Been up since 2 a.m., and maybe its the sleep deprivation talking, but after watching Obama's speech from about an hour ago I'm still stoked. That man is an inspiring mofo. And speaking of inspiring, hello Mr. Sandman!
Who won the NFC title last night? Take it from the prophet, Prince Akeem:
I got to watch Eli go into a *very* hostile Tiger Stadium down in Baton Rouge back in '01 and beat those guys 35-24. The win was extra sweet for my friend Robert and I, as we were stuck in "mixed seating", which meant about 90-95% LSU fans, which meant extra harassment from the local drunkies. On the way home, said drunkies got on the horn to the school's radio station, and at least 8-9 out of 10 were calling for the Tigers coaching staff to be fired. Instead, the staff was left intact, and LSU went on to win the rest of its games (including the SEC title over #2 Tennessee and their 1st Sugar Bowl win since 1968), and pretty much the same staff won the national title in 2003. Long story short, don't take key advice from drunk guys. I bring this up because the same brand of guys, on the East Coast (more than a few of them with press credentials) have been giving the same kind of business to my man for the past 4 years now. Which is why this pic is so freakin' sweet, and now one of my favorite shots of all time:
Also, happy MLK day! I can't find a link to the speech, but if you get a chance, check out his A Preacher Leading His Flock. I really think he had his priorities in order.
Headin' back to the coast for the first time since Katrina. Not going to be in my own car, makin' the trip with family. I'll try to get in touch with some of the old Coast peeps if I get a chance to get around some. Ready to see what's happened to the joint. Later!
The Daily Show writers, doing what they do best: exposing high-level b.s. (especially hypocrisy or double standards) through top-notch data mining and bucketloads of snark. Only this time, they're doing it to their boss (no, not Jon).
I should have been updating much more often then I have, and this whole summer's already gone. Well, I'm heading out to Palo Alto tomorrow to see some old family friends, and as usual I only contribute something when I'm procrastinating, this time from packing. There a few things to note (my living set-up, a brief recent relationship, etc.), but my favorite recent event came from a 5K this past Saturday. I hadn't had a reason to wake up before noon since May, and this thing was got cracking at 8 in the AM, but I had to make it. For one, it was being run through some streets that I walk all of the time and I wanted to get a different perspective on my surroundings (as well as enjoy the blocked-off streets). Also it was being run to benefit a guy needing a kidney transplant and, considering my health insurance situation, it's not a bad idea to stockpile good karma. I'd met the guy's sister the previous night at the bar here at the waterpark, and she said not to worry about the start time, that it would be set for around 8:20. She was absolutely right, but like the lazy bastard I am, the snooze button kept getting pressed until 8:13. Here's the basic monologue after that:
"all right, gotta crawl out of this cocoon...mmm, water...where's my checkbook?...aww crap, these don't have by address or name on them....gotta write all that down...all done, now...these sweats don't have pockets? oh well, time to get the shoes...man, where did all these cobwebs come from?...screw it, i'm using the pot scrubber to clean these"
So by the time I get up the hill and sign in, it's 8:40 and some people are already nearing the finish. I signed in, donated the check, signed a waiver, got the number pinned on (#133) and took off. Well, "took off" in a really quick walking sense, because the shoes were already getting to be a problem; I'd had to glue the sole back on in October and it felt like it was coming loose again. Anyways, I ended up being terribly late and not catching up to anybody, being left to engage in quick banter with the non-lazy bastards that I passed on their way to the finish line. The shoes held up enough for jogging, but my lungs were probably in worse shape (note: never stay up drinking until 3 am before these kinds of events if you're over 25).
After managing to matriculate on down the course and finally hit the one mile home stretch, I noticed that I was definitely the last one and the firefighters were impatient to take down the roadblocks. As I hoofed it down the road, I also noticed that the lady handing out water was gone, and a bit further up the ambulance was gone too. My ass was on its own. As the final downhill stretch neared, my feet were dying and it became a question of them vs. pride. I decided to try and leave public embarrassment behind for the rest of that morning and picked it up to a slow jog. The final 60 or so people at the finish saw me nearing and they started to yell encouragement. A couple of them even pulled out the tape and I managed to break through it without getting it tangled around my legs like a bullwhip. I guess the moral is: Don't be a lazy procrastinating s.o.b. or you'll end up looking like an ass and probably damaging your appendages to boot. At least now I finally have another t-shirt to put rival my moth-eaten Sun Herald Brett Farve shirt for loungewear supremacy (it's an intense competition).
Well, it's time to take my own advice and get back to packing way more than I'll need and looking for a last-minute gift that I should have put aside hours ago. Gah.
it's been 10 years since i 1st enrolled at ole miss. don't know bout ya'll, but wow, i feel old. still remember when "carmaggedon" was considered "fresh". excuse me while my head gets placed under an open gas main.
That last guest on the Daily Show was a real toolbag. But if he's right, then I can stop studying for this environmental science test, crack open a beer, and surf for porn. Hmm....who to believe, who to believe...
