I wonder if this would work:

1) Persons who own property in affected areas designated for assistance, who may not necessarily have damage to that property, apply for (and receive) federal aid (numbers I've heard hover around $2,000).

2) Turn around and donate that assistance to the Red Cross, Catholic Charities, etc. (whomever you are directing your donations to for this disaster).

3) Ta-da! The people who aren't bumbling around like idiots, and instead are getting aid out, have some necessary help.

I know, it's likely to get people charged with fraud, but it's a great idea in my book.

This is something I typed on Sarah's blog, while discussing the "failed" evacuation efforts. Modified slightly to be a stand-alone post. I don't know why I rant on about this crap, as though my opinion matters...
---
We consider the shortcomings of the evacuation effort in NoLa, demand more troops and the like, but consider that every National Guardsman needs a bed to sleep in, food to eat, and a place to poop. A lot of the folks down there don't even have that.

I'd rather the Red Cross provide that for their own members rather than arbitrarily taking it out of my tax dollars.

Call me heartless if you'd like, but I prefer to have the choice of how much of my money goes into this, and where it goes.

And while I'm at it, I love these people who are crying "racism" in the evacuation efforts. They came, they landed, they got shot at, they left. It's better to come back later with a live pilot and working helicopter than have to find another of each. You want help, don't shoot at the people trying to help you.

I saw the strangest thing amongst the news reports this morning. A group of people sitting on the side of the road until a police car rolls by. At which time, they get up and begin screaming at the car (by my estimation, trying to encourage it to stop so people can get a ride). Unsurprisingly, the police car rolls right along. I would too, with the reports of shootings and the like. I wouldn't want to become a victim. These people know where the evacuation points are, and if they don't, then shame on the media members who would go film these people and not tell them where to go to get help.

And while I'm on the subject, who sits around and waits for someone to get them out? I'm sorry, but I'm pounding pavement and getting the hell out of there if it's me. Damned welfare babies.

I'm sorry, but you can't shoot at the national guard, then blame the evacuation mess on the government. People complain that there is anarchy, but don't want the police to take matters into their own hands, and don't want them to pull out until the situation is safe, so they're supposed to just hunker down and eat bullets? It's a freakin' no win situation!

And now lawyers are down there signing people up for a class-action lawsuit.

I wish I could say I was shocked.

There s/he is. Facing down. Looks kinda like a baby now.

Clearly facing downward, there's a nice profile of the face.

Heart was beating at 154 BPM. S/he kept running away from the doppler so we had to go get another picture taken.

Not that I'm complaining.

Watched Futurama tonight. Fry had $0.93 in his bank account, gaining interest at a rate of 2%. The teller stated that he now had $4.3 billion in his account.

After doing some quick calculations, knowing the inputs, in even the best instance (continuously compounding interest), his balance should be $451,203,631.73.

When you're talking about numbers that big, a single order of magnitude makes a big difference.

My guess...these guys wrote the software.

There (s)he is...in all his/her glory.

We're a week farther along than we thought we were. The date on the lower right is the due date.

create your own personalized map of the USA

There comes a point in any project that goes past simply buying-in to the idea. It's where you adopt the idea, mold it into your very existance. You become neigh unseperable from the project itself, and it begins to define you more than you define it.

I think that's what happened at ESPN 1450.

The turning point came when Don White was the GM here. Any other sane person would have left in a heartbeat, even after getting just one paycheck late. I suffered through 13 consecutive deliquent paychecks. That's over six months of not knowing when I was going to be paid, or even if I would be sometimes. And yet I stuck with it. Not for any love for Don White, or the Barnharts, or Ron Lilge, or anyone else there. I did it because I loved the station. I loved the service we provided to the city of Huntsville. I loved doing what I did, and I was going to burn before I allowed money to stand in the way of doing what I loved.

As time has gone on, I find myself three years into this job and going nowhere. It's time to move on, and make something more of my life.

Today I served my two weeks notice of my intention to alter my employment arrangement. I will still be an employee of the station, however I am taking a much diminished role. I will provide them assistance with overnight production (news/weather), programming, and website maintainence. In return, they will pay me a small stipend a month and allow me to retain my gasoline privliges.

