Hurricane Katrina

[Danni]

Awww JM, can I bring Sammie to yours? Her favourite game at the moment is "how many doors can I slam shut" and your house would provide hours of entertainment. It would also be good proof on how Sims 2 toddlers are much harder to look after than real ones

[Bane~Child]

I have to wonder, J.M., if the defenses you describe are to keep out the massing hoardes of forum users that have tracked you down and want to use torture implements on you? I'm certain there are folk out there who have pretty inventive minds and could think of lots of alternative uses for a blunt spoon, some rubber bands and nice nail gun? 

I doubt even a satellite could track him down, if he set his mind to it.  Besides, I think he would enjoy this far more than he deserves.  Eventually, the atmosphere would become too party-like for him and then he would have to bid farewell to all - Right before he pulled the pin !  Talk about VFOS.  Then the real fun would begin for Pescado: hydromulching over the bodily remains and entertaining himself with finding new ways to remove any other evidence of merry-making.

You see, he really is playful and creative at heart - Long Live Pescado the Flayer.

[vecki]

They've been pushing for 'wildfire' because it 'properly conveys the out of control behaviour of fire', rather than the 'romantic images' one conjures up with bushfire.

ROMANTIC IMAGES??? I used to live in Melbourne, and some of my friends had their houses destroyed the year I was in grade 12, and we lost our beach house (yeah, yeah, boo hoo) in a bushfire. I don't attach any romance to the word. Who are they thinking of? This is the stupidest explanation I have ever heard.

Yes.  Yes it is.  Thankfully the big push seems to have died down, but I'm sure when summer rolls around we'll be hearing about the risk of 'wildfire' instead of bushfire.  And only from the MFS and CFS most likely, the news (I'm hoping) will stick to the word bushfire.

A somewhat petty thing to worry about in the grand scheme of things, but I guess if you let the little things go, it's easier to let even bigger things go by without a fight.

*linguistics/philosophy mode off*

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think even Pescado's fortress would be pretty useless if he got hit by an asteroid!

[Sandilou]

I still think JM's fortress is pretty much a prison, albeit of his own making.

[ZephyrZodiac]

All those doors clanging!  Shades of Prisoner - Cell Block H!

[Bane~Child]

I think even Pescado's fortress would be pretty useless if he got hit by an asteroid!

This is true.  His fortress may become a great smoking hole, but his hide is pure Titanium over Kevlar.

[ZephyrZodiac]

But if he was the only thing left alive, who would he have left to take pot shots at?  His social would go right into the red!

[Bane~Child]

Awww JM, can I bring Sammie to yours? Her favourite game at the moment is "how many doors can I slam shut" and your house would provide hours of entertainment. It would also be good proof on how Sims 2 toddlers are much harder to look after than real ones

Danni,

Is she big enough to push shut those heavy, vault-like doors?  She may be entertained, too, with all the various combination codes and control devices that she can find there.  Too bad she couldn't get credit for all those possible skill points - like gold they would be.

[Bane~Child]

But if he was the only thing left alive, who would he have left to take pot shots at?  His social would go right into the red!

All his Demons!  Yes, he may go into the red, but I rather think he would just embrace that challenge.  I suspect he prefers his own company anyway.

[laeshanin]

Pish, I'm certain under that gruff ol' exterior is an out and out bastard with a swinging brick for a heart. And that's just J.M.'s gentler side. Doncha just love the cuddly, grouchy old bear?

[Bane~Child]

Pish, I'm certain under that gruff ol' exterior is an out and out bastard with a swinging brick for a heart. And that's just J.M.'s gentler side. Doncha just love the cuddly, grouchy old bear?

I guess I ought to, I have one right here at home.  He's a great big, Slavik bear, too, who looks like a red Viking, but he has the cutest nose and ears.

[Danni]

Awww JM, can I bring Sammie to yours? Her favourite game at the moment is "how many doors can I slam shut" and your house would provide hours of entertainment. It would also be good proof on how Sims 2 toddlers are much harder to look after than real ones

Danni,

Is she big enough to push shut those heavy, vault-like doors?  She may be entertained, too, with all the various combination codes and control devices that she can find there.  Too bad she couldn't get credit for all those possible skill points - like gold they would be.

She's probably strong enough... she can knock me over when she puts her mind to it

She's very good with combination codes - she especially likes ones with the numbers 2 or 3 in them

I gotta get the headmaster around here soon... she'll be a child in a couple of years

[ZephyrZodiac]

Make sure you've got as many career rewards as possible, so she can max her skills before she's a teen!

[Danni]

Humm... I guess I'll have to stop being a young adult first

[ZephyrZodiac]

Or get the buyable ones!

