(no subject)

[lenora_rose]

I've been e-mailing back and forth with Jeff, as my attempt to phone him was less than successful. I've asked his permission to post quotes here. Once I get it, I will, but in the meantime, he's basically okay, as is his apartment.

If you have his phone number, do call him, or try to (Mom got through fine several times, and what happened to me may have been a freak thing for that one night.) Or e-mail him. He wants to hear from people, or so I was told. (If you have neither, e-mail me.)
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Schoolwork proceeds apace. My first project, yay, looks like it will involve as much or more of the finicky little detail I seem to put myself in for. Bunches of peacock feathers! Plus throwing plates etc. Plus, I suspect, an outdoor staircase in miniature.

And the professor this year wants us to put the first project up as a show in University Centre in the GOSA. In late October.

Two reasons to hesitate to go to Regina, now:

One: I'm not sure how work will like me asking yet one more day off.

Two: See above re project full of finicky details. Feathers! And no, this time, real ones won't do, even if you could find me them.

The friend formerly known as abacchus, when he had an lj, took me on the first phase of mandolin shopping today, pointing out the pros and cons of: an actual mandolin, a straight guitar, a "guitar-shaped bouzouki" (Aka, take a guitar, do weird things to it, play it like an octave mandolin), and discussions of other variations outside either my price range or my current interest (Octave mandolin, Tenor guitar, tenor banjo, actual bouzouki, turning a twelve string into a guitar-shaped bouzouki). The theory helped: I could follow most of it (I have some background, if not enough, and while Abacchus gets technical, he does it right; uses clear language, defines special terms, and explains without making one feel dumb.)

I also signed myself up for driving lessons Friday and Sunday evenings. Eek....

Hurricane Ike had an additional bad effect: I also just gave in and set myself a Facebook profile. With the sole intent of being better able to keep track of my friends and relations. Now, does anyone know how I opt out of as many of the horrifically invasive, or nuisancical applications and nonsense as possible?

Off to do a bit of Wii Fit, then sleep.

Comments

[vilashna.livejournal.com]

you choose if you want to add the applications and nonsense except for the basic stuff you automatically have, which i think some of that you could remove if you wanted. You'll get invitations to add certain applications and things, you can choose not to add them if you want. I do all the time. Theres a few cool/commonly used ones though. you can look at what they are a bit without adding them so you can decide if you want it.

You might also want to go through and double check what your settings are, especially for privacy and security and such.

[bighairyviking.livejournal.com]

While I'm not sure how to explain in text how to configure Facebook so as not to be annoyance central, it *can* be done. Sometime I'll spend time with you when we're not gaming and show you how.

Please pass on to Jeff

[senekal.livejournal.com]

That I'm glad he's okay.

A close friend of mine is on 'Volunteer wait' down there. He's a Dallas K-9 Police officer and could get sent down to help survivors in and around Galveston so because of that I've been getting pretty good info on just how bad it was. Some entirely communities were completely flattened. In one, just five buildings standing out of over a thousand before the storm.

So yeah - very glad Jeff's safe and sound.

[(Anonymous)]

Here's some random slices of hurricane-recovery life from the last 24 hours or so (not necessarily in chronological order).

Went through the main stretch of the Medical Center yesterday. Power is back in that area, except some traffic lights; I understand it's a combination of some things being back on the grid and others having backup generators of their own. A few corners are cordoned off to pedestrians for fear of glass falling from the (few but scary-looking) broken windows. Chipotle was open (had my first post-hurricane burrito), with a sign on the door saying they're closing at eight to respect the 9 PM curfew. Just one problem with the logic there - the curfew is now at midnight. I let the manager know. She seemed surprised; information is not getting out as reliably as might be hoped for.

Just had my first hot shower in a few days (though not my first since the storm, since my tank had plenty of hot water in it when power was lost). There's a shower stall in the bathroom upstairs from the philosophy grad office at Rice.

Found an open laundromat by my old place. Jam-packed. Told me they could wash my stuff for me if I didn't mind waiting until tomorrow to pick it up. Suits me fine.

Speaking of my old place, for all the nasty things I said about them a couple of years ago, they have their power back, and have for a few days now. They're right next to Reliant Stadium, which both FEMA and Centerpoint were using as a staging area at different times; I guess getting power back to the stadium made it easy to get power back to them too.

Ran into a dude from Centerpoint working on some fallen power lines and quickly asked him, essentially, "I know you're not a decision-maker, but WTF's up with that map from yesterday?". The map in question shows their projected dates for getting power back on to different areas; nearly all of Houston proper, including my place, is vaguely listed as "after Monday the 22nd" (the worst category). On the surface, this would seem to be the exact opposite of what they've been promising - to focus on more densely populated areas first, to get as many people back on the as possible as quickly as possible. What he told me was that the focus is now on getting businesses back up and running so people can go to work; residential areas are a lesser priority, at least for the moment. I guess that makes sense - keep the economy moving and make it possible for people to get the things they need, and as a side-effect, it *does* at least get people into air-conditioning and such for much of the day. But he also closed by pointing out that they now have 7000-plus workers in from out of state and by tomorrow *ALL* of them will be out working on the actual lines; "so you gon' see some shit start to fly real soon," he said with a grin (I almost expected him to add "muthafucka" on the end of that). He was pretty upbeat for a guy who's been working double shifts (as everyone from Centerpoint has) and probably been used as a verbal punching bag a lot by less understanding individuals than myself. And whose own power, he pointed out, isn't back on yet either.

After a *VERY* frustrating time with getting ice, or failing to, the last couple of days (fortunately, my existing supply had not yet melted) I got some almost by accident today. I came to Rice intending to take the aforementioned shower and realized that, having flown completely in the face of the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy's advice, I had forgotten to bring a towel. The nearest Target store (which is open) was closer than home and I've been meaning to get at least one more towel anyway, so I decided to go there and buy one. And on my way back to catch my bus after doing so, I noticed that the nearby Fiesta store had taken down their "No Ice" sign from the previous day, and, seeing that I had 15 minutes to make the 8-minute walk to my bus stop, I decided to stop in. Sure enough, they had ice! I grabbed a couple of bags and barely managed to catch my bus. I transferred, not to the 700 to get back to Rice, but to the 27 to get back home and get it set up properly before heading back to school to *finally* get my shower.

Oh, and according to Facebook, Dani fucked off to Austin yesterday.