I'll miss dishing with Julie, and working with Gary and Matt, who I still intend to see on poker nights around the city. I'll miss figuring out what games we're going to cover, only to be undermined at every possible turn. I'll miss being asked to do things by one day, and then being hauranged when they're not done a day early. And I'll really miss the negative deadlines. Those are the best.

I wonder if they'll let me keep the stylish shirts I just got. Boy I hope so.

It's amazing when I realize how blessed I am sometimes.

Lillian and I find out we're pregnant, and all of the sudden, things start working together.

1) Lillian's acid reflux is subsiding. Her formerly constant back pain is now non-existant. Her heartburn is contained to those things you would think cause heartburn, and only then infrequently. She's taken three pills for it in two weeks.

2) Wheels are in motion for a real, benefit-laden, full-time position at a reputable institution that will pay me regularly. I will be informing the radio station today of my intention to alter my employment arrangement.

3) The market analysis on the house we're going to offer on puts its value at $91k-$99k. An appraiser will likely set its value even higher than that.

4) A mortgage broker (who also happens to be married to a good friend of mine) just gave us some great advice on a loan without tring to sell us on working with her. Should save us around $50 a month on the house note, all in interest.

5) Lillian has an interview a week from Friday for a new position that will pay about 120% of what she makes right now as an entry rate. She's been at her current job for almost 5 years.

6) I expect that we will be back to our full compliment of cars within a couple of weeks. My father tracked down his red Buick Regal.

I can't believe that people just "get that lucky." Everything is falling into place for my child to begin a successful life, and I thank God for it. More on that later.

Today, ESPN Radio is holding an auction to benefit the V Foundation for Cancer Research. These are amazing things that they're putting up for bid on the air, and if you have a desire to give to this charity, and want to enjoy a sports experience that you will remember the rest of your life, then I strongly recommend you check it out.

As I listen right now, Colin Cowherd is auctioning off a "Monday Night Football Experience," which includes tickets to any one MNF game this season, plus a tour of all kinds of behind the scenes stuff. If only I had a grand or so to throw at one of these.

One thing that ESPN Radio has done (and I assume, will continue to do) is run Coach Valvano's acceptance speech from the 1993 ESPY Awards (he was given that Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award), and I can't help but be moved to tears every time I hear it. I will excerpt it here, via an lj-cut, while the entire text can be read, and heard, at the V Foundation website.

( Thank you, Thank you very much. Thank you. That's the lowest I've ever seen Dick Vitale since the owner of the Detroit Pistons called him in and told him he should go into broadcasting. )

It says "Pregnant," in case it's too blurry.

You can't stay my elation...not even a little bit.

And I had no idea until just now.

Interested in aggregating EC? Simply point yourself to the RSS feed or the Atom feed, whichever you prefer.

This will be so much better when I migrate to WP.

How does a man take up 32 minutes of television time to say absolutely nothing? Ask George W. Bush, who did so last night.

Taking up my typical Tuesday night NCIS spot (being a lover of JAG, the spinoff seemed natural), I listened (semi-)intently, while finishing second in a sit and go tournament at PartyPoker, as George Bush said "yep, we're staying in Iraq for a while, we're still fighting terrorists, we're not planning to send a larger allotment of troops, as the commanders are saying they have enough as it is. Thank you, and good night, make sure you tip your waitresses."

Seriously, though. I'm typically not overly critical of the President, but this address was just silly and meaningless. If he was hoping to increase his approval rating, or explain his actions, he eloquently did neither. Do us a favor, and next time you have nothing to say, say it in the radio address that no one listens to.

And then I'm subjected to The King of Queens. Damnit.

On the other hand, I have joined the other 15,256 readers out there who are on the RSS feed for Wil Wheaton dot Net. He's an interesting guy, a geek, a poker player, and makes for a good read. About as far from TV's Wesley Crusher as you can get, although that's the only thing you likely know him from (maybe Stand By Me or as Aqualad in Teen Titans).

Hello, and welcome to the 3,246,234,745,231st blog to report on this story.

Don't get too comfortable where you're living, especially if your home is near a prime commercial spot.

Remember those bare spots of farmland along Memorial Parkway. Forget they ever existed.

Those people living along Holmes Avenue between Sparkman and Wynn? Start looking for new homes.

