2004

Sep202004

Monday

I don't remember much of anything about Sunday. I didn't get to the mall as early as I have been for class today so I didn't have as much time to wander around. English class was ok; we got our first essay back today. Luckily, mine was rather unscathed. I have only minor corrections to make by next Monday. I had lunch with Ann again after class; I decided to try something different and went to the steak place for a steak sandwich. Ann told me that the Maris, who used to run both the uptown and medical bookstores, was now just running the medical bookstore. I also learned that he was letting two workers go, who weren’t especially productive anyway. We both found the situation rather amusing because after those two leave, the medical bookstore will have three managers and no employees. “All chiefs and no indians,” as it were. Later in the evening was my info systems class. The session started with our first test. I can only fault myself fordoing so poorly. We were fortunate to be able to use our textbooks in the final minutes of the test, which I assume will pull my grade from failing. After the test was a lengthy lecture. I'd have to look at my notes to remember what it was about.

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Sep182004

Election Day

My morning media arts class was fine. The weather was quite nice today so the professor held class outside. I got picked up a short while afterwards. After getting home, I took a short walk to go vote, as there was a local election today. On the ballot were some judges, criminal sherrif, a school board member, and the gay marriage amendment. Overall attendance at today's elctions was rather thin, not surprising given the recent hurricane. There is also a story about voting machines that were hours late in arriving at their respective polling places. I don't remember anything of circumstance in the evening.

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Sep172004

Return

We got up quite early again to leave for home this morning. We were on the road before six. The return trip was certainly more pleasant, as there were no traffic problems, it was like any other day. New Orleans appeared completely unscathed. Upon arriving home, the only thing different was a quantity of leaves and branches in the streets. After getting home we unloaded the cars. Over the course of the day we got the boards off the house and got some things out of the garage. It wasn’t until late in the day that I had all my stuff unpacked. I took a nap before dinner and watched some TV after. I must say myself and certainly the city of New Orleans breathes a sigh or relief, things could have been catastrophic.

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Sep162004

Waiting

We were in no hurry to get up this morning but did around nine. We had discussed going back home today but my parents didn’t feel like fighting traffic for hours twice in as many days. According to reports, New Orleans was quite lucky as the storm turned before reaching New Orleans, averting what would have been certain disaster. We went to a few places today to pass the time. There is a small historic downtown district we walked around in for a bit. We stopped at the local Wal-Mart. I bought some film, headphones, and a camera case. A bit later in the day we stopped by the local library. In the evening we picked up Jeff again for dinner at a little Mexican place called Nicky’s. I had some cheese enchiladas, which were decent. After dinner we went back to the hotel to watch Survivor. We watched some other stuff and then went to bed. Didn’t sleep well, hardly surprising though.

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Sep152004

Evacuation

Having packed all our crap, we left for Natchitoche at about quarter to six this morning. Traffic was slow going most of the way. I-10 was a proverbial parking lot in some places. We stopped a couple times along the way. During our first stop at a gas station, I ran into Christy, a friend from high school. We stopped later in Baton Rouge for lunch. We arrived in Natchitoche in the evening after 13 hours on the road, a trip that usually takes about five. After settling in to the hotel, we went to dinner after picking up Jeff, who goes to school there. After dinner we went back to the hotel room and eventually went to bed.

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Sep142004

Preparation

In light of approaching hurricane Ivan, we spent the day preparing to evacuate. The first part of the day was spent boarding up the house and moving things from outside into the garage, like potted plants. We stopped by my grandmother in Belle Chasses to board up her picture window. Having finished the outside work, I cleaned myself up and started packing my things. There wasn’t that much stuff I felt the need to take. I packed up the hard drives from my computer and a few hundred burned CDs and DVDs with backups of my data. I also took my scrapbook and a box of photographs, and some small electronic items. I spent the late evening folding and packing my clothes. ‘Luckily,’ I don’t have many.

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Sep132004

Rumblings

I got dropped off at the New Orleans Centre about an hour before my English class today. I did the usual breakfast, browse video game store thing. Class was fine. We spent some time discussing the hurricane that’s approaching the gulf coast. After English Class, Ann met me for lunch. I think this was the first time we ate elsewhere from Purple Roses. After finishing my sub we got a quick ride to the medical school down the street, it was raining right before we left. I stopped into the bookstore to say hi. I thought about buying an umbrella but decided to take my chances instead. I caught the 2:15 shuttle uptown. I bought my info. systems book today, $70 used. Ouch. The poster sale was still going on so I browsed that for a bit, and actually bought something. I then made my way to the computer lab, where I broke my headphones. I had lots of time to kill so I thought I’d try and fix them. There was a woman in the computer lab with a lot of questions that I answered over about an hour while I was failing to fix my headphones. I ordered some replacements on Amazon. Class convened on time in the lab where I was. There was a ‘lab’ today in which we were introduced to QuickBasic and Pascal. The second half of the class was lecture in the classroom. I don’t remember much. After class I walked to the library to meet Dad and go home. I learned that hurricane Ivan was headed our way and he had already started making preparations to secure his offices. We drove out to the east to get some equipment from the east office and bought some boxes at a crowded Wal-Mart store where a good number of people were buying supplies. When I got home I started gathering some thing I wanted to take if we were to evacuate.

