Shortly after the storm, I discovered that there was a blog being maintained by some people that were still in New Orleans, staffing a data center. They have also been out and about, taking pictures of the casualties.

This picture really speaks volumes.

When you first look at this photo, you see the water lines on the car, and realize how high the flooding got. But look beyond the car, to the building. Not only do you see even higher water marks, but there is an orange X on the building.

It’s hard to make out unless you look at the large version (474k) of the photo, but under the X, there is the number 6.

This is from the searchers in the city. A slash means all clear, an X means bodies found. The 6 is the number of bodies.

This picture taken from this gallery. Many more photos here that express the magnitude of the event.

I was going to start out this post analyzing how I feel really good about things today, and just the other day was feeling a little stressed, and generally not so good. That said, once I started thinking about reasons for the change, I came to the conclusion that I shouldn’t be feeling this way. So I’m not going to think about it anymore, and stay happy for no good reason.

I talked to my grandma (I’ve always called her Grammie) today on the phone. I called her once or twice last year, but at least one of those times, my mom was down there to visit, and I was trying to reach her. I need to get in the habit of calling her more often. We had a good chat, and all.

I’m having mental problems right now. There’s one girl here at UP, and I keep mistakenly thinking of her by the name of another girl here. That’s because she reminds me (for personal reasons) of a girl I knew in high school, who happens to share the same name as another girl here. Don’t worry if you don’t understand this, I don’t either, but somehow I felt compelled to post it.

It looks like I’ve picked up another somewhat regular reader. For a while, I was down to one regular (now irregular) reader. I don’t know who you are, and you are welcome to remain anonymous. I know well that anything on this blog can be read by anyone, and don’t mind if anyone reads this. If you want, go ahead and leave a comment.

The dorm has been quiet all day, until just recently. This weekend was the Freshman Escape, which took about 150 freshmen and 30 upperclassmen (as mentors) on a retreat-like camp out last night. My roommate got recruited to come as a guitar player, and lots of the people that I know went along as the mentors. At dinner, there was just 2 (later 3) of us from the usual group.

They seem to have had a good time, although I haven’t had much of a chance to talk to them yet.

On a completely unrelated note, I did something this afternoon that I have been too chicken to do for over half a year. And no, I’m not telling. I’m too chicken.

I do declare that this post has rambled enough, and it shall be over.

Ok, now even I say it’s gone too far.

We’ve all heard of trash collectors being called “Sanitation Engineers,” and have long known that there were many other job titles out there that were like that.

I was browsing the job listings on campus today, and noticed that there was a listing for a “Hydro Ceramic Technician.” See if you can guess what it is before I tell you the job description.

Got it?

Responsibilities: Help out with keeping all of the dishes clean.

Stayed up until 5 am to see Sheena R. off to the airport on her way to Salzburg. She’ll be over there all year. A long night, but well worth it. And I don’t have class until 11:30, so I’ll still get a decent ammount of sleep.

I’ve been meaning to post for quite some time now, but haven’t managed to take the time to do so yet. All in all I’ve been quite busy, what with moving in, serving on Saturday, organizing the room, meeting the new people (as well as some returners that I never met), going to classes, and actually starting on homework, and getting the tech situation all figured out.

I guess I’ll start from the top. I got here Saturday morning, and looked for somewhere to check in. No-one knew where for me to go, so I just went ahead and moved in, as I knew that I was cleared to do so, and Cean was already there, so I had access to the room. Later I went to get the key, and Tommy (the new hall director) went to see what information he had. I saw him checking e-mail, and on the phone, but I finally got my key. Apparently while Fr. Brad had gotten word from res-life that I was cleared for move-in, something wasn’t finished on their end, and the Hall Director never heard about that.

But in the end, all was good. I served the mass, and that evening, Cean and I spent the better part of two hours moving furniture, over and over, trying to determine which layout worked best. I’d brought a boockase he didn’t know about, and we have the couch that my RA Jake had last year, as he now has a futon. So the arrangement Cean had done beforehand had to be scrapped, but we eventually found a layout that really seems to work well. We have bunked beds, and the desks arranged in an L shape, under the window.

I’ve been slowly adding on to this post for the lasst few days, but in the interest of actually posting something, I think I’ll cut my chronological narritive short and just jump to the more interesting stuff.

I’d been planning to work on campus a bit this year, but I’m not too sure that’s going to happen. I applied at the front desk here in Villa, and found out today that (big surprise) I hadn’t gotten the job. I found out about the time they were conducting interviews that the way the quotas for freshmen versus returning students worked out, and how many of last year’s workers were coming back, I was somewhere around one of 18 applying for 2 positions. And I don’t have federal work study, so that was a strike against me to start with.

I got an offer to peer lead the calculus portion of the integrated Calc-Phys, and have responded with interest for that. I talked to the professor who teaches the class, (coincidentally, my Diff EQ teacher as well) and he said that they had already selected one leader, but would see if they had the need/funds for two. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that I’m out there as well.

So now I need to assess if I want to work anywhere, if so where, and see if anyone is still hiring, of if it is all done with. But off to bed, in time for my Diff EQ class. I just love math at 9:15 in the morning.