A Simple Plan

I have a plan which I concocted a few weeks ago, and with a little luck, it may finally begin to come to fruition next week. This plan is primarily being driven by the constant nagging in my brain caused by my financial situation. I’m not that bad off, I pay my bills, and don’t have anything being repossessed, but I would like to we able to just make all the debt vanish. Bankruptcy of course is one option, but there are a multitude of reasons as to why that is a bad idea.

So, I came up with a better one. It’s a little far fetched, and perhaps a tad crazy, but it just might work. Here are the things I thought about that got me to come up with the plan.

Since I started travelling in January, one thing I found that I could do to pass the time in different places and have some fun is to play NTN trivia. I get online and find a place near where I’m staying that has the trivia, then go there to eat dinner. Its usually a sports bar like TGI Fridays or something. Also, to pass the time on flights, I started doing crosswords and other word and logic games in those magazines.

So, one night while eating dinner at home and watching TV, the idea came to me. I was watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and thought, “Damn, if I could just get on that show I could maybe win some money and pay off this debt.” I figured that I could travel to New York to be on the show for free, since I have steadily built up a ton of airline miles and hotel points since January. I looked into the requirements to be on the show and figured out what I needed to do.

Then, as luck would have it, I was assigned a job for next week in the Bronx. This puts me next door to where the show is taped, so I got online and requested a ticket and an audition. So, I am set to go for next week. Wednesday at 2PM I will be there to take the test and do the interview, and with any luck, I might make it into the contestant pool. If so, I would then be called at some time in the future and have to travel back to New York to actually be on the show. That’s where my miles and points would be used.

In the meantime, I am continuing to play NTN and trying to keep my brain shiny. Stay tuned to see what happens with this.

A Little Bit of Rita

Ironically, my supervisor’s name is Rita. I have yet to do anything to really test her patience, so I don’t know if her wrath is comparable to that of this hurricane. This storm is obviously unique in the aspect that it is the first one to hit since Katrina. Had Katrina not happened, or not been as bad as it was, you wouldn’t have nearly the attention you have on Rita.

It seems almost funny to me the reactions of officials with Rita. In my opinion, their overly paranoid preparedness illustrates just how bad they screwed up for Katrina. Governor Blanco was declaring a state of emergency before Rita had even passed Key West and entered the Gulf. Before Katrina, she wouldn’t have done that until at least half of the coast had been leveled. As far as New Orleans goes, I gotta tip my hat to those people who will be going back after all this is over. To have to leave, then have most things wiped out, then try and go back, then be told to leave again, then to go back again…….well, I gotta think it will really take a lot of willpower to start over again.

Its also going to be interesting to see how FEMA reacts to whatever area gets to host Rita. My guess is that they will be rolling in supplies and help before the winds even stop. Once again, I think they will show how stupid they are by overreacting to this storm. Its like the little kid whose mom doesn’t watch him for a second and he burns himself, then for the rest of his life she doesn’t allow him within 100 yards of anything even remotely warm.

If I were in charge of things, one of the first things I would address would be these refugees who lined up for help, only to waste it on stupid things. First, I don’t think anybody should have just been given a stack of money and smiled at. These people should have been made to do something in order to get that money. I know the majority of these people are just sitting around at the shelter, being waited on by volunteers, and not lifting a finger, unless of course it’s to get a volunteers attention to ask ‘where my check is?”

I have heard the stories of people taking the $2000 Red Cross debit card to the strip club, or to the designer shops. I put some of that blame on the store owners. I know it might be a credit card, but if I owned a store, and someone came in with one of those cards and brought $1000 pair of shoes to my counter, I would spin them around. The card clearly says Red Cross or FEMA on it. Prada shoes don’t qualify as essential disaster relief items.

This should be treated like the Louisiana Purchase food stamp card. Having worked in a grocery store before, I can tell you why they had to go to that card. Back when food stamps were a form of paper money, I used to see this guy come in every day and dry hump the system. He would find the cheapest food item in the store and pay with a $1 food stamp. He would do this about 5 or 6 times in a row, collecting the coins of change, then come back to the register with a beer and drop down the handful of change to pay.

FEMA and the Red Cross should have made these cards only good at certain places and only good for certain things. Anyone caught buying unnecessary stuff should be shot on the spot. Maybe they can use the cards to buy ‘surplus’ merchandise from the looters stash.

