QOOP is live and offering printing services for FLICKR users. 3 product offerings so far include 2 photo book styles and 1 poster. I’ll have some books created here in a bit, I’m looking forward to them. Speaking of books, I’m still considering the whole blog to book publishing concept. Talking with my father the other day about management techiques he gave me some great ideas on writing a book, the encouragement was great.
I created a blog for Leah, a co-worker here at work today. Check out her important words at Leah Me Google, where I believe she will be talking about various things fashion and of course her love for jeans in america.
In World of Warcraft news, they have a new page up for PVP stats, not that I really PVP any more but I think its neat to see what classes dominate the top ten. Last night while gaming, I was running around doing various odds and ends, talking to Mary on the phone. Just casual, I like that kind of game play, nothing stressfull – like most of the high level peeps were doing in my guild. They were in Molten Core, a high instance dungeon with a raid of people 40+ in number. They slaved away in that dungeon for 4+ hours, typically its more 6 really. At the final boss after all that hard work, they kill it, and one player, one “ninja” they call them, loots 3 epics before decisions were made on who they were supposed to go to and poof he leaves the zone. Talk about serious furstration. 40 people just blew 6 hrs for nothing, maybe a few got some goodies on the way but 3 epics off the last boss gone to one ninja lootin player hurts. Even worse it was some guy from our own guild. Of course he leaves the guild and pops up in the main town to quickly tell people of his deed. Game masters supposedly can’t do anything to him, which is BS if you ask me.
KATRINA EFFECT
Flipping the coin the the wake of Katrina widens. In the halls of the building you can hear chatter about New Orleans, the looting, the shootings, the fires, the floods, the thousands dead, the few sensational rescue stories and more. Panic is on the rise, people can’t clear their heads, the chaos is played out for them on TV, they can dive into the endless reports on the web. On NPR this morning I heard a great report from a reporter that got out typing to cope with the new reality that he may never return to New Orleans, a city under siege on all sides. This is america gang, its happening to us now. Already i’ve heard things on the radio that just bother me, like congressmen dropping one liners like “where’s the world when we bleed… hello.. we help everyone when their tsunami hits, and in return.. we get nothing..” i think thats a classic angry view.
As the lake levels out with city flooding the bodies will be found and the gangs will continue to wage war against… who knows what. Its a crazy time. A sad time, a time where I really dont what to say, other that just spill what you got, speak it now, record it.
I’ve been to storm blogs and to rewind the disaster. I wanted to go back to August 26th, 27th, to get a better sense of history unfolding. I kept hitting “previous” over and over on some blogs, the expert weather men, the local goverment agencies blogs, I needed to see the warnings- didn’t they warn people? I read posts from people in the french quarter saying “we’re drinkin our hurricanes, bring it on nature” and in other parts of town people sayin “not leavin, we’ll be fine”, I wonder if they are fine now with hundreds of thousands in mass chaos. The city managers, planners, red tape constructs of gov, take a good look gang.
I find a blog posting with a map of dry areas, dry intersections, a desperate map to indicate what’s ok. I’m OK a marker screams out. The sad part was how few markers were on the map and how far away from the core city they were.
I scour NOLA blog, its laundry list of pain. Real tales, real words of desperation, need and more. Its more real than FOX news, more alive than anything else i’ve seen in some cases. Its heartbreaking to see all the pain, and I close it, and then re-open it moments later looking for more information. I read about street intersections where deeds have gone down, a rescue needed, a murder, a fire…. and I fire up google maps to see, to get some reference in my head, to try and better understand. What block is that? Where is that in reference to everything else? As I grasp to try and understand the reality of “its murder”, whats to understand really, people are dead – sinks in slowly.
I devour all the articles on how NO was due. It was DUE!! It had escaped so many weather attacks before, it was only a matter of time. That worse case is here now unfolding and its surreal to write about it 1500 miles away looking at my small downtown with the sun baking the concrete below.
Already I can feel the pens writing in Hollywood, scribbling away on 2007–8’s shocking min-series, or lifetime movie, or boxofficer rewind– Remembering New Orleans. The DVD’s will be on store shelves by xmas, retelling the story, allowing us to relive it over and over. The authors will rise, stories compiled, accounts weening from fact to plausible fiction take shape and already the Amazon.com sku’s are being crafted. The shocking photos are being saved in ultra-high resolution pain, saved for the photobook you’ll be able to buy this thanksgiving. What can I say, it’s gonna happen, is it human nature to relive pain over and over and over in as many forms as possible? For some i guess, hell I’m doing it. Am I just too damn curious? Its not me so I’m really interested? Could it be that simple?
At the gas pump yesterday i poured $32 bucks into the mini, a mere 10 gallons of gas, bursting at the $3 mark. This morning on the way in I saw that it had risen another ten cents to $3.10. At work, a co-worker said she had to pay $3.20. Another slice of panic on the streets. Bring on the hybrids. We need to get off this stuff, or diffuse our utter need for it. Build more railway systems, get rid of the suv’s that guzzle the fuel for fun, manufacturers get smart. How long can we expect to be the fat cats and get away with it? When will the worse case scenario arrive for the rest of us?
Do your part, donate. I can do that, to some extent. I still feel helpless though. Do I pray, do keep these people in my thoughts, wish them the best and hope that the humanity in all of us will shine through? I can do that. I can hope for the future no matter how bleak it seems to be. Well I guess could just get down to multiplyin.
FOX News, by far some of the worst reporting i’ve seen on the katrina effect gives me the calming headline of “The Equivalent of Armageddon!”.. thanks guys and gals, good job. Already I know that book from FOX’s perspective on all of this is nearly done, just a few more days and weeks of pain to record. On MSNBC I get “DESPERATE”.. feels hopeful. On CNN I get “SCENE OF ANARCHY” hoping that those words will help project me into the moment better. Anarchy is a good word really, A, A’s are good. BBC likes Anarchy too..
