September 16, 2005

Weird or Creepy?

Okay, so I was trying to remember something specific and had to go back through my blog looking for what I said about ghosts at one point. So I finally find my Haunted post and literally just finish reading the thing and what song comes on the radio?

Say it with me now.

"Ooooh, I love 'West End Boys.'"

The next song to play? "West End Boys."

Hmmm. Maybe the jukebox shares John's taste in music.

Very odd. It did, of course, only play once or I would have really freaked out.

Maybe I should expect this during the 80s lunch time program, but I've been listening for weeks and never heard them play that one.

And this comes after my partner and I have had nightmares all night for three nights running. I'd begun wondering, idly, if I'd managed to "call" that @sshole ghost from the haunted house I lived in. Last night, thankfully, was more peaceful, but that's also because we were so tired we slept like baby puppies. You know, that boneless, dead look that exhausted baby creatures do?

Weird, weird, weird.

Posted by Red Monkey at 11:06 AM | Comments (1) | Blog | Stumble

September 15, 2005

17 Inches of Happiness

Monday I went to a friend's house plopped a wad of cash down on the counter and left with seventeen inches of pure happiness.

Yep, after struggling with my poor Lombard laptop that's about six or seven years old and so upgraded as to be a freakin' Frankenstein now, I purchased a 17" Mac laptop.

The old machine was (well, it still is) 500 mhz; the new one is at least a gig. Lovely superdrive with CD/DVD burner. LOTS more screen room. Harddrive's about the same size since the ancient Mac is upgraded to an 80 gig.

So, of course I need to move 9million, 7hundred-thousand and 640 files and preferences over to the new machine. *sigh* There's just never enough time to do these things.

While I'm waiting to get that machine up and running, what should I use to personalize the sucker a bit more?

 

Or Maybe This One????

Or what about this?

And last one I'm thinking about:

What other neat Mac stuff have you discovered for your Mac (the three of you who are Mac users, that is)??? Widget suggestions?

I should be back to my overly lengthy self as soon as I get the computer migrated and the current freelance design project finished.

Posted by Red Monkey at 10:09 AM | Comments (2) | Blog | Stumble

September 3, 2005

Dear God

The Red Cross was told to stay out of New Orleans.

The National Guard said they were ready to drop food to New Orleans on Sunday.

Experienced rescue folks have been told to stay away.

Evacuation of the Superdome was halted for a few hours while people who'd been in the Hyatt Regency for the week were taken out ahead of those who'd been in the Superdome for a week.

An 18 year old boy saw an abandoned school bus and used it to transport one hundred people out of New Orleans and into Houston. All the news could report was the bus was unauthorized and call the boy a thief.
Thief? Did he try to keep the damn bus? No. He drove straight to Houston and saved ONE HUNDRED PEOPLE.
But he's black, so he's obviously a thief.

How many are dead who could have been saved even just a few days ago?

As my friend Andy says:
Worst. President. Ever.

But then, this catastrophe couldn't be predicted according to the director of FEMA. Never mind the hundreds of reports fearing exactly this. Never mind the prediction in early 2001 that there were three events which could cripple the U.S.: a terror attack on NYC, catastrophic flooding of New Orleans, "the big one" finally hitting California.

And given our handling of New Orleans, Gulf Port, Star, Bond and the whole of the Gulf Coast region with thousands upon thousands without power, water and food -- given how slow and unprepared we've been, I'd be fleeing California as if it were New Orleans right now.

As so many in Louisiana have said, have been saying for the last week: I can't believe this is the United States.

Technorati Tags Katrina

Posted by Red Monkey at 7:51 PM | Comments (2) | Blog | Stumble

September 2, 2005

More on Refuge

If you live anywhere near the Gulf Coast, please, please take in a family. i've seen a few websites and blogs where people are posting their homes and offering to take folks in. Some are asking for a drug test (and is willing to pay for said drug test - so it's not too unreasonable a thing), some are adding in various liability clauses.

This tragedy is only going to be matched by magnanimous hearts.

And a note for the "oh-so-christian" contingent who are NOT opening their homes for refuge to those who've been savaged out of fear for themselves and their families let me remind you of something: Christ NEVER said we'd be safe. In fact, he pretty much guaranteed that if we open ourselves up as he did, we would make ourselves vulnerable and it is quite likely that we'd get hurt, just as he did. That possibility does NOT mean that we shouldn't act.

I'm pissed that Bush isn't offering up his stupid Crawford ranch. He's got plenty of land there. Throw up some huge ass tents for now and then build some bunkhouses. There's plenty of room. Do it. DO SOMETHING!

Technorati Tags Katrina

Posted by Red Monkey at 11:32 AM | Comments (1) | Blog | Stumble

Refuge

Please spread the following as far and wide as possible so that the info gets to those who need it:
There is a property in Oklahoma ready to take in six or so folks from Katrina and they're getting a contractor lined up to convert the garage into a 22 person bunkhouse.
(courtesy WWdN)

The fact that this happens to be a rather well-known fantasy writer and her husband shouldn't be a big deal when hundreds and probably thousands of "regular folks" are also planning on doing the same thing, if they haven't already done so.

In fact, I'm thinking since so many folks are heading into Houston already, shouldn't there be a bunkhouse built in Crawford? We already know that there's puh-lenty of room out there from all the footage we've seen in the last few weeks.