I’m sure these same people are waiting in line already to get their ‘Rita’ credit cards. They should be handed a clipboard with some paperwork attached to it, and told to sign it in order to get the card. Then, as they get the card, they should also be handed a uniform and told, “Congratulations, and welcome to the National Guard. Report for your training at 5AM tomorrow morning.”

Streets of Philadelphia

I spent last week in Philadelphia. The city of brotherly love. I did not personally experience any of this love, but did see a transsexual male in a dress, who walked past me on the street at a rather frantic pace.

I liked Philly. Since I was staying in the heart of downtown, I walked a lot. I think I might actually get to be in decent shape if I lived in such a place as this, where walking is the easiest way to get around.

The most exciting thing I did while there was to visit the restaurant Morimoto. For those out there who don’t know, Morimoto is one of the Iron Chefs from the Food Network TV show. It’s a cool place. Very trendy and modern. And quite expensive. I decided to go the cheap route, just to at least be able to say that I had been there.

Something interesting also; the following night I went to another downtown Philly restaurant and overheard a girl sitting at the bar say she was from New Orleans. I chatted with her and apparently she fled the storm to stay with an aunt who lives in Philly. I politely let her know not to rush back home, since the area was still a mess. I guess its true that people are really scattered all over the country now.

Of course the other ‘excitement’ I encountered on this trip had to do with getting there and getting back home. It seems that even though its been 3 weeks since the hurricane, Continental still cannot get a damn flight between Houston and Baton Rouge to operate on time.

LA - The Good One??

I felt that I needed to post a blog about my recent trip to Los Angeles, since it serves as the focal point of the title of my blog. I don’t know how much better it really is, especially since I have now been there. Let’s visit a few of my experiences.

First, the traffic is horrible. Even though unlike here at home, they have freeways everywhere, complete with 27 lanes of traffic in both directions. I drove up to the Valley from LAX and even at 10PM Pacific time it was quite packed. People there seem to drive with complete recklessness and blatant disregard for everyone else on the road. Its as if everyone has a bumper sticker on their vehicle that says “How’s My Driving? Call 1-800-F*&K-YOU”.

Second, there are all the fake plastic people all around. All the women seem like they are trying to keep up with all the Hollywood types all around. I mean, even the cleaning lady at the hotel had a Louis Vuitton bag and Prada shoes. There are also quite a few ‘actors’ and ‘actresses’ there. I use the terms in quotes since they are of the starving variety. I was talking with one woman while getting some food, and she told me she was an ‘actress’, but when asked what kinds of things she had done, she said, ‘nothing yet’. It’s as if I said, “I’m a mechanic, but I have never fixed a car.”

She went on to tell me that she had met with a producer the day before, but he only wanted to sleep with her. What I thought was funny was that she pointed out the fact that he was about 100 years old as being the chief reason why this wasn’t a good idea. I guess what they say about the casting couch is really true.

I did leave LA with a good feeling though. As I walked from the Avis car rental return booth to the main entrance to the Burbank airport I passed several different police and firefighters who were collecting money for hurricane relief. I guess it goes to show who the real celebrities out there are.

The REAL Surreal Life

Life here in Baton Rouge has definetly become quite surreal as of late. Baton Rouge is now the largest city in Louisiana. Here at home, there is constant helicopter activity in the air. The population of the area seems to have multiplied exponentally over the last week. Everywhere you go, traffic is steady and busy, businesses are crowded and streets are packed. A visit to the new Wal-Mart last night really brought things into focus. The grocery department was nearly barren. No eggs, no cheese, no meats of any kind, no bread. Gas is difficult to find. Most stations are empty, and those that aren’t have lines out onto the streets. You see people in large trucks and SUVs with dozens of gas cans filling them incessantly.

The pharmacy was equally as busy. The drive up window and normal counters in the store were closed off, and there were six lines at the pickup window. People lined up trying to get prescriptions, trying to get consultations. Housing here had also become crazy. There are no vacancies at any hotel, motel, no apartments, nothing. Houses on the market have either been sold, or get sold within hours on being listed.

The Baton Rouge airport has become the second busiest airport in the United States, almost overnight. The carriers who were already there have added tons of flights, and new airlines have come in as well. There are cargo flights bringing in supplies day and night. The national guard headquarters is right next to the airport, and it has become fully operational, with buses, trucks and helicopters all around.

