Tampa to Clearwater, FL
Monday March 24, 2008
5:06am I woke up around four thirty at the skatepark. I'm going to walk to the MTC and use the bathroom and see when the first bus to Clearwater leaves.
5:36am I walked over to the transit center and right when I came out of the bathroom the bus to Clearwater was out there. I'm on it right now. Skipping town.
6:00am I am in Clearwater already.
6:04am I got dropped off in front of Best Buy. The highway here is 19. I asked these Mexicans at the bus stop which way el centro was and they told me this way.
I am on Drew Street.
Whoa, I just walked under the highway and what do I see? St. Petersburg College! SPC. I'm going to look for the library. It's still a little early though.
6:15am The library opens at seven thirty. I'm not even sure if they'll let me type here. I'm going to keep walking Drew Street towards downtown.
6:27am I walked down Drew Street a little and the public library is here too!
6:29am The public library opens at nine, that sucks. I'll just walk to a gas station and hang out there until seven thirty and then I'll go see if I can type at the college.
6:37am I walked up Drew a little and I just got to a HESS gas station on Belcher.
6:55am I walked to the gas station and smoked a cigarette and I'm going to walk back to the college. I'll wait over there.
I took off my hoodie and put my thermal on underneath, so my shirt is exposed.
7:10am I made my way back to the Micheal M. Bennett library building.
7:26am I had a good presentation with this black dude in front of the library here. I cut to the important part because the library is opening pretty soon. This other girl told me that you didn't have to be a student. You only had to sign in. That's awesome. I'm going to get some typing done.
8:55am First break.
10:02am Hell yeah, I'm having a badass time. I've got me another workstation! I'm going to do my typing and get caught up. They have Microsoft Publisher that lets me log onto my website. I can update my website here. Hell yeah.
1:59pm I came out of the library. I'm done typing for today. I spent a longass time. I'm already on the thirteenth or fourteenth of March. Ten days ago. But, I thought I'd be able to add my pictures and update my website here. But, for some reason my website isn't working anymore. It says restricted, and I could've sworn it worked when I first got to the library. See, when I first got here I was able to sign onto IRC to check to see if I could spam. I was able to go into #wareznorth on Undernet and did my ad. I got kicked and evnetually G-lined. So fuck, I should never have done that. Dot5Hosting had already sent me a couple warnings for spamming. I don't know. I'm not going to stay here and type up my stuff if my website won't work here. It sucks. Anyway, I came outside and the wind-chill is real strong. I layered up. I've got a little tiny bit of food left. I don't know what to do. I'm kind of getting depressed. I need to get moving.
Love, help me out. I need to smoke some weed to get happy again.
2:21pm I'm walking up Drew Street again. I walked by the public library to check if my website worked and it doesn't work there either! It says restricted also! What the fuck?! Hopefully my website didn't get shut down.
2:24pm I talked to this other dude at the library and he told me there was a beach in town. Three miles this way.
2:46pm I walked Drew Street to Saturn. I'm going to wait for the bus and see if I can get a courtesy ride.
3:16pm I got tired of waiting for the bus so I started walking. All of a sudden this guy and his son pull up to me and ask me where I'm going. I told them I was on my way to save the world. That I was just walking around and to check out my website, that I was a journalist. I asked him if he was going that way. He was taking his son to a job interview. This dude warned me about the Scientologists downtown over by the beach. He told me to watch out for the Scientologists, that they would get me.
3:27pm I was walking up Drew Street a little bit past the bus stop I stopped at. I was going to ask for a courtesy ride. Mark and Sean are being nice enough to give me a ride a little bit West. I appreciate it, guys. Everybody gets credit. Thanks a lot.
3:36pm That dad and son gave me a ride like less than a mile. They were all brainwashed. They gave me a ride to Missouri Street, not that far. I tried to tell them my story. I got to the part where I ask them if they would work for free and the son said hell no, that you need money. Millions of brainwashed must open their eyes.
I'm walking and I see a sign pointing to Downtown Clearwater.
3:59pm Passing Myrtle Street.
4:11pm I walked down to the water. I'm going to walk over this big long bridge. I don't know where it goes, but fuck Clearwater so far. It's an ignorant ass town.
4:25pm Coming up on the bridge.
4:35pm Walked over the bridge.
4:52pm I got to the beach and I ate a fruit pie I had. I'm going to go on this pier here. Pier 60.
Guy in sand
Screw that, it's fifty cents to go to the end of the pier. Everybody is staring at me.
5:10pm The wind-chill is strong as hell.
Surf
5:30pm I was standing there on the sidewalk smoking a cigarette and scanning people for listeners. I saw this cool-looking dude with tattoos on his arms and he agreed to listen to my story. I told him the important part. He let me take his picture, Zack. In the end he told me good luck.
I forgot to bum a cigarette off of him so I yelled Zack! He gave me three!