[J. M. Pescado]

I still think JM's fortress is pretty much a prison, albeit of his own making.

The difference between a fortress and a prison is mostly in which way the guards are looking.

[ZephyrZodiac]

A medieval fortress was both!

[J. M. Pescado]

A medieval fortress was both!

That reminds me, I need a dungeon.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I'm sure you'd get some fun out of a few hours on the rack!

[Darkstormyeve]

Living in Australia, where we seem to alternate between years of drought and sudden floods washing away whole towns, with the occasional massive bushfire thrown in around Sydney almost every Christmas (I REFUSE TO SUCCUMB TO THE 'WILDFIRE' WORD THAT THEY'RE (THE SUITS AT THE METRO FIRE SERVICE)[/i] TRYING TO PUSH ON US), has made me rather grateful I live where I do, in Adelaide.  We're not as extreme as the rest of Aus, it sometimes seems.

So glad you're safe, reggikko.

You guys have no idea though, with my real name being Katrina, how weird it is to constantly see headlines telling me how much damage I've done.

Capsgirl,

You guys just get taken by Great White Sharks whenever you go near the sea.

I'll stick to Canberra with our painful policitics.

[Darkstormyeve]

Update:

My son drove down to New Orleans from Baton Rouge and checked on my house. Most of my fence was blown over, my porch doors were torn to shreds, and my sycamore tree dropped a large branch on one corner of the roof. We lost a lot of shingles, but that was the extent of the damage. We do have water service, but don't yet have electricity and telephone service is spotty. . Apparently many of my neighbors have returned and are starting to clean up. I don't plan to go back until we have power, but i don't think that will take very long to restore. The neighboring parish has electricity, and we are the next step on the grid.

Most of my relatives have been accounted for. My elderly aunt and uncle are in Birmingham, Alabama. My best friend has not been heard from since before the hurricane.

In defense of Mayor Nagin, he did begin asking people to voluntarily evacuate before the storm. His hands were somewhat tied by state evacuation policy and the state police. How do people propose that he could have fully evacuated a city of nearly a half million people? The city does not have those kinds of resources. One other point. The city survived the hurricane just fine. Yes, there was damage and some flooding. It wasn't until the levee broke that all hell broke loose. The levee system is under the jurisdiction of the Army Corps of Engineers, not the city of New Orleans.

I don't think that blaming the victims of this is fair or rational. We all (except Pescado) are vulnerable to forces of nature. As someone else commented, last time I checked, we were part of the same nation. I pay my taxes and I expect my government to respond to the needs of my neighbors, no matter where in this country they may live.

Reg,

I am just pleased to hear that you are ok and so is your house, bar stuff that can be fixed. I am just appalled by the media broadcast of what has been happening over there. I'm in Australia and the tourists that have been saved from rape and murder by our media over there shooting the stories for the news have come home with some horrific stories. Its sounds like a Mad Max film or people are saying here, Lord of the Flies. Our govt is being hammered for not going in to get Australians but instead the media are doing it. Our Govt in turn is blaming the US govt for not letting our overseas officials in. Sounds like caos to me. Lots of finger pointing. Still it does sound weird to build a city below sea level. Why is that? I was only saying to my hubbie a few weeks back that I would like to visit the States again and see New Orleans in particular. Oh well. I'll head north instead, visit Montana and the Rocky's.

Cheers
Stormy.

[laeshanin]

All the people who have been affected by Katrina please know that my thoughts are with them in the wake of this terrible event, and through the following days when they will need great fortitude and courage to rebuild their homes/lives. I can only imagine the devastation on a personal level this has/will cause. Blessed be.

On a different note, of all the controversy that is surrounding the subsequent (poor) response to the disaster, I feel the most terrifying is the anarchy that appears to have broken out. I wonder if this is a testement to our failure as a society that those whose motives are less than pure seek to take over? Is this evolution in progress and evidence of our opportunistic abilites as a species to survive? Scary... Watching the news today, a survivor in New Orleans pointed out that many of those at the thick of the lawlessness are youngsters, poor before, but now homeless and without anyone to assist them as families are dead. I grieve for those young people who had little chance before but are now likely to end their lives even more ignominiously, if that is possible, by being on the receiving end of a bullet. Tragic and wasteful.

[ZephyrZodiac]

And I'll bet while some kids have gone off the rails like this, yet others are doing their best to help remaining family to survive until help arrives.  I know which ones have my sympathies.

[laeshanin]

Please don't think that I'm all sympathy for the kids that are out doing the bad. No, my sorrow is that it should come to this at all.