In fact, since Bush seems to think that any time people need a helping hand, the private citizenry will help them out, that specifically Christians will help out those who truly need it, then don't you think it would be a nice gesture -- a concrete act of Christian (I'd say human) charity -- if he'd have a bunkhouse built on the far end of his property?

In fact, since Bush fired Mike Parker, former Republican Congressman from Mississippi, who had been the head of the Army Corps of Engineers and who had publicly criticized his commander-in-chief for cutting funds to projects that might have saved more of this region hit so hard by Katrina. And Parker does NOT claim that the proposed works he'd championed would have completely kept flooding at bay (so to speak), but he does insist that it wouldn't be as bad as it is now.

In fact, many experience firefighters, CERTs and even first responders are being asked to STAY AWAY at this time. According to Larry Dixon, "The high-level dispatch I saw today is, in as many words, "Nobody Goes In" during the continued and perhaps complete, evacuation of the Gulf Coast. The only aid people that are being specifically asked for at the moment, through my channels, are fast water rescue teams."

Part of me wants to scream at that -- we need as many rescue people there as possible, regardless of specialty, don't we?
The fact of the matter is, I don't know what we need there.
My "save the world" instinct and my pragmatic side are battling. But, if you send in someone who doesn't have experience with ... let's say just plain water rescue, will they really know how to keep themselves alive in that toxic soup that has become this region? Will they know that even a bruise might let some of that contaminated water mixed with death mixed with heavy metals mixed with more disease and bacteria and rotten nastiness into their system and kill those who are trying to help?
Again, I don't know.

I'd think at this point we'd want every available and willing person to be near the area and be quickly trained to help out.
But that would mean taking an experienced, veteran rescue worker whose help is desperately needed NOW away from the relief effort in order to teach others. Can we afford the time?
I don't know.

It's really easy to second guess and play armchair quarterback. But most of us don't know enough about relief efforts to do more than open our homes to those seeking refuge from a terrible tragedy.

I've read plenty of blogs supporting every decision Bush has made so far in regard to Katrina's wrath. I've read plenty condemning him. And I've ready plenty of conservative folks who are whining that the liberals a politicizing a natural disaster that no one could have predicted -- or at least politicizing it when "these people" could have evacuated and "chose" not to do so.

Let me say now, Bush is at least partially to blame for the extent of this disaster by his insistence on cutting levee proposals and wetland reclamation projects. His insistence that we did not need to spend money on citizens of the U.S. but instead pick up his Daddy's war has probably cost us a chunk of the coast. His insistence that the National Guard needs to be in Iraq instead of helping our nation here, at home, as they were meant to do, is probably costing us lives and is certainly costing us more damage to the affected region as it takes longer to fix breaches and pump cities dry.

For those of you who think that those who did not heed evacuation orders got what they deserved (sorry I was so mad I didn't save the link to that blog), do you understand how ridiculous that statement is? It borders on the superstitious.
It's a lot like someone saying that God is showing his displeasure with Bush for going into Iraq -- because the last time we went into Iraq (with Daddy Bush), Hurricane Andrew tried to destroy Florida.

Ultimately, I, personally do not know what the answers are. I'm sure that had the work requested to be done in New Orleans been done, things would be bad, but perhaps not so bad that people were told they would not be able to return to their city for months, if ever.

I'm sure scientists are, or will be, analyzing the data and figuring out what would have happened -- they have to do that to know how to better protect New Orleans (and other cities) in the future.

But right now, let's concentrate on the living who are displaced, discouraged and disenfranchised. Let's find them a place to stay for now, a place to live for the next few months. Let's find them some jobs to make up for the ones underwater. Let's help them have as normal a life as they can possibly have at the moment.

And, if any survivor of Katrina reads this and needs a place to stay -- if you can make it to Indiana, I can find a place for a couple of people. It's not much and the most concrete thing I can do now is send bottled water and supplies and money through good organizations out to that area. But the offer is still open, as I'm sure it is in many homes across the U.S.

I'm more concerned about the survivors right now. I think history will condemn the idiocy that made Katrina worse than it had to be. (After all, if the wetlands around New Orleans hadn't eroded away, the storm might have lost more of its force before it hit the city.)
My only concern is that we don't get so caught up in helping those in the present that we forget what bureaucratic mistakes contributed to the mess.

Meanwhile, if you want to give, consider giving to Church World Service -- they're a great organization and they generally stay LONG after everyone else has left -- trying to make sure that everyone is truly back on their feet and not just giving a short term fix.

Technorati Tags Katrina

Posted by Red Monkey at 5:47 AM | Comments (0) | Blog | Stumble

August 30, 2005

frickin' frackin'

So my scanner's not talking to my computer, but I did get those pictures taken of my sketches (cartoon stuff -- don't get excited if you prefer "real-life" stuff), but this morning when I tried to email the pictures to one of my web addresses so I could post them during lunch today, the email program crashed.

*sigh*

It's not Thunderbird's fault, either. Mozilla's been good to me. It's just that I'm asking my 6 or 7 year old laptop which has been upgraded more times than Frankenstein or Microsoft Word 0.x that it just doesn't wanna do all the fun multi-tasking among Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, plus the plain old FireFox and Thunderbird. I need a new computer fast before I make this old machine kaput while it tries to do what I ask it to do. It's been a great little workhorse for me. It just needs to go to someone who wants to websurf and write documents and not someone who wants to do intense graphics, website design and the like. Poor little machine.

Anyhow, I'll post those sketches after work today, never fear.

Posted by Red Monkey at 5:56 AM | Comments (0) | Blog | Stumble