Geek Habitat

When the news is just too soul-crushing for words, it seems to get even worse…

At least 965 die in Baghdad stampede {meta}

This is not the same scope of destruction (infrastructure and physical devastation) as Katrina, of course, but it’s a horrific human toll. Sadly, we don’t yet know just how many lives have been lost due to Katrina.

Hurricanes at least have warnings and, if need be, evacuations. Stampedes on bridges with tens of thousands of people on foot? Not so much warning…

Humanity’s hurting in a lot of ways right now. It really sucks that we can’t just all stop being assholes to each other. Our planet’s got enough perils to keep us all busy for our lifetimes, without wars and thievery and violence amongst ourselves.

I understand that when you live on the coast, hurricanes are a part of life, just like the high humidity, the sea spray, the constant daytime breeze, the seagulls and tourist kitsch vendors. However, I was getting seriously stressed about Hurricane Katrina during my brief reading prior to her making landfall. 28 foot storm surge? Floodwaters overtopping 14 to 19 foot levees, creating an undesirable “flooded bowl” where water was never meant to stand even an inch deep? Mandatory evacuation of a city the size of New Orleans? Hurricane with all the hallmarks of being worse than Camille (1969)? What’s not to take heed of, here?!

Hurricanes are insidious I guess in part because they are relatively slow moving. You have far too much time to think, and create rationalizations for staying. Tornadoes, house fires, hazmat leaks in your neighborhood — these all involve split-second decision-making, and most people’s Gut Instinct tells them the cold, honest truth — “You MUST leave, and it must be NOW!”

Hurricanes roil off in the ocean/Gulf, changing in strength and precise course, allowing individuals and the news media to think and plot and make excuses. “We’ll be safe, if …” and they are part of a predictable pattern (hurricane season) so if you live on the coast long enough you start to think you “know” the hurricanes that threaten your area. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even life-long meteorologists and their state-of-the-art computers still do not know hurricanes. They’re making, at best, educated guesses and revising them hourly.

Anyway, I’m losing my train of thought so I’ll let this entry hang.

Here

Check back periodically; better yet — bookmark that link. It will grow in size and scope over the coming days and weeks, no doubt.

She’s dead. My replacement Razr v3, which I accidentally washed with my jeans on Saturday, is dead. She wasn’t even in my posession a week, and I killed her. She replaced my original Razr, which (thankfully, through no fault of my own) had developed some bugs. So, I drowned a brand new, thoroughly beautiful $300 cellular phone. Oh, joy. This is my shortest relationship with a piece of geek gear, ever.

Her only sign of life is now a brief flicker of the blue lights on the keypad right after I press any key. She won’t power on, make any sounds, or light up either LCD (internal or external).

Coroner’s Ruling, Cause of Death:
Electrocution, followed by agitation and prolonged submersion in water. I’m sure the laundry detergent didn’t help, either — doesn’t soap make water a better conductor?

At least my Cingular SIM card is working. I’m back to using a broken LCD older, heavier Motorola phone with my original SIM card; it’s Justin’s old phone, which thankfully we didn’t throw away. I gave him my old phone, which doesn’t have a broken LCD, when I upgraded to the Razr. This is my punishment for being a total moron. The punishment fits the crime, methinks.

Still, it does suck.

And Justin asks me, “So, how are you doing?” after I let him know of the Razr’s confirmed passing.

“Well, I guess for someone who’s just proven she murdered a $300 phone, I’m fine. How exactly should I be feeling?”

Uh, yeah… I guess I’m a little moody about the whole thing.

From the Hurricane Katrina blog of Miles O’Brien:

Amen! I am a little confused what Miles means by “the past war,” however. 9/11? Afghanistan? (The only war directly related to 9/11, although the U.S.A. never declared war against anyone — Taliban, al Queda, Afghanistan or Iraq. Yet it’s a “War on Terror”.) Sorry, I’ve got to stop, this is making my head hurt.

More Homeland inSecurity in action (from 2004): I just read about this — a photography student harassed at gunpoint by state and federal (Department of Homeland Security) officers, at a public tourist attraction. Are we safer? That’s arguable, but we are certainly many degrees more paranoid and judgmental.

Why is it that satellite views of hurricanes are far more beautiful than they have a right to be?

Death, destruction and anguish below, yet beauty, symmetry and life (seemingly a living, breathing entity), when viewed from above.