Did not win the raffle on tickets.

More pressingly, I'm getting really freaked out about the apartment search. I call a broker and they do not return my call-- not sure if I want to call them over and over if they're not going to return calls in the first place?

I really want to get Leif a viking helmet for Christmas.

You know, I think I've spewed most of my rage about the Katrina mess and can only shake my head sadly as the next layer of incompetence and dishonesty is revealed. I mean, I'm glad the media is doing it's job and uncovering all this stuff, but I've lost all capacity to become any angrier at this administration than I already am. (Of course, I probably shouldn't say this or they'll manage to do something even more boneheaded and tragic to test that.)

So, coming back from lunch I passed the local police arresting a pair of 12-year old girls. Judging by the huge crowd of 12-year olds around them, I can only imagine it was an afterschool fight. Still, I can't remember anyone ever being arrested for fighting when I was going through school, so the mind boggles a bit.

In first-world issues, I still have not heard from the local dispatch office or technician despite several calls to Comcast. This is just dumb. I have a feeling I'm going to come home to a dozen messages on my machine.

Can someone tell my father that if "Call me back as SOON as you get a chance -- I need to know when you're in town so I can come visit!" will do, don't leave two messages like "Call me back immediately. On my cell. It's urgent."

Back when I first got my pager for work and was still living at home, my dad paged me with our home number followed by 911. Not having a cellphone, I raced home, wondering what terrible thing had happened, to discover one of my cousins had dropped by and was looking for me. It's probably the closest I've ever come to yelling at my father.

A nurse just came by and dropped off more donations: 120 diapers, a huge box of wipes, Pedialyte, packages of new socks and underwear, a huge bag of soaps and shampoos and stuff. Yay! Clothes are all donated to a shelter that wants them, and now there's just all the non-clothing supplies to bundle up and send. Fuck you all, Useless Brown and Evil Chertoff and Cheney's Puppet.

bon, you need the broker. unfortunately, they do not need you. The market here always sucks for the apartment hunters, and we always have to pursue the brokers.

Now who's playing The Blame Game TM

Oh yeah, when the board was swallowing posts it ate mine about playing The Blame Game, but that it should be a board game with a spinner with a pointing finger and that you'd accrue points by re-blaming somebody else and occasionally you'd have to hold a press conference and be completely unaccountable.

I mean, I'm glad the media is doing it's job and uncovering all this stuff

You say this as I'm listen to the Today programme podcast. The Radio 4 Today programme. And I'm thinking that in the last week I've seen three interviews which are as tough as the interviews on the Today programme.

I'm tired of the spin; it's been good to see the media to, for once, cut through the spin. I just wish the American people would start rebelling against the spin as well.

I'm worried that the media is already going back to sleep.

In an article on MSNBC earlier today about whether NO should be rebuilt or not, they refered to Hastert's comments on the subject by saying "House Speaker Denny Hastert last week suggested that New Orleans should be bulldozed and rebuilt on higher ground." (emphasis mine)

EXCEPT THAT'S NOT WHAT HE FUCKING SAID AT FIRST! At least, that's not how it was reported at first.

They're already returning to the Spin Machine As Normal Mode.

I hate almost everybody and almost everything right now. Somebody please tell me that this isn't actually the real world we have to live in.

So what are people doing for the weekend?

So what are people doing for the weekend?

Going to Africa. You?