

Their emphasis is on New York. If you’ve never been, the Fall is a spectacular time to visit.

Improv Everywhere pulls a funny stunt in New York City.

Oops. In the rush to get my computer to the shop the other day, I created theBigmove map without marking Arkansas.

This is not the first time somebody forgot about Arkansas.
It won’t be the last.

I’ve been all over during the last few weeks - hugging your necks and kissing your babies - and there have been a lot of questions asked.

Since they’ve almost all been the same ones, I thought I’d post the most frequent ones below.

So, here you go.

Question: Now that you’re moving, are you still gonna do the blog?

Answer: Are you kidding me? I’m starting a new life in the furthest, most beautiful, most polar opposite of Jasper in America. I have no plans of ditching this blog anytime soon.

Question: What have you done for money over the last 10 months?

Answer: There literaly hasn’t been one day (even Saturday & Sunday) since 1999 where I haven’t made money. I’m not even close to being rich… but I’ve always got a steady cash flow.

Plan ahead, suckas.

Q: Why did you leave your job at MC in the first place?

Answer: I had other job offers, and it was time to move on.

Q: What happened to the “other job?”

Answer: I was in the midst of changing jobs when Hurricane Katrina hit. When Katrina came through it took away a lot of things… including the position(s) I was supposed to roll into. So, I was left jobless.

Q: Why didn’t you just get another job in Mississippi?

Answer: While that’s what I would have loved to do… I just didn’t feel like it was what I needed to do. I love the Hospitality State more than you’ll ever know. However, life is about making decisions that are correct, not comfortable.

I love Mississippi. I miss Mississippi.

Question: But you left Mississippi 10 months ago. Why did you wait so long to move on to something else, you lazy bum?

Answer: I was offered an interview for a PR firm in Birmingham while changing planes in Chicago on the way back from Europe. The offer for an interview was pretty much an on-the-spot offer to take the job. As much as I love the ‘Ham, now just isn’t the right time to move there.

I was asked to move to Boston 3 months ago but didn’t feel right about it even though it still is one of my favorite parts of the country.

I was asked to come to Seattle 3 months ago, but I would have had to fly back 4 times before September for weddings and meetings. Say… $5000 a flight… $50 each time for airport parking… taking off at least 5 vacation days within my first 3 months of work. So… yeah… not the smartest move to make at the moment.

Q: Do you get mad when we make fun of the fact that you’ve been living at home for the past 10 months?

Answer: No. Because I know that 99.999% of you mean it lovingly. Almost all of you have expressed interest in coming out ot Seattle over the next year and I know you’re excited for my big, risky move.

Question: What about the 0.001% of those who aren’t joking?

Answer: I peed in your cereal.

Question: If you had the last 10 months to do over again, would you do it the same way?

Answer: Yes, and no.

Yes in the sense that I’ve been able to do a lot of things I’ve been wanting to do for years. I’ve also had quality time with the parents, and quality tiem with friends in the Birmingham area.

No in the sense that I wish I would have relaxed a bit more. I’ve literally spent day and night reading, writing and researching for business ventures… that’s just me, always thinking about tomorrow, rarely stopping to enjoy today.

Hindsight is always 20/20, and you can never anticipate a hurricane taking away your next job.

However, if things hadn’t gone wrong I would have never been able to go to Europe, or spend time with my parents, or have time to really reevaluate what direction I wanted my life to take.

Being 25-years-old, single, having another source of income, and being willing to subject yourself to lesser than normal conditions are neccesities to even think about pulling the stunt I have pulled over the last 10 months.

But I could do it… because I started working myself into this position years ago.

Setting-up Juicee News while people questioned sitting at a computer for 6 hours a day. Juicee News (along with other minor endavours) has been paying my bills, as well as my trip to Europe, for the past 10 months.

So… do I regret it? No. Because I planned ahead. I planned for the unexpected. I was flexible. And I never freaked out about “what will people think?”

I’m ready to move onto a new job — that’s for sure. Those of you who know me well know that I love business. Love it. We’ve got some things on the docket that we’ll beannouncing soon. Also, when I move and get everything set into place, I’ll be working on a couple of smaller projects that have a small chance of making it. It’ll be fun, whether or not big things happen from these small items.

Through it all you must remember and repeat two very simple but very important words: delayed gratification

You keep repeating that… everything else takes care of itself.

Let’s go to Seattle.

I have to be honest… it doesn’t feel at all like I am moving. I’m so used to heading to Mississippi for the weekend that I kinda feel like I’m headed out for a quick trip.

But with this blog post I bid you adieu. Thanks for your “good luck” and “don’t crash on the way up there” tidbits of encouragement you given me over the last couple of weeks.

My sincerest apologies to those of you who I did not contact personally to tell you I was moving. My failure to do so was a cross between a forewarning of a speedy departure, a lack of time, and the thought that if the conversation got to cheesy… you just might make me cry. Seriously.

