Ivan Vs. Katrina

Today was a very tiresome day because I spent much of it tabling under the sun at the Organization Fair and the Gone To Texas stuff in addition to help setting up the CNS GTT sea of organizations before the main event on South Mall. I left home at 11:18AM and arrived a little after 8:30PM so that tells you how crazy it was and a part of me still wasn't totally happy yet despite being around some cool people (read: NSC dorks). I guess I was a little homesick still, but coming home tonight with a lot of our problems with the apartment fixed (namely the a/c) made it feel more homey and now I feel a lot better. I hope it continues onto the first day of classes tomorrow. What I thought I'd talk about today, since everyone else is, is dealing with Hurricane Katrina. This article was written in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan last year and provides an almost haunting insight into the dilemma facing New Orleans right now. I don't like to subscribe to all that apocalyptic theory nonsense, but I really am starting to get worried. Will they really be able to rebuild New Orleans for a while? I'm sure not in time for Mardi Gras, which is its big money maker. What about gas prices? The increase to $70 a barrel has hit everyone hard and can't be good news for the economy. Are we headed into another depression? Am I just too pessimistic? With less money to spend on money people will go out less, which means they'll spend less, which means less money will float along, which means that less people will have money and companies will start laying off and so on. I'm going to leave this paragraph at the thought that was nestled within that run-on sentence.

Since I ended up talking about gas prices I'll open the nerd news with the research into a self-driving car with cruise control that would keep a safe distance between the car in front and stay in its own lane. I know that I'll accidentally drift sometimes so that'd be a pretty nifty feature to have. There's a kind of neat article here sarcastically listing the top 5 reasons to not use Linux and is a defense against Wintel naysayers. We may hear about an iPod cellphone as soon as next week due to a partnership between Apple and Motorola putting iTunes on a new Motorola phone and allowing the play of songs on the phone as well. I guess that would really be a yuppie phone though.



Now for a look at the most prominent movie news today. I was personally most exciting with the advent of a trailer for George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck as I was very enchanted by Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and this one looks even better. The movies seems to be a pretty realistic look into the diffusion McCarthyism era. Another movie to look forward to is Southland Tales, which has a whole slew of confirmed actors including many SNL veterans. I like how Richard Kelly is creating buzz through sparse releases of cool information. Scream series star Neve Campbell has announced that she will return for Scream 4 thanks to some coaxing from the brothers Weinstein and so it must be something pretty special for her to do another one. And finally, the Casino Royale script is being revised by Million Dollar Baby writer Paul Haggis. If the script has to actually be fixed up that doesn't portend good things for the movie, but at least they're putting some effort into it.

Now for a great Ten on Tuesday:

10 Lessons You Want to Teach Your Kids
10. Sex isn't the most important thing in life and neither is money.
9. Reading is much more fulfilling than watching tv.
8. Don't squander your cash, even if you want every other DVD that comes out.
7. Stay loyal to your friends and they will stick with you or will get their just desserts.
6. Understanding the opposite sex is a lifetime journey, so don't try to find all the answers too soon.
5. Being popular is quite overrated.
4. Treat others with dignity and respect because to do otherwise helps no one.
3. There is no pleasure without pain.
2. Trust me, honesty really is the best policy.
1. Always be yourself.