And don't even start the partisan finger-pointing bullshit. Both sides are to blame, whether it's the "Government is always right" Democrats or the "Business is always right" Republican party. Neither side will do a damn thing about it, and as soon as your property value drops below a particluarly sexy number that the city likes, get ready for the Gestapo to boot your ass out on the street.

Can you tell I'm a little ticked off? How about that chocolate ration, comrade? Double plus ungood.

Pingback to Slyflame.

I never understood the people who get all up in arms over flag burning demonstrations, as though we've never done exactly the same thing in our minds with French, Iraqi, Saudi, Israeli, Turkish, German, Japanese, Russian, and English flags time and time again. We'd do it for real if we could be pulled away from our American Idol, Nascar, and potato chips.

I guess the idea is that people feel the attack on the fabric is an attack on what the fabric represents. The fact of the matter is that the people who continue to do things like that have little to no actual capability to affect the change they chant for. It's like Alabama fans kicking the hell out of the Auburn cheerleaders for burning Big Al in effigy.

The people who burn flags have little to nothing to do with the people who do actual evil against America. Look past the surface, and grow a life.

We find out today if UAH's bid to host the Frozen Four was accepted. USCHO is reporting that Tampa will recieve a bid, along with Detroit, Boston and St. Paul, though the official teleconference is scheduled for 2 pm today.

And guess who has the phone number to get in on it. *joy*

Although, as Antoine mentioned to me once before, the likelyhood that any of us are still at UAH when we actually get the bid is very, very low.

Duke University (Durham, NC)...Submitted
East Carolina University (Greenville, NC)...Rejected (Application submitted after close date)
University of Pennsylvania (Philidelphia, PA)...Response Card Received Interest Scale: 8
Samford University (Birmingham, AL)...Submitted
Cleveland State University (Cleveland, OH)...Submitted
Roger Williams University (Bristol, RI)...Submitted
University of Akron (Akron, OH)...Submitted
Saint Michael's College (Colchester, VT)...Submitted
Manhattan College (Riverdale, NY)...Submitted
University of Oregon (Eugene, OR)...Response Card Received Interest Scale: 5
Missouri Southern State University (Joplin, MO)...Job Offered Must respond 6/7 Interest Scale: 7
Mulhenberg College (Allentown, PA)...Response Card Received Interest Scale: 14
Jacksonville University (Jacksonville, FL)...Submitted
Newberry College (Newberry, SC)...Job Offered Must respond 6/6 Interest Scale: 10
Augusta State University (Augusta, GA)...Submitted
University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY)...Rejected (Position Filled)
Niagara University (Lewiston, NY)...Submitted
University at Albany (Albany, NY)...Submitted
Seton Hall University (South Orange, NJ)...Rejected (Position Filled)
Bucknell University (Lewisburg, PA)...Submitted
Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX)...Submitted
Eastern Illinois University (Charleston, IL)...Rejected (Position Filled)
University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Little Rock, AR)...Rejected (Position Filled)
Central Michigan University (Mount Pleasant, MI)...Rejected (Position Filled)
Merrimack College (North Andover, MA)...Response Card Received Interest Scale: 6
Sacred Heart University (Fairfield, CT)...E-mail interview (warned of lack of cash) Interest Scale: 2
University of Alabama in Huntsville...Awaiting Position Opening Interest Scale: 1

I'm considering moving this to a "real" blog, WordPress and all. I've been given a steal of a deal on hosting, and once I can catch up the two weeks I was out of work for my car accident, I'll be in really good shape, and can start the transition.

Now I have to start inventing a theme for WP. From everything Geof tells me, that's easier said than done.

Well, Lil and I have found a new Sunday afternoon ritual.

After church (and any celebratory lunches afterwards) we come home, turn on whatever race may be on, and nap until such time as the evening brings us away.

Last week, it was the NASCAR race in Pocono, today it's the Champ Car race in Portland.

There's something tiring about the continuous sound of engines going in a circle.

If you're going to set up a phishing scam, and your going to include this graphic:



...it would behoove you to link it to something, even if it's Verisign's homepage.

Imbicles!

DELETED!

The birth of a man is the birth of his sorrow. The longer he lives, the more stupid he becomes, because his anxiety to avoid unavoidable death becomes more and more acute. What bitterness! He lives for what is always out of reach! His thirst for survival in the future makes him incapable of living in the present.

- Chang-Tzu