Beth's Contradictory Brain

Streaming TV News

This is a link to the local New Orleans tv station's live feed. If you want to see coverage that's more immediate than some of the major news outlets like CNN, FOX, or MSNBC.

The Good News

Michele is rounding up the good stories from Katrina.

How to begin to rebuild?

Now that the governor has said that everyone in the city of New Orleans must be evacuated, at least, once that happens, you’re starting with an empty city for FEMA and others to get to work. I’m leaving aside the problems of accomplishing that evacuation and starting with “after that”. Obviously, the waters must recede and the levees repaired before a total assessment can even begin. Insurance companies, FEMA, govt. aid, almost all kinds of aid depend on the assessments to determine what compensation will be given to survivors. What do people live on, and where, until that process can happen?

Then you have to clear and repair roads and bridges, restore electricity, and get potable water working before you can begin to let people back in, at least ideally. Some are saying that could take weeks. Every building has to be assessed, and with 80% of the city under water, what percentage of structures will simply have to be demolished?

Once people are allowed back to the city, and the process of demolition begins, how long will it take for business to begin to operate again? What will the cost be to those businesses? Large chains like Wal Mart, Home Depot, McDonald’s, Exxon might can afford to rebuild their stores, if they think it’s worth the investment, but what about all the small businesses? Even if their insurance pays up, are there enough construction workers in the country to start rebuilding every building that needs to be rebuilt? Without businesses up and running during the time it takes to rebuild the buildings, where do people buy goods or earn a living?

Yes, San Francisco and Galveston were completely destroyed back when – but are those even adequate models for modern day New Orleans? Do we have a model for rebuilding an entire modern city?

None of this takes into account the surrounding areas. Biloxi was hard hit, but the buildings won’t spend days, weeks under water. Without the week long flooding, infrastructure can begin to be restored much more easily.

Other than all the logistics, the biggest question is who pays? I'd say that insurance covers what it legally has to, which hopefully is a big portion. That's what they're paid high premiums for. I'd hope big business would foot the bill to rebuild their stores, but who knows if that ever happens. Then there's the government and private donations. Will any of these sources, excluding insurance's legal obligations, even pause to ask if it's worth the big bucks it'll take to rebuild? Will there be businesses or home builders that say they won't risk it again? Or will the idea that this is a once in a lifetime storm make them feel safe to rebuild?

More on the hurricane

I'm still riveted by the hurricane and now it's aftermath. I keep trying to imagine being there, and I simply can't. No electricty, no water, no phones, no cell phones, no food, no working toilets, and on and on and on. Imagine the thousands of people in the Superdome with no working plumbing.

With all the resources the media have, even they can't get into many cities to see the damage, so we don't have visuals yet. With so many places still completely flooded, or roads with trees and powerlines in them, no one has been able to get out and around with cameras, video equipment or anything. So I think it'll still be Wednesday or Thursday before we really know how many people have died and how much devastation there is.

Brendan Loy still has some of the best links and info.

This is The Times-Picayune site that is updated very regularly.

Here's raw video available of a helicopter flyover of the various parts of New Orleans, Kenner, and Metairie. I'm not sure if this was before or after the levees broke, but the pictures of all the flooding are still just heartbreaking. It's sad to listen to the commentators not even being able to recongize the areas they are looking at.

UPDATE: I can't find a text online, but Fox News' Shep Smith is reporting that the mayor is saying that the entire city of New Orleans and surrounding areas will have to be totally evacuated and might not be able to be operable for months. How do you even begin the process?

As I keep saying, I can't imagine any of it. An entire region without power - and all that goes with it, for at least a month or two after the water receeds. Then you have all the water damage - at the very least - to every building in the area. Where do you put the population of that area?

For once I don't think the media is over-hyping the situation. I'm not sure that's even possible.

WWL Updates

UPDATE: ABC News, LA Governor calls for evacuation of entire city of New Orleans.

How does that happen with no roads and highways or a working airport?

There are so many logistics questions to all of this, hopefully our military folks will be in charge and consulted, as they are at least supposed to be good at logistics.

