Tag: new orleans

beat me to it because I forget

I tried to dye my hair bright pink today. It didn’t take, something deep in my physiology rejecting such a painfully vivid colour, but it’s coated my hands adequately as proof of after the fact. Otherwise, there would be no sign. I suspect it’s the first time I’ve ever attempted to paint myself something so.. cheerful. Here’s hoping that it didn’t take because my body’s learned how to reject falsities.

Ms. Kelly Foxton does very unusual things with her pet squirrel. Her website is mostly photo galleries. When I link to this sort of thing, can you believe I forgot the day before yesterday to link to the incest baby-death news story here? (similar somehow to the ‘only in the land of the free’ man charged for shocking his 8 year old daughter with electric coller.)

It’s like I’m slipping.

Another nice bit of news, a mysterious ‘half-animal, half-plant’ marine microbe was discovered by Japanese researchers.

Today I had my first time on a scooter and my first time driving one. It was terrifyingly easy. I’ve decided that I need to drop by ICBC and find myself one of those horrid little books on The Rules Of Our Roads so that when I play with such things, it’s legal. oh canada, we stand on guard for thee. My papers from the government should have arrived by now, the ones confirming my english citizenship, so I don’t think that I can stand to trust the office that said they would mail me one. Instead, this might become this weeks miniature crusade for meaning. Seems likely I need one.

string them together

Adrian’s finally a father. Send tentative moments of nervous congratulation over to him and A.J. They’re braver than the rest of us. When Adrian first informed me at SinCity, almost six months ago, I actually began to fall and he had to catch me. Apparently that was the most popular response.

It’s Ryan‘s birthday on Monday. I had mixed up the date, thinking it was to be on Sunday, September 11th re-wiring my brain for importance. I thought about having party for the Fallen Towers, a wake for the American Empire. Very antique commiserations, a very old world celebration. Fancy dress, champagne glasses we smash in the street, a cake in the shape of a flaming airplane. A toast! Oh land of freedom, we barely had a chance to say that we’re sorry for letting you become what you did.

Out in the real world, the California Assembly has become the first state legislature in the US to pass a bill endorsing gay marriages and pictures of Katrina are finally coming on-line. Someone accused me of harping on about New Orleans the other day, claiming that I was blowing the disaster out of proportion. I have to wonder where they’re getting thier news, because I don’t think I’ve an imagination that could overstate how badly the response was handled, (ex. Hosptial closed for President visit.), even down to the simplest things:“The good news: If you’ve survived Hurricane Katrina, the government will let you register for help online. The bad news: But only if the computer you’re using is running Windows.“

transmigrant‘s been posting some fabulous links on the topic, like this short clip available for download.

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Carpark North has a video that sequels Human. They’re the same children who work such miracle wonders as love, only a year later. They seem so much older, the wisdom has changed into something far lonelier. I don’t like it as much, I feel it lacks the wonder that makes the first one gasp, but it’s still interesting to see. Click on Media, then Video, to watch them. Human is simply divine. Andrew found a page of films by the same director on Videos.Antville, a multiblog list where people join and post links to “cool” music videos.

As a nice segue, I’ve discovered Sigur Ros‘s new album, Takk, is available for a listen on MySpace here.

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Once I thought the world turned without me. I stood still in a small bubble that was coated with my name and no one ever saw me. Now I’m recognized on the street so regularly that my friends don’t act surprised anymore. Last night after work, a tall boy approached us at a bus-stop. “I’m a struggling artist, I’ve just released my first CD.” A familiar refrain, the voice of an indie kid who might not be any good, and we don’t have any money, sorry. Mid sentence he stops, “Are you Jhayne?” Ryan laughed and part of me cursed for not knowing who he was. “We went to elementary school together. My name’s Kyle!”

I blink, this is too surreal. My memories of him are as sharp as lonely knives, I used to watch him to try and figure out how he laughed in such a world. He wore a red t-shirt with a neat band logo on it and won all the racing games in the gravel field. The brightest flame of personality in the entire grade, he’s now unrecognizable. What happened to his smile? Where’s his curly mop of hair? “You were the tallest boy in grade seven. I remember you. You were the only one who danced at our end of year dance.” I told him that I hadn’t any money, but there was an ATM at the end of the block. As we walked, he explained to Ryan how I was the weirdest girl in our entire school. “You read books, well, I suppose you still do, but you were really strange.” It occurred to me that he hasn’t seen me in about a decade but he managed to know who I was. Does that mean anything? There’s a guitar on his back, my eyes passed him over anyway. “Would it be safe to say that you were far more conservative then?” He didn’t have any change, so I bought him peanut butter cups at the 7-11 on the other end of the block, handed him his ten dollars and felt uncomfortably like I was being charitable.