I don’t know what I think about Baton Rouge becoming a metropolis. I think its going to happen, but I don’t think we are ready for it yet. In 1900, when Galveston, Texas was destroyed by a hurricane, Galveston was a city. In fact, it was the second wealthiest city in the United States. Also at that time, Houston was nothing but a small town 45 miles away. Those who survived that hurricane moved to Houston. Today of course, Galveston is small coastal city, and Houston is a mega-metropolis. This looks to be history repeating itself here in Louisiana today.

On a more postitive note, I see trucks filled with supplies going down the highways, and donation centers are very busy with people bringing in supplies. Our church donated 1500 cases of baby formula last week, and was expecting two more 18 wheeler loads of supplies from a cargo flight yesterday. Support is pouring in from all over the country and the world.

I think things are finally turning around in and around New Orleans. It appears that the city is being drained and that most of the survivors have been rescued. I’m hoping that by the time I get back home from my trip tomorrow to LA (the good one, lol) that things will be even better.

Help New Orleans

Please visit this link and help the city and the people of New Orleans.

Thank you.

http://www.pierrepart.net/katrina.htm

Please pass this on to as many people as you can.

Aftermath

Well, I had no idea how bad this storm would be, or what the disaster would be like following it. Its truly horrible, and I sincerely hope that it will be remedied soon.

I can remember as a kid watching these special programs that would air on television every year at the beginning of hurricane season. I used to watch the one from the New Orleans ABC channel, and I can recall the meteorologist saying what would happen if a powerful hurricane ever hit New Orleans directly. I can still recall how unbelievable I thought it was to hear him say that the city would be under 10 feet of water. I know at the time that I thought obviously if this is a known threat, then someone must be working on a plan for such a disaster.

Keep in mind that this was almost 20 years ago that I saw this. I couldn’t imagine that people there would just rely on luck to assume they would never be faced with such a thing. As I’m sure most people have seen, the limited measures that were in place failed miserably, and now most of the area is underwater as a result of it. I don’t think that there was any way that you could be completely ready for something as bad as Katrina, but surely they could have been much better prepared.

I have quite a few opinions on the refugees that were left in the city, and the looters and thugs that emerged from that group. I will carefully choose what to say here, so as not to come across as too redneck. Basically what you have seen is the end result of people who are slave to a welfare system that have failed them. Poor, uneducated, and socially unaware people who didn’t have barely anything to start with, are now faced with even less. How do people expect them to act? As for the looters, that should have been expected from the start. I can’t imagine that anyone actually thought you could confine such a group in one place with no real security and not expect these things to happen. Long before the hurricane, there were neighborhoods in New Orleans that not even the police would enter. The storm just spread those people out more, and put them on television.

I’m still reeling from the comment made by US Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. His suggesting that New Orleans should maybe just not be rebuilt was not only stupid, but indicative of his sheer ignorance about the world. No matter where you live in the world, you are subject to some sort of threat from Mother Nature. Here in the US, California has its earthquakes, Hawaii has volcanoes, the north has ice storms and blizzards, and the Midwest (where Mr. Hastert hails from) has tornadoes. I suppose if his town was shredded by a tornado, then he wouldn’t want to have it rebuilt either. Amazing.

Anyway, back here at home, things are not that far from normal. I didn’t have power for about 2 ½ days, but I wasn’t here for half of that time. There are definetely many more people in the area, and the stores have started shutting their doors at 10PM or so, rather than staying open 24 hours. The sound of helicopters are quite prevalent all around. The nearby field that usually is only used for the state fair is now a staging area for relief efforts. There are tanker trucks lined up, tents, moving vans, and RVs everywhere.

The media has in my opinion, done a really bad job of covering things here. They basically made it look like the inability to instantly fix the situation equated to nothing being done. You can’t just instantly rescue and relocate over a million people. You can’t expect people placed in an emergency shelter at the last minute to not run out of food at some point, and for the toilets to clean themselves. Sure it was horrible, but the media spins it almost as if it was done intentionally.

In reality the only thing that will fix this situation and bring relief is time. It will take time to get things back to normal, and time to put New Orleans back together. I wish there were a way to just fast forward time and get to that day when things normalize, but its not going to be for a long time.