Well, I guess it's time to start something else. My Diaryland.com diary being gone, I was rather inspired by RSF's cyber-dissident guide about blogging where it's not exactly legal to do so. Me, being the fat American oaf I am, am not fully taking advantage of this medium.

This is, of course, not to say that I have an interesting life. I don't, actually. But occasionally weird, creepy, or downright cool things happen. Things that deserve their own space, or pictures that deserve to be shown to the world. That being said, I am a Katrina survivor. Three weeks without electricity, two days without water, and fighting crowds for 6 hours at a time to get a trickle of gasoline. Sitting in lines at the local home improvement store in the vain hopes of getting a generator to run a fan or a TV to see what exactly the hell was happing around me.

I got the generator, but when I finally cranked up the TV, the only station available to me at the time was showing something that wasn't exactly informative. Yep. Katie Couric trading makeup tips with someone. "Ok," I thought to myself, "maybe later they'll show us where to get some supplies." I cranked it up again, spending gasoline, mind you, and it was LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY. I was ready to shoot someone.

The voices in the dark streets, the whispers in my front yard of God-knows-who. I didn't know if we were going to live through it. And then, a week into it, Popeye's chicken opened. It was mild and not spicy, but I could not be choosy. After a week of Vienna sausages and hot bottled water, I didn't complain at all. The next day, we began another round of canned slop with lukewarm water.

I had my first cold beer since the storm last week, and it was everything I had hopes for. Enough talk, on to the pictures.



My front yard could be confused with a lake. I stood out on the porch during the worst part. The tornado sirens were buzzing all through the city. Paranoid freaks like me will recall that one day this could also signify an air-raid warning, but we'll just worry about the TWELVE (12) tornadoes that touched down in my county. Notice the floating debris and the sticks jammed into the ground. Those sticks were driven a foot and a half in the ground!

This is my back yard afterwards. Note that the trees are touching my house, but aren't on TOP of my house. I was actually QUITE fortunate, considering what my parents and neighbours looked like.

This is what my parents' old van looked like. They didn't use it much, so it only had the bare minimum insurance. We used it to go on vacations and to football games in the fall months. Obviously, it won't be doing much of anything anymore.

All in all, I am glad we're alive. The response from the government was slow, but nowhere as near as bad as some Louisiana government officals would lead the world to believe. New Orleans is a cesspool of feces, bodies, and filth due to stupidity, plain and simple. To end, I am going to post a few pictures from the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

I have no idea why this is here, considering it's on the side of the highway and all.

This boat was found all fouled up. It was found in waters where a boat in similar conditions was hauled up and found to have a group of 12 Vietnamese fishermen aboard. Apparently they died huddled together on their boat, the 0nly home a lot of these guys ever really know. It's really sad to think about. This may actually be the boat, but since I didn't check my facts, I won't say. So be sad and unsure of it, just like I am. :(

I like this picture of what's left of the famed Beavoir home, which at one point was the "White House" of the Confederacy and home of its only president, Jefferson Davis. The sign is hilarious and reflects the dark sense of humour these coastal people have developed over the years. They painted this while there were coffins lying on the ground. The storm surge forced them out of their tombs and left them strewn about.