This Year's posts

Archive for September, 2005

Jacob in Houston

Wednesday, September 7th, 2005

My friend Jacob is at the Astrodome in Houston.

He’s blogging and posting photos to Flickr.

Adam on Refugees

Wednesday, September 7th, 2005

My friend Adam shares his account of dealing with Katrina refugees.

USMNT, Germany 2006

Monday, September 5th, 2005

For those who don’t know, the US Men’s National soccer Team (MNT) qualified for next year’s World Cup in Germany on Saturday.

Way to go guys!

Now I just need to find a way to make it to Germany next summer.

Katrina

Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Note: Written without editing…

I’m trying to fathom what’s going on in the South.

And I can’t.

I have a couple friends who live in New Orleans. Or, I should say, used to live in New Orleans. They made it out alright, but on the way out, they saw their apartment on the news. Submerged. They have nothing to go back to.

I got all this from a voicemail I received from my friend Owen on Tuesday. I haven’t been able to talk to him since then, because there are ongoing problems with the 504 area code (and even though he’s no longer there, he still have a 504 area code cell phone).

I feel extremely distanced from the disaster. Sure, I’m 2,000+ miles away in San Francisco and don’t know anyone who’s still missing or struggling to make it to safety. But there’s something more…

When 9/11 happened, I sat in front of a TV for days, soaking in the coverage. Nevermind that that there was not a great deal of ongoing disaster (as compared to Hurricane Katrina, which had secondary effects in New Orleans of levees breaking and rivers and lakes flooding)- in other words, I kept watching TV, though there wasn’t much new to report after the first day.

Hurricane Katrina has caused damage in epic proportions; there is ongoing violence in New Orleans; people are still missing and trapped! But until today, outside of worrying about my friends, I hadn’t really been effected emotionally by the disaster.

I think its because I don’t have a TV*.

That’s right- because I don’t have a TV to watch the coverage on, I feel that the disaster is as distant as something I’d read about in a book. My exposure to the disaster has been almost entirely textual- I’ve read blogs (see: Technorati page on Hurricane Katrina) and MSM news reports. But this interface has not affected me emotionally. It wasn’t until I started pouring over photos of the disaster this evening that things began to effect me.

And its too much for me.

I can’t imagine an entire city under water. But I can see aerial photos of the before and after. Look at those photos and zoom in on them. Notice all the blue-green coloring between the buildings- most of the city is under water and there’s no way to get that water out until after the levees are repaired.

I am starting to see effects of the storm here in California- gas prices are rising dramatically. That’s because 1/3 of our oil comes through New Orleans. And at least 20 oil rigs are missing and most of the oil production in the Gulf is shut down.

Back to the 9/11- then I sat in front of the TV in shock. Now I sit in front of my computer in shock. And I blog in shock.

This is too much to take in.

Notes:

* Well, I have a TV, but no cable- DVDs only.