Category: Personal

I’ve been sitting here all day, worrying about our favorite city: New Orleans. It looks seriously like Katrina could remove it from existance. Betsy and I were married in New Orleans, and we made it to Mardi Gras many, many times. We love NOLA…it’s not like any other US city. That is, it’s the most non-US of any US city…you feel like you’re in another country when you are there. The fact that this time tomorrow it could be underwater hurts me.

To give those of you some idea how serious this storm is, take a look at some of the National Weather Service advisory notes:

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS…PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL…LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL. PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD
FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE…INCLUDING SOME WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY…A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD…AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY
VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS…PETS…AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS…AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING…BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED.

HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS. Wow. Nearly everyone seems to be expecting this to be the largest natural distaster in US history.

Hopefully everyone has evacuated appropriately. This is not something to “wait out.” If someone out there finds a good blog/news site for updates, let me know.

EDIT: Here’s a couple of good webcams and local streaming stations for those following this:

http://www.portno.com/webcamnew_out.htm
http://www.wwltv.com/cgi-bin/bi/video/makeadplaylist.pl?title=beloint_wwltv&live=yes
http://www.dotd.louisiana.gov/press/traffic_cameras/cameras_no.asp?camera=Cam4

High Res satellite images from NOAA

Good blogging regarding the ‘cane from Weather Underground

Occasionally, Betsy and I will be talking, and one or the other of us will come up with what we call “Million Dollar Ideas”: Some product or service that isn’t out, but should be, and would be remarkably profitable. These are always things that we are completely incapable of implementing, so of course nothing comes of these. I’d love to be able to patent some of them (and may do that some day) but for now, we just note them.

Here’s one from today: an additive for the water of swimming pools that would increase the UV resistance of the water, to aid in the protection from the sun. Even better if it would continue to protect even after you get out. Sunscreen that was added to the water, in other words. A MILLION DOLLARS, I tell you.

Things going well for me, although Betsy seems to be having quite the time of her weekend. 🙁 I’m sure she’ll catch everyone up on her blog later, so i won’t ruin the story.

Pics and such from the weekend upcoming.

I’m heading out today for GenCon, the largest gaming convention in the world. Expect posts to be a little slow until next week.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

As Betsy knows, I’m not a grammar nerd. I don’t pay enough attention to my grammar…so why is it that improperly used quotation marks drive me up the freakin’ wall? Quotation marks and apostrophes drive me nuts, especially on signs. So now that I have a camera phone, I’ll occasionally snap one of these and share it with the world. Here’s the first, taken in a random small town in Tennessee at a gas station.

I’m not sure if the floor is not really wet, or if it’s not really a floor, or both.

Pallbearer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A pallbearer is a person who helps carry the casket of a deceased person from a religious service or viewing to their final resting place, or to and from the hearse which does so.

A pall is the heavy cloth that is draped over a coffin; by metonymy the term pallbearer is used to signify someone who bears the coffin which the pall covers.

Some traditions distinguish between these two roles, with pallbearer being an honorary position, while casketbearers do the actual heavy lifting and carrying.

Pallbearers were usually associated in an intimate manner (such as brother, uncle, father, or husband – pallbearers are not always male, but male pallbearers are the most common) with the deceased before their death, though this is not always the case.

On Friday, I served as a pallbearer for Anna Beatrice Pitman, the wife of Chester Pitman.

She was the mother of Kimmy Pitman, Brenda Mink, Beverly Sandlin, and Dottie Whitaker; the grandmother of Betsy Sandlin, Troy Sandlin Jr., Kimberly Canada, Judy Mink, Kenny Whitaker, and Adam, Alex, and Nicholas Hawk. She had seven great-grandchildren at the time of her death.

Her death was a shock, and the aftermath will be felt for some time.

We bought a house!

Ok, well…we’re buying a house. Under contract, closing Aug 31! We can’t wait…the house is nearly exactly what we were looking for: great floorplan, wonderful kitchen, just nearly perfect. We’re both just excited about having our own place again, especially when it’s so nice.

So: everyone’s invited over…we’ll make up the extra bedroom. Just give us some warning. 🙂

The official announcement of me joining the faculty at UTC is up. I don’t know quite what to think about “Professor Griffey” though.

Probable radio silence through the weekend. Got some interesting things to talk about next week, though…some possible copyright stuff, as well as an update about the job and librarianship in general.