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| The Voodoo Blog; A short summary of my life. | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Oct 3 2009, 07:55 AM (282 Views) | |
| Alkaline Voodoo | Oct 3 2009, 07:55 AM Post #1 |
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Level 2
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This is a long post so just bare with me. It may be interesting to some but if you don't want to read it then that's cool. On October 2nd, I turned 23. I feel old lol but good. I never thought I'd live this long. It's weird to look back on my past and see what I was and compare it to what I've become. I was looking at some old pictures that my mom and dad has taken over the years and I just couldn't help but shed a tear because I saw a picture when I was about 3 or 4 and I had my mouth wide open because I was laughing and my dad smiling at me because I was his pride and joy. That picture hit home for me the most. I don't have kids but I know that's going to be the proudest moment of my life, when I have a kid. I grew up not having much money. From the time I was born until I was about 7 we had a convinence store and it was going good but that's when the Wal-Marts started coming into town and we went bankrupt. From then on we lost everything. The car, our money, then our house. My dad was a tugboat captain since the age of 19 (he's 51 now). We moved to a small town where I grew up through my teen years. I've been to 2 8th grade proms and 1 senior prom. When I got out of high school I started to work at a state park in Louisiana. I worked there for about 5 months then quit. After that I worked at a historic site. I quit high school and got my GED and moved out the house at 17. I lived with 6 people in a 2 bedroom house. Party every night lol. I took on drifting in that city and didn't look back. When I hit 18 I went and bought my first pack of cigs on my own and sat down with a beer on the front porch and listened to one of my friends play the acoustic guitar. I was huge into music back then. I love just an acoustic song with some singing. Not all songs have to have singing to make a good song. One night I had a few friends over and I had just broke up with my girlfriend that I had loved very much at the time and I was choking down beer after beer and chain smoking then out of no where while I was watching that same friend play the acoustic, he looked at me with no expression on his face and just quit playing what he was playing and everyone got quiet. He started playing this song, that I'll never forget, and I immediately started crying. That was something that I needed to hear. I put my own words into his song and I could not believe the power that music had. What freaked me out the most is that all it took was just a split second to look at me and he knew what I was feeling and he started playing something. I can't thank that man enough for what he has done for me in the past. The people I used to live with in that house has grown so close together that I can't picture myself living without them. I moved out of there when I just turned 19 and started working at a store called Krogers. Kind of like Wal-Mart but the people actually wait hand and foot for you. About a month after I turned 19, when I was on break at work, I called my dad and asked him something I never though I'd ask him because of the danger. I asked if I can go work with him on the Mississippi River being his deckhand. I had a job 2 days later. My mom's heart was broken because she knew the dangers of working out there but I went anyway. I carried my love for drifting with me and bought a 1990 Mazda RX7 GTU for $3000. The girl that I bought it from didn't know that there was only 100 made in the world lol so I snatched it up as soon as I could. That was my second car that I had in the driveway that was sponsored by Sport Compact Pro. Whenever I started working, I never felt pain like I did when I was a deckhand. I worked 2 and a half years on the river. One night I was working with my dad and we were supposed to go into the locks to bring some barges in the intercoastal canal and come out with a couple of barges. It had just finished raining and there was no non-skid on the bullworks. The bullworks is what we call it but it's basically the railing for the bottom deck. Well, while we were putting the barges together, I had to bring someone some chain links and a shackle so we can make it work for us like we wanted it to. Well I slipped on the bullworks and fell in the water. The second that I did, I used my radio and said "Man over board, I'm in the water!" If it wasn't for that then I would be dead. Little did I know that the 100 ton boat was coming straight for me. All captains are trained to back away from whatever they are near when they hear that (in the river anyway) because they don't want to smash them or whatever. Well my dad was in the boat coming straight for me and I got smash between a 100 ton boat and a 1400 ton loaded barge. The last thing I saw before this all happened, I was looking up to see the boat but I looked towards the wheelhouse and there was my dad looking down with the engines in reverse still coming towards me with nothing he could do. I got smashed then I was pulled up right after that happened. I was out for the count and I don't remember anything after that. Next thing I knew my pants and shirt were cut open and someone was doing CPR on me. They were checking for any broken bones and making sure that I was ok. I managed to fall in the river again in the afternoon this time but on a different boat. I