Bleh

What do you do when you find apathy is taking over and you've lost your sense of fight to make things better?

Nerdstar hasn't been home from Iraq quite a year yet. This time last year I was watching the Olympics and the political conventions. I think I had decents hopes for the upcoming year. And while the last 11 months have certainly been better than the 11 before that, well, they're certainly not what I hoped for.

You would think that when just about every area of your life sucks it would be easy to make even just one change to make things better. But for reasons that aren't really clear to me, that just isn't the case.

I've tried being patient. I've tried being optimistic. Now I'm just tired of it all.

Riveted

I keep trying to find something other than coverage of hurricane Katrina, but nothing else will hold my attention. I don't personally know anyone living in that area, but my prayers are certainly with everyone about to be hit by this storm.

Brendanloy has lots of good info and good links in the sidebar, some links to live web streams of local news chanels.

4WWL live

I don't understand newspeople still being "on the job" in light of mandatory evacuations. Not to mention the idiots still down on the beaches and out on jetskis.

update: lots of livejournal people from NO and links here.

Mood Killer

I've often written that Nerdstar loves food. I've even confessed that sometimes I think she at least thinks about food a lot more than she thinks about me.

Well, last night we finally get into bed and I'm starting to make out with my girl and trying to make her feel good when she says, out loud, "chicken pot pie". HUH??

Now, my girl isn't one to "talk" during sex, and I sometimes wonder what's going through her mind. I'll wonder no more!

Google Talk

I don't usually try out all the newfangled things online, but what the heck. I decided to download Google's new IM, chat, call thingy Google Talk.

It looks like you need to have Google Mail to use it, so if you need a GMail account, let me know, I probably have tons to give out.

You can find me at beth.mauldin@gmail... I'd be thrilled to chat with any of you.

Go Now

For more reasons than I can possibly list or explain, if you've never read Michael Yon's reports from Mosul, or haven't read him recently, go read him now.

Disaster

What a disaster this temp assignment turned out to be. I've done a lot of temping in my life. Only once ever did an office I was sent to not want to keep me for life. (I had my eyebrow pierced at the time, although it was barely noticable, I think the lady was a bit more conservative than I was.) So the past three days have been rather surreal for me.

As I said, I told the temp agency I was fully willing to finish out the week and give them time to find someone more suitable for the place. Well, after I got home yesterday my phone rang and I prety much knew it was the temp agency - she said I didn't have to return today or tomorrow in light of me being unhappy there. UGH.

I'm really not sure why that happened. The lady who I reported to at the work site wasn't even at work over half of the time I was there (she was having medical troubles). I did exactly what she asked me to, I sat at this dingy table and answered the phones and organized pieces of paper in files. No, I wasn't outgoing or friendly, but the people in that office weren't either. It was just a bad experience all around. But I'm frustrated that the temp office - that I'd like to eventually get a decent job through - now sees me as a problem child. I would have thought that the temp office's rep's trip to the site would have made my position clear. Who knows.

On a better note. Nerdstar and I went to dinner last night with a bunch of people from her work. There were nine of us and it was the only table in the restaurant not filled entirely with white people. What a refreshing change! Some of the people work in the same building as Nerdstar, but not directly with her. Some are some guys here at Leavenworth for their two week AT. It was a nice mix of people from a nice mix of places and the conversations were fun.

Day Two

I once wanted to have everyone I knew write a short storing staring with the line "On day two of my therapy..."

Anyway.

Day two was just as mind numbingly boring as day one, but with one small amusing bit. The lady from the temp agency who sent me to this industrial wasteland was supposed to call and check up on me. She didn't. So about 10 a.m. I gave the office a call and told the supervisor why I'd stay until Friday but wouldn't be back next week. I literally used the word "industrial" in the conversation. About thirty minutes later the one who sent me there called me back asking if she could come by between one and two. I said, "of course," hung up, and laughed. See, she'd been to the corporate type office for this company, but never this location, as I figured. A few minutes past two, after getting lost like I figured she would, she showed. She had some younger man/boy in tow. We chatted for about six minutes and they left. I'd give a hundred bucks to hear their conversation once they were back in the car! "OMG, what a shithole, how will we ever in good conscience send someone there again??" Uh, huh.