5:59pm I walked to the Hess Gas Station. These two pretty girls walked outside and I am telling them my story. What were your names? Denise and Christine. Denise offered me a bite of her Subway sandwich and a piece of cookie. I appreciate it. Everybody gets credit, thanks.
6:08pm I came up to the Hess on Mandalay and those two girls, this gay couple. In the end they had to go but Denise volunteered me five bucks! Christine had just talked some guy at the gas station into getting them a motel room.
Me and Denise
7:10pm I got on the #80 bus. Thanks for the busfare, Denise.
I'm back downtown at the transit center. I saw a sign pointing to the main library. I'm going to check my website. I'm paranoid. I hope it's not shut down.
Ack, it didn't work here either. My site got shut down for spamming.
7:49pm It's a sad day. My website got shut down. My bread and butter, my livelihood.
8:02pm I just left the library. Dog-damnit, I'm so sad. I'm almost crying. My website is down. How am I supposed to work my magic without my website? I'm so stupid. I did one advertisement on IRC this morning and they shut me down. I was able to check my history on my VDeck control panel. Dude, they had just sent me one email about spamming telling me to be sure to remove a certain email from my list. I don't spam my stuff via email, so I totally disregarded it. God-damn. I totally don't know what I'm going to do now. I mean, I could get a new webhost, but that would cost money and I'm on the road and I don't have a phone. I'm considering going back to Panama City and see if I can stay at Kim's and use her phone and stuff. I am even thinking about going back to San Antonio. I'm really flipping out here. I wrote Dot5 a message at the library:
Subject:
My site is down because I spam for peace. :[
Body:
Hello Dot5,
I am traveling and now on my legendary East Coast trip. I don't know if you are familiar with my site(havethisbook.com). It's totally non-profit. I ask for money NOWHERE on my site.
It took me awhile to finally read all the tickets I have in my history. I assumed you guys saw it as harmless as I intended it and that's why you never shut me down.
Well, today at St. Petersburg University in Clearwater, FL I "spammed" again. One ad: "World Peace Through Marijuana www.havethisbook.com very interesting FREE non-fiction, enjoy, non-profit" and before I know it my site is offline.
Since when does it hurt to ask? It said "no permission." I quickly went to the public library and got the same message.
I am totally flipping out here. My website is my livelihood. The only email I have gotten from Dot5 was one telling me to take a certain name off of my "mailing list." I don't send emails advertising my site, so I disregarded it.
Please, please, please put my site back up. It's paid until August 08. Was that the straw that broke the camel's back? Is it too late?
All these people I am sharing my story with in person have no way of seeing the work I have done. Please tell me how to fix this problem. I am really desperate here.
What will happen with my domain name? I will try to call as soon as possible, but I don't have a phone. I won't ever set food on IRC ever again. Lesson learned. My site is in the best-interest of everyone. Please help me.
- Victor Antonio
Please contact me at iamsanantonio@yahoo.com.
8:49pm I walked Drew Road all the way back to Saturn, where I got that ride earlier. Jupiter Street. Man, I just realized that they're number is toll free and I can call them from any payphone. I'm going to go to a gas station and call.
9:13pm I am here at the 7-11 on hold for technical support. I've been on hold for so long already.
Ticket number 4819461. Okay and if it's not on what do I do? Call back and be on hold for another hour?
10:38pm After so long tech support answered and wrote me out a ticket and told me they would get my issue resolved in four to six hours. So I have a little hope. I'm going to go to the taqueria across the street and see if I can score me some food. Actually, I have a little food left in my bag. I'll hit them up in the morning when I come to call Dot5 again.
When I was at the college earlier I noticed that across the street there was a patch of woods. This whole time I've been thinking I'm going to stay on hold until they answer, even if it's until one in the morning and then hopefully go crash in those woods. I'm all stressed out about this. Let's see what happens. I'm going to hit up the taquerias in the morning because I still have a snack to eat before I go to bed.
Please Love, let them put my website back up. Please, please, please. I promise I won't ever step foot on IRC ever again.
10:56pm Damnit, I left my water bottle on top of the payphone at the 7-11. I have to go back and get it now. I already walked like more than half a mile.
11:11pm I went back and retrieved my bottle. It was right on the payphone where I left it. They didn't have any water on their fountain at the 7-11. I'll stop at every single store on the way back to my campspot.
11:20pm I stopped in at Hungry Howie's Pizza and Subs and the guy inside was nice enough to refill my water for me. I had walked by them before I noticed my water bottle was missing and hit them up for mistakes. They told me no, that it's been dead. I'm going to walk to that patch of woods now. Ahh, it's so far away.
12:00am I've made my camp already. The woods were a bit misconceiving because there's a creek that runs through it. I was able to climb down and hop the creek. There was a couple cement blocks I could step on. I climbed up the roots on the other side and made my camp in a little concealed area. It really was too perfect, considering the bad night I just had. I hope nobody wakes me up.
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