katrina links
I was this close to closing up shop here for a little bit, a la kottke, but I realised that I still want to share. Just don’t expect a lot of zombies and Lego today. It doesn’t really feel right at the moment.
(However, if I get too depressed by Katrina, I may need to throw a blast of jello and tinkertoys around, just to lighten the place up. We’ll see.)
In the meantime, here are a bunch of links dealing with Katrina. These links aren’t canonical. They are just the ones that I’ve seen most recently and have jumped out at me. If I see more, they’ll get posted too.
- NOLA weblog. Heartbreaking messages from people desparate for help and from people that want help.
- The Interdictor. Someone caught in the middle of New Orleans. Stories about the loss of order in New Orleans. Chilling and scary.
- Boing Boing: “Watch out for phony Katrina aid scam websites”.
- Boing Boing: “New Katrina sat pics from NASA; more coming via Google”. Lots of satellite imagery links collected at BoingBoing.
- Dan Gillmor: “Gulf Coast Disaster: Please Help”. Further agencies accepting donations for Katrina relief.
- WIL WHEATON dot NET: “Saint Genevieve”. Wil Wheaton and PokerStars.com are organising charity poker tournaments for Katrina relief. Good on ya, Wil.
- PrettyFakes: “Everyone’s okay in Jaxxon”. Gorjus, losing power, is reduced to posting via the comments by Blackberry. Really honest reactions:
I almost had a fucking breakdown at lunch today when Tony DiFatta mumbled glumly that we may have lost so much of Walter Anderson’s art to Katrina.
I know I should be worried about the loss of life, but all I can think about are his originals, the walls of his house,the wood blocks; unless the family somehow got it out, it’s all gone. All of Shearwater, their glazes and molds, as well.
Today at work my bosses started playing guitar and singing up in the front of our office, and I drank Maker’s & Coke and stared at my computer, wishing the goddamn internets worked. I swear to God, I have everything in the world and I’m so terribly greedy.
I just feel so guilty that there’s nothing I can do to help anybody. I’m not a doctor or a nurse and I can’t help anybody. I can’t even donate any towels to the Salvation Army because I’m always behind on my laundry and they’re all dirty, along with every other thing I own except for ten French-cuffed shirts and about two dozen pairs of tube socks.
I mean, I’ll be out of pants, but tube socks? I’ve got those for days.
I just hate it so much when people die and I can’t do anything at all to stop this.
I know it’s dumb to feel guilty over natural disasters. I’m thankful my friends & family are okay. Maybe it’s just because this is like a weird enforced vacation where all the rules are sort of relaxed, and I don’t know what to do with all that.
Seriously, though: if you’re reading this, and you’ve been hurt by the storm, please know that people are worried about you and that we love you.
- The Rude Pundit: “The Hurricane Exit Strategy”. Scarily plausible. And — of course — rude.
- Repent America: “We’re a bunch of turds and we like to eat our own turds”. Okay, they really didn’t say that. They actually say that Katrina was sent by God to punish New Orleans for allowing a “homosexual celebration”. It amounts to the same thing. Turd-eaters.
- CNN.com: “Ostrich breaks free on Golden Gate Bridge” (via The English Guy). (Okay, so this has nothing to do with Katrina. But I think we all need a laugh.)
Lastly, I’ve added a button on the sidebar for donations to the American Red Cross. It links to Amazon’s one-click donation page, as the Red Cross site is getting a little overwhelmed.
Remember. Donate.
