Rememberance-- Katrina vs 9/11, I think our gov't is trying to tell us something

So, I have been watching TV, and getting newsletters from moveon.org and other places.

A few weeks ago, I noticed that a movie about 9/11 has come out. It is supposed to be a moving, true story tale of some heroes who were trapped beneath one of the towers, but survived.

Meanwhile, on discovery, the health channel, and other cable networks, shows about Katrina are popping up.

I wasn't surprised about Katrina, it's been about a year, and the media needs to be sure we haven't forgotten. That makes sense, that's why christmas is celebrated yearly, lest we forget. Humans are silly like that.

But, 9/11? Why wait only five years or so and create a sappy movie about something that still freaks us all out? Something that obviously is no longer on our President's agenda, even though he threatens us with higher alert status every time we don't seem to like him. He's obviously more interested in iraqi freedom, than punishing those that wantonly attacked us.

So why was the movie allowed to go through? Why remind us of something tragic that encourages us to take a look at what started the war on terror that has caused us to be redirected to a war on iraq? Why make us angry?

Well, consider this: Midterm elections are coming out. Katrina memoriums were bound to surface. Katrina is a definite black mark on the current administration's record. Clear proof that the powers that we pay are incompetent. It repulses us.

But, 9/11? Well, despite proof that the prez dropped the ball, that it could possibly have been stopped, that we are currently *not* doing anything to avenge our dead, it still triggers a blind, "damn those towelheads" patriotism. The "oh my god, all those innocent people died" knee jerk reaction is a good way to distract american voters from the katrina news that will be floating around the media this week and next. Katrina is undeniable proof that our current government is being run by idiots, with 9/11, there's deniability.

It's kind of like covering the smell of rotten meat with the equally repelling smell of lysol disinfectant. Both stink, but the lysol is actually more nasty and lingers longer. And, it is associated with things that *should* be good for you.

If we wanted to do right by all those that lost their lives, or those suffering without their loved ones because of 9/11, then we should have spent more time crushing osama, and less time defending our oil fields, I mean, bringing democracy to the middle east.

It's just a thought. I mean, I'm just your average joe, so what would I know?

Sick of being sick

So, as you may know, I have bunches of allergies that require me to strictly control my diet in order to be healthy.

It has also caused me to avoid my airconditioning this summer, because of the dust and mold in the ductwork of my house.

Well, winter is fast approaching, and according to my research, it may be that even getting my ductwork cleaned may not help me avoid the airborne allergens that have been such a common part of my life up until this summer. Nonetheless, I have to try.

I am going to be doing research (and cleaning the house) in order to prepare for the big day. I'll let you know what happens. All I know is, after all the work I have done to get as healthy as possible, I can't let the central air come back on this autumn without being sure that its clean.



Special Dark

So after working for about four months on various projects that required hours and hours and hours and hours in Word, I was interested when someone mentioned writely.com.

This site/company (recently purchased by google) is about doing word processing online. Originally it was probably focused on giving formatting and style tools to people who are writing online, like bloggers or page designers. But with the added option of being able to save as pdf, word, openoffice files types, as well as the standard versioning features (which anyone who has ever had to collaborate on a blog entry appreciates), make this good for those non-blog writers too.

Like me.

With this product I can write or upload a document (I am not sure about complex styles or templates though), share it with a few people, have versioning, and can even post it publicly for review. And, all in one place. I have had several hard drives crash, a power supply burn out, and a laptop fail during my recent projects, leaving me working from multiple different machines at different times, isolating my recent changes on a document on one machine or another, at risk of another crash or loss at any time. It was hard to keep it recent, or even remember which external drive I put it on at one point (lack of sleep, and too many projects going at once can be blamed for that).

This way the document is always accessible and *in one place* from start to finish. And, from a collaborative standpoint, no more emailing versions to teammates and waiting for them to email it back. You can see what's happening to it and how far they've gotten (although I fear the dreaded edit conflicts, so look but don't touch might be good).

And, of course, true to its roots, a document created at writely.com can be posted to your blog (as long as it's one of the blogs it has listed, or you know the api and path for you blog (good luck with msn spaces). That's where this entry came from (and why a not so personal entry is here).