Three more days to go.

Ugh!

I have never walked into a workplace more dreary, dirty or industrial in my life. A thirty mile drive, in traffic sometimes, to answer phones in the most depressing setting ever. Um, no thanks. The temp agency lady said she'd call today and "see how it went" - I'm still waiting on that call. I'll say, yes the people are nice, and I'll be happy to finish out the week, but I'd prefer a less industrial setting for the next assignment. Not to mention, I clearly stated I do NOT want a job that is primiarly answering phones. Well, the only thing I did other than answer phones today was the even worse task of filing. Again, um, no thanks.

I did find a better route home. I've been home for fifteen mintues already, and Nerdstar, who's drive home is less than half of mine - not home. And, to make my sad little day even more sad, she'd left her cellphone at home and didn't even get my test messages and voice mails of dispair!

I hate to feel like a snob or that I don't want to work or anything. But it's bad enough living somewhere I don't want to live, I can't make it worse by working in such dismal conditions.

Sigh. Here's to the week passing by quickly.

Back in the saddle again

I have to do something tomorrow I haven't done in close to two years - get up and go to work. It's just a temp job, so we'll see how it goes. I get a little nervous sometimes, but not really. I finally signed up with a different temp agency the week before Monterey and had a feeling they'd be better. The downside is they're in downtown KC and so that's where a lot of the jobs they send people to are. And since KC seems to like to close highways for long periods of time, it makes navigating an already long drive even more of a pain in the ass. I told Nerdstar to keep reminding me I haven't had a long commute to work in over seven years, so I can do it for a while.

We had a good weekend. Yesterday we went to see The 40 Year Old Virgin, Nerdstar's pick. It was pretty funny. Felt like it could have been shorter, but I'm not sure exactly what they could have cut. We were laughing because Nerdstar could have written parts of it. Then we did some clothes shopping for me. Not having worked, or bought new clothes, in two years, I don't have much to wear. I didn't get too many things, I'm waiting until I see how the people working there dress, and if it's going to last anyway.

Today we did our grocery shopping and then went to one of the local casinos. I had really good luck at the craps table. I made over $100 on one roll one time, and $50+ three or four times. We started with $100 each and we left with over $400 total, so not too bad. If the blackjack tables hadn't sucked we would have done even better. But, it was fun, and that's the main thing.

We still aren't crazy about living here, but can't really figure out what would make it better. Nerdstar thinks she can hold out for another year if her current job renews at the end of September (which it almost certainly will), but that one more year is all she can take. It's just such a shame the job isn't at any other location.

Changing Attitudes

The Volokh Conspiracy has a really interesting post on changing attitudes on homosexuality.

Please read the whole thing and the comments as well.

Hmm

This seems to be the summer of two grieving, outraged, demanding mothers - Cindy Sheehan and Beth Holloway Twitty. But I just realized that I haven't read anything comparing the two or talking about the two together. Not that I have anything to really say either, I'm trying my best to ignore them both, I just found it interesting.

How funny

Back in January I wrote "Then I got to thinking how fun it would be to own a field near an airport so I could create sayings in them that people on the airplanes could read."

I didn't quite have this in mind, but it works - or well, hopefully, it works for him...

CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. -- It sounds a little corny. A farmer looking for love has planted a personals ad, using corn stalks in a cow pasture. It reads: "S.W.F Got-2 (love symbol) Farm'n." Underneath is a 1,000-foot-long arrow pointing single white females to his house.

Amazing Race - family style

Here are the teams for the upcoming season of Amazing Race

Family pics and bios.

They're doing families of four. I'm not sure if that will make it better or worse. They all look so very wholesome, wouldn't it be boring if they really are? Then again, family in-fighting could be snarky enough! Won't it be harder to coordinate four people instead of two? I wonder if this is to try to appeal to a different demographic. In reading the bios I find that the one African American family is the Black family - that's funny, or at least it certainly could be.

Interesting

Nerdstar sent me this...