However, I know you love me and I know you’ll be visiting soon… ’cause you said you will and friends don’t lie.

Are you a liar? hope not… poo face.

Alright… I’m out. Destination St. Louis for night #1.

Keep your eye at the top of the page for cellphone picture as they happen. Call me along the way, I’ve got plenty of time to talk.

Birmingham is mad! But not as mad as Jackson. However, the home of the Magic Kingdom is more ticked than anybody else.

The Southern/Southwestern cities are in bold.

1. Orlando, FL
2. St. Petersburg, FL
3. Detroit, MI
4. Baltimore, MD
5. Nashville, TN
8. Memphis, TN
11. Chicago, IL
13. Jackson, MS
16. Dallas, TX
17. Houston, TX
21. Birmingham, AL
23. Durham , NC
24. Altanta, GA
25. Washington, DC
28. Baton Rouge, LA
36. Los Angeles, CA
39. Boston, MA
43. Seattle, WA
46. Montgomery, AL
47. Raleigh, NC

The airing of the first episode of MTV’s Two-A-Days did nothing but turn me into Uncle Rico for a half hour last night. If you don’t know, Two-A-Days follows Hoover High School fo Hoover, Alabama (the #1 team in the nation) through their 2005 Season. SPOILER: They win the state title.

[By-the-way, in high school we played Hoover twice. We beat Hoover twice. Landon looks in the mirror and smiles.]

It sounds cliché and a little cheesy to talk about, but football really is life in Alabama. Walker High School in Jasper, Alabama is (or was for many years) not much different than Hoover is today.

If you hang around any member of our graduating class, you’ve heard the story of our senior year. Being ranked #1 in 5A, then losing in the playoffs in overtime to a fluke Cinderella team on a crummy call because of a crummy kicker. If we’d won the game we would have most-likely won the state championship that year

But that’s life.

I’m not gonna lie… I miss it. I don’t think about it all the time… but when I do think about it I get a knot in my stomach the size of a football.

I miss it all…

The smell of the dried grass on a hot Fall afternoon.
The roar of the crowd as we entered the gym for pep rallies.
The sound of the band before we exited the locker room.
The silence on the bus when en route to an away game.
The glare of the lights… the pop of the helmets… the excitement when any part of your body was pictured in the Saturday morning newspaper.

I even miss the smell of dirty shoulder pads, pants, and jerseys after a week of nasty, sweaty practice.

However, there comes a time in every young Alabama mans life where he has to realize that it’s over. I realized it was over the instant our last game was played… but that doesn’t mean I don’t like to reminisce every now and again.

Others aren’t quite that lucky. I’ve spent the last few months bumping into them around Jasper. They haven’t let go… they can’t let go. Those nights on the football field in front of 7,000 people will be the defining moments in their life… but they seem to be the only ones who remember them. Sad.

But as the cliché yearbook quote states: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

I do miss the glory days of high school football, but I can move on from it… missing it all the way.

Mom sent me this video. Very cool.

As most of you Facebook users know, the website released “Facebook Notes” yesterday.

Possibily the coolest part of this new feature is how your blog posts can automatically appear on your profile. I’m told that this is very similar to MySpace’s blog entries… but I don’t have MySpace (though I’m still thinking about it) so I couldn’t say whether or not this is true.

So if you have a blog, enter your blog info into your profile under the Notes section. If you need any help, send me a message.

I recently remembered how much I like John Mayer. His music got a little old a few years ago due to the fact that pop radio did what pop radio does best: run good songs into the ground to the point that you vaguely remember ever liking the song… much less loving it.

I’ll never forget going to see him for the first time. Many of you were there at Music Fest in Memphis of 2002. It was pouring down rain? Now you remember.

Lawe that was a wet night.

I’ll never forget Chelsea Dossett and her friends putting on their high heels before we left the hotel (ie-Motel 6 in ghetto-ville). Aaron and I tried to warn them… but they were Freshmen and had their outfits picked-out weeks in advance.

By the end of the night Chelsea’s feet were covered in mud, so we found a water hose to clean off before our rendezvous with the others. At which point my recently-dumped-girlfriend stumbled upon the scene of me holding the mud-covered foot of a freshman coed.

Interesting moment in my collegiate experience.

Anyhow, his new album hits stores on September 12. I’m sure it won’t disappoint.

‘Why Georgia Why?’

‘Neon’

So far as contact information is concerned, basically the only thing changing will be my mailing address:

Landon Howell
2009 4th Ave. N.
Seattle, WA 98109

There’s a good chance that I’ll be getting BlackBerry to tote around soon — I pray that this won’t happen — but if it does I’ll simply keep my other phone for my personal use.

Again, the best email to get me at is landon.howell@yahoo.com. I check this once every hour from my Treo.