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Sep112004

Tulane vs. Florida A & M

There was a substitute at my media arts class this morning. The class discusstion was aobut print media. My dad had to open the office today so I was able to get a ride both ways. Dad, Andrew and myself went to see Tulane play Florida A & M in their first home game of the season this evening. We got their early so we could sit around and eat some food we brought. I convinced myself to throw a football around with Andrew for a while. The game itself was entertaining. Tulane put on a good show, which should be expected since Florida's teams is hardly a force to be reconed with. Their band, on the other hand, certainly is. The Florida A & M Marching 100 performed before the game and at half time. They were quite impressive, they had enough people to play to both sides of the audience simultaneously. Tulane won the game 32-14. I believe I spoke with Khadijah later in the evening.

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Sep112004

Work Again, Just Not as Much

I was at work today just as yesterday. I didn't have as much to do today. I topped off the reports I mostly finished yesterday. There was the usual cleaning and I changed the water in the hydrocollator. This evening was largely devoid of activity.

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Sep102004

Reports, Yeah Lots of Those

I worked at mid city today. Over thr course of the day I transcribed eleven reports. The volume of work was the only thing unusual. We had barbeque sandwiches for dinner. I watched “Trekkies 2” this evening. It was more painful watching this one than the first.

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Sep092004

Class… and That's About It

I was dropped off at the New Orleans Centre this morning before class. I had some time as usual and got some breakfast and browsed EB Games for a while. I suspect this will become quite a pattern in the coming Wednesdays. English class was ok, another new face and a couple people missing. I didn't have my assignment with me, but it didn't seem to be a big deal. After class I stopped at McDonalds for lunch, got the usual. I had plenty of time before the shuttle so I stopped by the bookstore to get a pen and say hi t some former co-workers. Ann wasn't there but I ran into her right after I left. After the shuttle arrived uptown I stpped at the bookstore to get my English textbook which I know I won't be using much. $35 used. After that I meddled around a computer lab for a while before class. Journalism class was ok. We moved classrooms because the AC was broken in our usual room. The chairs really sucked in the one we went into. Among other things, we had our little dissection of an article in the paper.

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Sep082004

Back and Fourth Work

I went to work today without much to do. I spent most time reading. We went between the mid city and east offices a couple times. Later in th evening I scratched my journalism assignment together and watched some TV.

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Sep062004

Kali's Last Full day in Town

This was Khadijah's last full day in town. I don't remember doing much during the day, perhaps I slept most of it away. I cooked dinner in the evening, I made pork chop casserole. We made out way out of the house at about 9:30 with Andrey to get some dessert. staying on the west bank was confining so we just went to Bennigan's. Khadijah promptly got pissed off for reasons I doubt I'll ever understand and remained that was most of the evening so it was a pretty lousy outing. We didn't speak too much after we got home, although she wasn't bothered with me. Khadijah played a video game for a while and I went to bed around 1:30.

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Sep052004

The Manchurian candidate

I got up early in the morning to be ready to take the bus to my Saturday morning class, “Intro. to Media Arts.” I guess Khadijah didn't feel like being home as she accomanied me to school. We didn't leave as early as we should have but got really licky in catching the Freret bus so I was only 15 minutes late to class. It was entertaining as the first session was. Khadijah injoyed it, no doubt because of the amusing discourse and the complete absense of obligation. After class we took the bus back to Canal Street. before heading home we stopped at McDonald's for lunch. As it turnes out Khadijah is also a fan of their #4, double quarter-pounder with cheese. I was simply amazed. After lunch we took the bus home and arrived about 2:00. Dad grilled some hamburgers and sausages for dinner. Later in the evening Andrey, Khadijah, and myself went to see a movie. With minimal convincing we saw “The Manchurian Candidate.” I was a bit surprised it was still playing. Walking out of the theater I wasn't sure what to think about the movie. It was reasonably compelling but weird and darker than I would have expected.

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2004

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