University in Shanghai to offer China's first course in homosexual studies:

A university in Shanghai is offering China's first class on homosexuality and gay culture, and several hundred students have
applied for the 100 openings, a professor in charge of the course said on Tuesday.

Professor Sun Zhongxin, one of the course's instructors at prestigious Fudan University, said its introduction resulted from strong interest among undergraduates.

"I used to teach Gender Study for undergraduates and found they were very interested in the topic of homosexuality," Professor Sun said.

The class is full but "more students are still applying," Professor Sun said.

The course aims to break down widespread ignorance and prejudice against gays in China, another instructor, Gao Yanning, was quoted as saying by the Shanghai Daily newspaper.

"We will pay more attention on how to have a proper view about homosexuals," Gao was quoted as saying by the paper. "We will give students an equitable judgment on homosexuals and help eliminate students' discrimination."

A secretary at Fudan's sociology department said Gao could not immediately be reached for comment.

Gays were strongly persecuted after China's 1949 communist evolution, condemned as products of decadent Western and feudal societies. Puritanical official attitudes have gradually changed since the late 1980s, and in 2001, the China Psychiatric Association ceased listing homosexuality as a mental illness.

Looser enforcement of laws on homosexual behaviour has allowed small but thriving gay scenes to emerge in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities in the developed east.

Yet, given the disdain shown to homosexuality by traditional confucian culture, gay men and women in China still tend to hide their sexual orientation.

Anyone think this would work?

I found this post about a new fangled way to hitchhike, or find other commuters to ride share with thru Simon World.

David always talks about giving hitchhikers rides over in Israel, and it's always interesting. It's apparently a standard mode of transportation for soldiers going to and from home to base and such. (you can do a search for hitchhiker on his site to read his past entries.)

Would you participate in such a venture - either as driver or passenger?

Sex Scenes

How interesting. I was just talking with Nerdstar the other night about how there just aren't any good sex scenes in movies any more. Actually, we couldn't think of any since say maybe 9 1/2 Weeks or other films of that time period.

Part of the reason is the ratings system. You can kill and maim until your heart's content and still be PG-13 or R, but you can't get naked. As if violence is better for us somehow than sex.

But I think it's also due in part to all the John Hughes movies in the 80s and movies starting to be made for teenagers instead of adults. And now that I'm an adult I find it rather frustrating.

Slate has a related article. The article tries placing part of the blame on WalMart and on the halftime fiasco, but I don't think that's accurate. The lack of hot and steamy scenes in movies began long before either of those factors.

But, my question is - what's the hotest sex scene you've seen in a non- porn movie?

What he said

Christopher Hitchens.

How can so many people watch this as if they were spectators, handicapping and rating the successes and failures from some imagined position of neutrality? Do they suppose that a defeat in Iraq would be a defeat only for the Bush administration? The United States is awash in human rights groups, feminist organizations, ecological foundations, and committees for the rights of minorities. How come there is not a huge voluntary effort to help and to publicize the efforts to find the hundreds of thousands of "missing" Iraqis, to support Iraqi women's battle against fundamentalists, to assist in the recuperation of the marsh Arab wetlands, and to underwrite the struggle of the Kurds, the largest stateless people in the Middle East? Is Abu Ghraib really the only subject that interests our humanitarians?

Question: Why have several large American cities not already announced that they are going to become sister cities with Baghdad and help raise money and awareness to aid Dr. Tamimi? When I put this question to a number of serious anti-war friends, their answer was to the effect that it's the job of the administration to allocate the money, so that there's little room or need for civic action. I find this difficult to credit: For day after day last month I could not escape the news of the gigantic "Live 8" enterprise, which urged governments to do more along existing lines by way of debt relief and aid for Africa. Isn't there a single drop of solidarity and compassion left over for the people of Iraq, after three decades of tyranny, war, and sanctions and now an assault from the vilest movement on the face of the planet? Unless someone gives me a persuasive reason to think otherwise, my provisional conclusion is that the human rights and charitable "communities" have taken a pass on Iraq for political reasons that are not very creditable. And so we watch with detached curiosity, from dry land, to see whether the Iraqis will sink or swim. For shame.