wasn't watching was I was doing and I stepped too wide and fell in. Luckily I wasn't worn out like I was the first time because I swam against the current and made it to the side of the barge where 2 people pulled me up. I walked around stunned but ok. After all that I quit a few months after that. I met my girlfriend that I'm with now for 3 years while I was working on the river. I never met anyone like her. She changed my life and turned it completely around. I realize how precious life is now because of her. Before, I was just a party animal and always street racing in the city. I managed to be on a dvd and went places because of it but I knew if I kept on with that life style, that would be another way for me to die. All together I've gotten into 4 wrecks (don't know how I managed to not even as much as break a bone) and fell in the river twice and lived. The odds are (according to a major company I was working for) that 1 out of 9 people make it out alive when they fall in. I beat those odds. All these things just popped in my mind when I was looking at those photos of my past. If I was dead then people would be looking at what I was and wondered what I would have grown up to be. I know when I was around 14 or 15, I always thought what my life would be like once I hit 18. Then when I hit 18 I wondered what I was going to be like when I'm 21. Well I'm now 23 and my past has a lot of color to it and I want to continue to grow. It just freaks me out that I almost know what it's like to have a kid just by looking at those pictures. Just wondering what my life is going to be when I'm 30 is scary because I never thought that I would go through all of this before I hit 25. So many things are unpredictable in this world. The people you meet, the things you do, and the things you take for granted. I wish I was happy like I was when I was younger but I'm just starting my second quarter of my life and I can't wait to see what happens. -Voodoo |
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| beer is gud | Oct 3 2009, 10:13 AM Post #2 |
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Moderator
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Heart warming story mate I predict that when your 30, you'll be coming home to your wife, loading up the 360 and hopefully giving your kid a game on it. Never stop gaming!
Edited by beer is gud, Oct 16 2009, 09:54 PM.
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| Alkaline Voodoo | Oct 3 2009, 12:00 PM Post #3 |
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Did you actually read all of it? lol I wouldn't expect many to do that. Ah, well. I kind of want my own section for blogs OR a section for people to blog? Hmmm. It's a thought. -Voodoo |
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| RenArto | Oct 5 2009, 05:07 PM Post #4 |
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That was a really interesting read. So if the odds of one guy falling into a river and surviving is one to nine, then the chances of a guy surviving it four times is like nine to the power of four? If it is thats pretty incredible your alive. |
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| beer is gud | Oct 16 2009, 09:56 PM Post #5 |
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Yep I read it all. Kind of scary to think that if I dunno, say you had fallen in 5 feet behind or something, you might not be here now. Most people never really realize how lucky they are, but you have to lol, the amount of danger you have been in but have pulled through, its amazing! |
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| Mr Mcsqueezy | Oct 17 2009, 09:42 PM Post #6 |
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Minister
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We need a blog section on this forum. ![]() That was a great story there, you truly are the definition of luck and/or fate there my friend. That's quite a life you've had so far. Tell your kids (when/if) you have them. ![]() And I agree about the music, it's amazing what the power of a guitar can do to your emotions, whether your in times of trouble or sadness, or just plain happy.
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| Alkaline Voodoo | Oct 18 2009, 04:50 AM Post #7 |
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I don't know if this ever happened to ya'll but to me, when I turned 23, it just sort of hit me like a truck when I turned a year older about how life really is and how lucky you are to be alive in some parts. I have more to tell but that was just something that I had to tell someone because I had to see if anyone could relate to it. I'm not old but I'm getting there every day and I'm just now realizing how important it is to know what you have and cherish it. The story about me and my accidents were a pivotal moment in my life. I became a man within those few years. I never knew hard work and love until then. Thanks for the kind replies everyone. It makes me feel better than there are nice people still out there. I surely couldn't have vented like this on xbox.com lol. I want to hear stories like mine from everyone also. I'm just fascinated by things that happen and try to learn from it. I'm one of those people that just sit outsite with a ciggarette and try to watch the wind and figure out what life really is and what it will bring me in the future. -Voodoo |
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I predict that when your 30, you'll be coming home to your wife, loading up the 360 and hopefully giving your kid a game on it. Never stop gaming!




2:09 PM Jul 11