It's snowing in the marina. A camera, a camera, oh my kingdom for a digital camera!...with 5x optical zoom...and 6.1 megapixels...and lots of memory storage...ah hell, I'll just make a sketch.
The Saints have 1 playoff win under their belt, and they might have lost that one if Az-Hakim didn't fumble the punt. Matter of fact, I'm sure there's no possible way they can win. Philly is due. Garcia is a vet, and will keep the ball away from the Saints offense. This game means way too much to the Saints, and they have too much baggage. They'll press too hard, make too many mistakes, and keep the defense on the field for far too long. They'll be down early, and the fans will be full of dread, dragging down their team in the process, just like all the Red Sox home games before the '04 ALCS. No way they win.
Okay, just finished putting all that negative juju into a voodoo doll and then burned it - that should do the trick. That is the way to do it, right? Right?
Honestly, I'm not very familiar with much of his original stand-up material (other than Live on the Sunset Strip, but I can never forget Brewster's Millions (way underrated) and The Toy, not to mention Eddie Murphy's "Tell Bill I said have a Coke and a smile and shut the fuck up!" impressions of him from Raw. I have heard some of his more pointed and angry material, mostly about racism and social inequality. Listening to him, he's like the anti-Ann Coultier: no pretensions, you know he believes what he says, and feel it has affected him personally throughout his life. Meanwhile, he's still sounds like the funniest guy around. Who else could do that?
Most of all, I appreciate him because he's one of two guys (Robin Williams being the other) that both my dad and I can watch at any time, no matter who or what else is on. Thanks for the memories, Rich.
New Orleans - related. Click on the top "Canal St., New Orleans" on the left hand side, then check out the red box marked "Katrina". Wish I had info like this for the Coast. From talking with one of the guys in the Geology Dept., NOAA is sending them tons of raw satellite data, and they're compiling it into these kinds of maps. For the Miss. Coast, they have a few more photos available along the same areas they covered on Tuesday. Unfortunately, the Ole Miss team probably won't have an extensive map online until next Sunday. Hopefully we can get footage of the cities, but their first priority is to gather erosion and/or active flooding data. But as you can see, Google appears to be doing a great job in coordinating and overlapping these shots, so keep checking with them for updates.
- Intermittently at O.S. Middle School at Hanshaw and Gov't. St. - Soon to be at O.S. High School on Gov't. St.
Drop-off locations for bagged household garbage
- The empty lot at Cleveland Ave. and Porter Ave. - Cherokee Glenn close to the tracks - High school parking lot on Holcomb Blvd. - The parking lot on Washington Ave. across from Mohler's gas station - The BP gas staion at the north end of Betchtel Blvd. and south of Gov't. St. - Magnolia Park Elementary on Gov't. St.
These can be tracked down from Google Maps (which allows satellite views from the bar in the top right-hand corner of the map itself).
Looks like the best I can do right now is stay in Oxford for a few days and gather/redistribute Coast information. Got ahold of a few co-workers down in Biloxi, and they all recommended I keep up the data search. Also talked to Bill again and he broke the good/bad news (neighbors safe and the Shell station made it, but everyone got flooded). Conditions without power sound pretty miserable right now. In lieu of bombing on down, I dropped some things off to the Red Cross shelter up here (First Baptist Church just off the Square). They said they have some 600 refugees in town, with about 300 staying in hotels or apartments and houses. I think they could use some more donations, especially on food. Keep up the good work, Oxford.
Also, after a fruitless few days search for fuel containers, I did the University search thing (finally), and called the Physical Plant looking for those empty hydraulic fluid buckets you see all around such sites. They had already donated their containers, but this guy Chase up there, once he heard I was from the Coast, *gave me* his 3 5-gallon gas cans and 2 100 qt. ice chests. He's getting those back, or I'll donate the ice chests to the University shipment headed for the Coast on Tuesday and pay him back. Either way, he's definitely going on the "redeems faith in humanity"/Christmas card list.
Also ran by the old Geology dept. for Katrina-aftermath GIS maps, flood data, and the like. I was honestly putting this off for a while, being so embarrassed by my previous attempt at higher education, but instead of disappointed former professors I met a couple of helpful grad students. They gave me contact information for the head of the dept., his grad students, some websites to look up for data research, etc. I sent off the e-mails a little while ago, and they said I should hear from someone by tomorrow.
Since I'm staying put for now, I'll take up Sam's information page and try to piece together a recognizable picture of Ocean Springs. Hopefully this will come in the form of satellite data, if all goes well. Any reliable "big picture" information like this will be posted asap. Any other updates, especially news from other Katrina-journals/websites, I'll post over there, starting with a few tonight.
In other news, Happy Labor Day weekend, ya'll! I'm missing out on the grilled nutria this time, as all roadkill came up negative. Grill 'em if ya got 'em!
Edit: I'll be updating Sam's website if and/or when I get in touch with/green-lit from Sam, that is. Not inspiring on the journalistic professionalism side, I know.
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