History Help

While in Moneterey, due to the conference Nerdstar was a part of, and the topics they covered, we'd talk about them over dinner.

An offshoot of those dicussions was about how little I know about world history. Hell, I'm only recently getting a better understanding of some parts of American history. And an even more deeply neglected area of my education was/is geography. I was telling Nerdstar I've always enjoyed looking at those "civilization timelines" in the front of world history textbooks, but I really never could wrap my brain around all of it. I have no good overview of what happened where and when in world history. Part of what led to me sort of giving up before really getting started was that the studying of Greek and Roman mythology without a strong foundation in actual history confused the hell out of me. I could never keep straight who the actual historical figures where, and who the made up ones where.

I got to thinking about how cool it would be to have a world map that has layers like those used to study human anatomy - you know, you've got the skeleton layer, then you put the next page over it and it adds the muscles and so forth. I'd love to have a world map that showed who was where when, maybe have the layers be every 100 years or so.

Yes, I'm a nerd.

Different

I really enjoyed the trip to Monterey, a sunburn and bee sting notwithstanding! Actually, it surprised me how little the bee sting actually hurt. I got stung on the back of my index finger and got the stinger out immediately.

Having lived in the KC area for about four months now, I find that it seems to hypnotize me. I find myself thinking all the time, it's not that bad, it's not that bad. Then we take a trip and the spell breaks. It's not a bad place to live necessarily, lots of people like it here, but it's just not for me.

Ever since high school, I've had these daydreams of living in a cabin, maybe in the mountains, lots of trees, a lake or river nearby. It wasn't until our trips to the Seattle area and now the Monterey area that I've learned I'll take the Northwest coast any day. I don't ever really want to live in CA, but Washington and Oregon draw me in. I was telling Nerdstar I'd consider the middle east coast, Georgia or the Carolinas, but I really don't ever want to have to deal with a hurricane. Then there's the Maine coast, but damn it's cold in the winter! We'll see. At this point in life I figure it's probably twenty years away anyway.

It's amazing how where you live affects so much of how you live. The summers, actually from late May to early October, in Texas were always just too hot for me. Heat gives me headaches. So I became a nightowl to avoid the sun and heat. There was tons to do outdoors in Austin, hiking and bike trails, lakes, Barton Springs, etc. But we never really did any of them. In an area like Monterey, where the temps are much, much cooler, all of that would change. Walks on the beach, bike riding, kayaking, who knows, maybe even surfing and scuba diving.

While we know we're not living in KC forever, we don't know exactly when we'll move again. I've just got to get more determined to make the most of our time here.

Monterey Pics

There are several more pics on the Flickr site. Some are actually worth checking out. The top photo of the waves is the last in the set, so if you click on it and find the "previous" button, you can see them all.

As for this bottom pic, I typed in this caption, but it didn't take... We were walking back from a pub one night and I saw this big bold word "change" on the yellow background and thought, in a cartoon type voice "but I can't..." I laughed and told Nerdstar about it, so she had the idea of taking the picture with it.

Monterey

I don't want to leave this place. It's really beautiful here and the locals seem nice. It seems like such an ideal place to live... you know, except that houses seem to start at over $500K.

But, within the next few years I will buy some coastal property somewhere, even if I have to build a little one room log cabin myself on it!

The conference Nerdstar is at is actually kinda interesting. It's academic nerds from the US and China talking about the issues of Central Asia, ie. the Stans.

More once we're home...

Going Again

We got Ramen dog off to the kennel this morning. It's not the Canine Hilton he's used to in Austin, but I'm sure he'll be fine. He was so happy to go into the place, he's gotten bathed there before, but he wasn't as happy to be put in a cage. If it were up to Nerdstar, he'd stay in a five star pet hotel while we're away. I'm sure he's just happy to not have to endure any more 9 hour drive days!

Then I got Nerdstar off to the airport. Thankfully she had a noon flight, because I swear she's the slowest moving person I know! Even slower than my Dad who she's just like!

So I've got an afternoon to nap, listen to Ranger baseball on XM, and pack. My flight is at 7:45 a.m. Ugh. I don't usually sleep to well on airplanes, but maybe tomorrow I will.

