Wednesday, August 31, 2005

a city destroyed?

Over the last few days, I'd heard bits and pieces about Hurricane Katrina and the evacuation of New Orleans, but it wasn't until this morning that I realized the magnitude of the disaster.

I was skimming a blog post that made reference to "a city loved by many, likely to be completely destroyed." I thought for sure that the poster was exaggerating wildly; cities like New Orleans don't just disappear overnight. So, I started to read the news in earnest.

What I found out was that 80% of New Orleans is flooded, and that lake water is still pouring in through a broken levee, into the below-sea-level city. Tens of thousands of residents who took refuge in the Superdome and other shelters are being airlifted out of the city, while hundreds more are looting abandoned stores. Authorities are warning that electricity might not be restored for weeks, even after the flooding subsides.

Of course, there have been countless natural disasters more catastrophic than this. To contemplate one in particular: I wonder what the Romans thought (and felt) on the day that Pompeii was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

so close

I'm the "on duty" engineer until 5pm today, and I'm still swimming in a morass of unfinished duty tasks. On the bright side, I didn't get any pages all week, I have a massage scheduled for tomorrow morning, and I'm skipping the country on Friday night. Only four more hours to go...

Monday, August 22, 2005

70s night

A friend was throwing a 70s-themed birthday party on Saturday, and I actually managed to dig up an outfit that looked mostly 70s: a fringy wool poncho, flared jeans, a beaded purse, four-inch wedges, and loopy earrings. I must have too many clothes.

Monday, August 15, 2005

the RZA

There was an article in the Chronicle about an interview that RZA gave recently at Koret. Where do these events get publicized? I would have thought about going, at least for a couple of minutes.

I find RZA a thoroughly fascinating character. He's obviously a talented musician and composer, as he's demonstrated since his Wu-Tang Clan days, and more recently with his work on the Ghost Dog and Kill Bill soundtracks, as well as The World According to RZA, in which he collaborated with French and German musicians. His IMDB profile states that he's an "influential producer and hip-hip MC" and lists a half a dozen aliases. Indeed, he seems to embrace the idea of having multiple public personalities, including the more lighthearted "Bobby Digital" alter ego. Judging from various interviews, including a recent appearance on the Daily Show, the RZA also appears knowledgeable (and often philosophical) about an assortment of topics, including martial arts, Islam (although he is Christian), chess, vegetarianism, recreational drug use, and 20th century history.

Perhaps I just find it refreshing to hear a popular hip-hop artist converse intelligently and profoundly about subjects unrelated to his music.

Monday, August 08, 2005

muscle memory

This morning, I was logged into my Athena account and I was curious as to whether anyone that I knew was still online. So, I typed "znol" and got the "No such file or directory" error indicating that I wasn't running zwgc.

For a split second, I couldn't remember the way to run znol without zwgc, but then I just started typing, and I typed "znol -l", which did what I wanted.

The crazy thing was that I'm pretty sure I never thought with my mind at all; that my fingers were just typing from muscle memory. I'm not sure if that's possible, but it sure felt like it.

Friday, August 05, 2005

inspiration



The New York Liberty's Becky Hammon, in front, guards the Connecticut Sun's 7-foot-two-inch center Margo Dydek, of Poland, during the second half of their WNBA game at Madison Square Garden in New York Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2005. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

This crazy/amazing photo was sent to our women's basketball team, to motivate us on defense. I guess the message is, if the 5'6" Hammon can box out 7'2" Dydek, anyone can box out anyone.

The thing is, my problem with boxing out isn't size, it's quickness. On defense, I'm always losing people at the last minute, and then they wind up with the ball. Must do more jumping drills...

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

bottled water

I came across an article about bottled water entitled Bad to the Last Drop, in yesterday's New York Times. It argues that people shouldn't drink bottled water because the taste and quality are no better than tap water, and using disposable bottles pollutes the environment.

I think the author misses the point. I buy boxes of bottled water on a regular basis, and keep them in my car. I don't think that the bottled water is any better than tap water, but it's certainly more convenient. When I'm at basketball practice, or am out playing tennis, it's much easier and faster to grab a prefilled bottle (or two, or three) from my trunk than to find a water fountain. I suppose I could fill some bottles at home, but that requires that I think about water every time I'm about to leave the house, and that I take the extra few minutes to wash, fill, and pack the bottles that I need.

If I could take the money that I spend on bottled water and use it to pay someone who would make sure that I had ten full bottles of tap water on hand at all times, I would. He/she would be welcome to use reusable bottles. Unfortunately, I think that would cost significantly more than the bottled water.

Monday, August 01, 2005

short weekend

Recently, weekends have been going by in a blur. Then, when I'm asked what I did over the weekend, I can't remember, at least momentarily.

This past weekend, I spent Friday night playing board games again, Saturday morning shooting around, Saturday afternoon at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, and Saturday evening at home with friends. Sunday morning, I ran some errands, and Sunday afternoon was basketball practice as usual.

That list doesn't seem to detail an unusual amount of activity, yet I was completely exhausted on Sunday night.

Perhaps it's just that I'm due for a vacation. There's something to be said for leaving your daily and weekly routine completely behind. I guess there's only one month left until we leave for Europe...

 

This is my personal blog. The views expressed on these pages are mine alone and not that of my employer.