We talked a little more after that and I wished him luck and promised to e-mail him. I’m wondering where this will go, what I will discover about the people who ostracized me when I was twelve. Thinking now, I miss the rare kids who talked to me. I think he’s still in touch with some. Brodie, he mentioned, a boy I knew in highschool who wasn’t that bad. Rather sane, by my accounts. He played Seymour when I played Audrey when we put on little Shop Of Horrors. Our strange plant was a cactus covered in shredded newsprint. Apparently he’s in a band now, the Living. They have gigs sometime. I hope to go.

sinking, not swimming

When midnight came on Sunday, we sang New Orleans is Sinking and brought out the laptop in an attempt to find live footage of the storm. We were up late, we were celebrating, it was the appropriate thing to do. I wanted to be there, at the cusp of it, at that pivotal moment of history. There was a picture of a man flying like a sugarglider, later, using a sheet he’d tucked into his shoes and was holding up above his head. Now I find the greatest depiction of the survivalist crises. Non-Lethal Weaponry is being sent into New Orleans to be used for crowd control of the sort that activists used to write about with horror in the back of MONDO magazine. MADS, more specifically, Magnetic Acoustic Devices, the friendly name given to large sonic pain cannons. (information on ‘non-lethal’ devices).

interdictor is possibly the last person in New Orleans to have internet access.

This journal has become the Survival of New Orleans blog. In less perilous times it was simply a blog for me to talk smack and chat with friends. Now this journal exists to share firsthand experience of the disaster and its aftermath with anyone interested.

* You can reach me on ICQ at 21710340 if you’re so inclined.
* The live cam feed is being rebroadcast by the heroic freedom fighters at mises.org,: http://old.mises.org:88/NO2
* American Red Cross – DirectNIC – vonmises.org – New Orleans LA post-Katrina Intel dissemination wiki
* If you want to link to my blog, please use this URL: http://mgno.com/
* IRC channel has been opened: IRC is on irc.freenode.net in #interdictor – #interdictor-scanner for transcript of NG radio and #interdictor-digest for discussion; JavaApplet
* Photos can be found here: http://sigmund.biz/kat/index.html Media has permission to use the photos with credit to DirectNIC.com
* If you are in the media and you want to contact me or any in Team SOTI here at Outpost Crystal, please get with Ezra Hodge — he can be reached at ICQ: 91-664-906, or ehodge@intercosmos.com

lindseymoongirl is in the area and has this to say,

“What matters is that 5 days after the Hurricane actually made landfall – people are still dying. People are dying from dehydration and heat stroke. People in hospitals are dying because power has gone out and generators are floundering without available gas. Nursing home patients, hospice patients, the elderly, the young – all are dying.

In New Orleans, gangs have taken control. People are being shot, women are being raped. Relief trucks with medical supplies for area hospitals are being hijacked – their drivers are being murdered. These medical supplies never make it to the hospitals. Helicopters make attempts to relocate people trapped in the Superdome, but have to be cautious – their choppers are being shot at. Snipers are setting up along rooftops, shooting people as they are evacuated. Lawlessness has taken over. Hope is truly running out for residents who remain in New Orleans. Without water, power, and food, more people are dying every day. The National Guard is having to storm the city. And now, parts of the city are on fire.

In South Mississippi, there is a nursing home by the name of Dixie White House. There are 60 residents in that nursing home, along with the staff that stayed to brave the storm. There is no power, no water, food is RUNNING OUT. The halls smell of filth. The staff is exhausted. A resident dies – their stench of their decomposing body is now mingling with the stench of vomit, urine, and shit.

In my town of Hattiesburg, water has finally been restored. Chaos still remains – a brother shoots his sister in the head to obtain a bag of ice. They are still without power. Caleb and I had to evacuate earlier this week. We don’t know when we will be able to go home or return to work. The roads are closed, our street is littered with oak and pine trees. There is no gas to fill people’s cars so they can get out of the city.

Here in Jackson, gas is running out. There are lines 3 hours long for the stations that are actually open.

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We need your help. I’ve been working with the Red Cross and I have seen first hand that help is needed now. Don’t wait until tomorrow. President Bush will not send us aid, but you can do it on your own! Several sites will take your money and put it in the right hands. You can go to your local store and pick up a case of bottled water and bring it to a drop point. That water will get to those men, women, and children who are so thirsty. The time is now. Never mind yesterday. Never mind tomorrow. People are dying today. Children are dying today.

Amazon Hurricane Relief
Just one of many sites accepting money for the the people affected by this, the largest natural disaster in U.S. history.”