I'm really looking forward to this trip. It's such a beautiful place to hang out and I'll do some driving around the coast while Nerdstar has to sit in meetings - ha ha!

And, really, the weather doesn't get much better than this if you ask us.

We decided against lugging along the laptop. We figure the Hilton will have some sort of place for us to access the internet. If not, well, we shouldn't really be online anyway for a few days.

Back on Friday...

Daylight Savings Time

I don't know how many people are paying attention to the part of the energy bill that's about to be passed that will extend daylight savings time for an additional month. Do you want another month of dark mornings and longer evenings?

I'm not sure if I'm for or against it. I still haven't gotten the book about the history of daylight savings time yet, but maybe soon.

I am currently reading the history of the transcontinental railroad - which was when stanardized time zones at all were began. Until then every area was free to set their own time.

Vanilla

Vanilla

Help

Many years ago I got to go to Mexico City and visit a friend. While there I got to bring home a "wine" bottle size bottle of pure Mexican vanilla. I'm not out yet, but will be soon.

I've looked online and can't find a way to buy any short of taking a trip to Mexico, which wouldn't be easy from here in the Midwest.

Anyone know of where I can get some? My baking just won't be the same without it!!

Being not Choosing

Nerdstar got to come home for lunch this afternoon, always nice! While we were driving to the restaurant, I had Rush on the radio. (Yes, I listen to Rush and lots of other talk radio, mostly folks on the right, the left makes me too frustrated.) I caught maybe sixty seconds or so of his comments on Roberts doing legal work in defense of gays. Roberts isn't what I want to talk about.

Rush mentioned giving special rights for a certain behavior. (I don't have the direct quote, which would probably be more clear.)

But I got it. I got a better glimpse into why it's so hard for gays to get equal rights, marriage rights, etc. As long as the majority of people believe being gay is simply a matter of choosing certain behaviors, and not a matter of being, well, we're facing a huge uphill battle.

Bleh. It kind of ties into my thoughts lately on how tired I get of being different. I don't want to be different. (I'm not saying I don't want to be gay.) I don't want people to assume I'm straight. (Maxine's comments to a co-worker brought a huge smile to my face!) I don't want them to think I'm weird if I'm not. I don't want my relationship with Nerdstar to be treated any differently or viewed as any less legitimate than any straight one.

Just to tie on one more controversial topic. I find it fascinating that evolution has been granted valid science status, but being born gay hasn't.

Cool

Needled has quickly become one of my favorite reads. The links in the posts are really interesting.

This site is about tattoos of Chinese and Japanese characters done wrong. This cartoon made me laugh.

I've also watched a couple of episodes of Miami Ink and have been moved by all the people who get tattoos to honor someone who's died.

Just a little

It's hard to be a good blogger when my reaction to most news these days is a big fat - who cares!!

Although, we are getting some good laughs about Ralphael Palmero unintentionally getting steroids into his body. Nerdstar actually had the one guy she had a fling with one weekend long ago call her up to make sure she was "ok" because he'd realized it was entirely possible that his male roommate at some point in time might have slipped him some drugs and had his way with him while he was sleeping. So we think that's the line Palmero should go with - someone put them up his ass while he was asleep! Because apparently guys wouldn't think that was out of the realm of possibility. HA!

We're keeping up with the space shuttle, wishing the best for the crew. I can't imagine being the family member or friend of anyone on that crew - that would rival worrying about a soldier in Iraq.

It's weird to me that the story of no one dying on the plane crash in Toronto isn't getting more coverage - it's an amazing story. But it's not a story of death and carnage - or missing blondes - so it's pretty much a blip on the news cycle.

Ok, so maybe I care a little bit.

Home for now

Hopefully that's the last 8+ hour drive we make for a few months! Although it was good to help out Grandma. It was also cool that we have XM because I remembered that they have a channel for music from the 40s, so I tuned it in and Grandma had a good time listening to all the old music. I really enjoyed most of it, too. As a former band geek, it was fun to listen to all the horns from that era.

Other than that the weekend was hanging with the family, playing with Zach, and eating some decent food. Not a bad weekend.