Archives for August 2005

This is just wild. I hope that no one gets hurt.

Hurricane Peels Holes in Superdome Roof

By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer 37 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS – Hurricane Katrina ripped away part of the roof on the Louisiana Superdome as thousands of storm refugees huddled inside Monday.

Strips of metal were peeled away, creating two holes that were visible from the floor of the huge arena. Water dripped in and people were moved away from about five sections of seats directly below.

Others watched as sheets of metal flapped visibly and noisily. From the floor, more than 19 stories below the dome, the openings appeared to be 6 feet long.

“The superdome is not in any dangerous situation,” Gov. Kathleen Blanco said.

General Manager Glenn Menard said he did not know how serious the problem was. “We have no way of getting anyone up there to look,” he said.

Aside from the tear in the huge roof, the 77,000-seat steel-framework stadium, home of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, provided few comforts but at least had bathrooms and food donated by charities.

The wind that howled around the dome during the night was not heard in the interior of the building where the refugees were kept.

“Everybody slept last night. They didn’t seem to have any problems,” said Dr. Kevin Stephens Sr., in charge of the medical shelter in the Superdome. “They slept all over the place.”

Power failed in the Superdome around 5 a.m. Monday, triggering groans from the crowd. Emergency generators kicked in, but the backup power runs only reduced lighting, not the air conditioning.

The Superdome opened its doors at noon Sunday, and New Orleans’ most frail residents got priority. The stadium is by far the most solid of the Big Easy’s 10 refuges for the estimated 100,000 city residents who don’t have the means, or strength, to join a mandatory evacuation.”

We rambled and ambled on into new territory this week when I found out that my son had picked up on some of my favorite sayings. I had thought that I had been good about keeping these from him, with few exceptions I was certain that I hadn’t said anything in a tone louder then a whisper.

Of course my voice is just deep enough that my whiser is more like a dull roar and so my son’s vocabulary now includes the following:

Jackass, moron, asshole, oh fuck, dammit and some kind of guttural yell that he says I make. I can’t say that I am pleased or proud about this, but I would by lying if I wasn’t proud about his ability to use the words properly.

Example A) We are on the THE 405 (yes, I said THE and you know who you are) when I was forced to swerve because of a “semi” who was trying to enter my lane. My son belted out: “Oh fuck! You stupid jackass.”

We had a conversation about what language is appropriate and how to use words. I thought that it had been effective when I learned otherwise. This morning he told me about one of the characters on Scooby Doo. That is innocuous enough, but the problem is that he said that this person was really mean, a real asshole.

So the good news is that he seems to understand the correct application of these words. The bad news is that he knows these words. And now I find myself having to censor myself more carefully in front of the children.

It is not that I swear constantly but rather when I am irritated I admit to engaging in a minor flirtation with said words.

I wonder if I can get myself to start screaming Goodness Gracious more frequently. Oh, one more phrase that we both say. “Great Googly Moogly.” That is not so bad, maybe I’ll focus on that one.

Why do they speak of a terrorist attack and yet call him a militant. The definitions are different. Militant suggests that he might be justified in his attacks. This moral ambiguity is very troubling and it is part of the problem we have in fighting the war on terror.

“WASHINGTON (AFP) Iraq’s most wanted militant, Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who as Al-Qaeda’s pointman in Iraq has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks, is overseeing preparations for a major attack in Europe.

Citing European intelligence reports, Time magazine said Zarqawi “has been overseeing preparations by highly trained operatives for a large scale terrorist attack in Europe.”

Time did not specify the origins of the intelligence reports, but said Zarqawi has spoken of sleeper cells in Turkey and Iran “in communications with another Al-Qaeda leader.”

The reports imply that these cells may be in contact with European jihadist groups that previously had no links to Al-Qaeda, Time said.

“The fear is we’ll see these disparate, relatively inexperienced groups around Europe hook up with Afghan-trained terror cells, all under the influence of Zarqawi,” independent French terrorism expert Roland Jacquard told Time.

European officials say the reports are based in part on US officials’ interrogation of suspected Al-Qaeda deputy Abu Faraj al-Libbi, captured last May in Pakistan.”

I’d like to buy a nap but not at these prices.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — The Mall of America has a 74-foot Ferris wheel, a shark tank and a dinosaur museum. But if that puts you to sleep, a new nap store will sell you some shuteye for 70 cents a minute.

The store, to be called MinneNAPolis, is aimed at weary travelers who need a nap after a long flight but aren’t staying long enough to book a hotel room, or spouses of shoppers who are traversing the mall’s 4.3 miles of storefronts.

“We think it would be really good for husbands at Christmas, when their wives are power-shopping,” said mall spokeswoman Julie Hansen.

Founded by PowerNap Sleep Centers Inc. of Boca Raton, Fla., the new store will include at least three themed rooms: Asian Mist, Tropical Isle and Deep Space. Each will have walls thick enough to drown out the sounds of squealing children at the indoor amusement park.

The 70 cents per minute fee works out to $42 an hour. Some pointed out that it would be cheaper to buy an $8 movie ticket and spend two hours sleeping through a quiet movie. At the company’s other napping center at the airport in Boca Raton, annual memberships cost $1,200 for unlimited sleep time.

I made a mistake and began feeding the troll. Or maybe it is not a mistake, maybe it is a smart thing to do. I am undecided about this.

The term troll in this context refers to someone who intentionally posts inflammatory remarks with the hope of generating responses that turn into flame wars.

Some of you are probably wondering what I am referring to, so here is a short summary. I post on a number of blogs. One of my posts was met with a number of remarks by an anonymous poster. Most of the people that frequent this particular blog would consider these comments to be inflammatory. And many of them would recommend that the best way to deal with said troll is to simply ignore him.

Initially I had intended to do so, but I engaged him in a dialogue because I like to debate and I think that sometimes ignoring someone like creates other problems.

I should add that I am not convinced that he is a troll, I rather think that he believes what he is posting to be true, and that is more disturbing. I am not going to lose any sleep over the troll because I am not surprised that people have the beliefs he espouses, but I am mildly surprised by it.

Really the ultimate question in my head was whether engaging him lent any credence to his POV. When push came to shove I opted to respond for the purpose of demonstrating that his remarks had all the strength of Potemkin’s Village.

So I hope that I accomplished that. If I did that I’ll be satisfied and if not, oh well.

My children are my finest work. There is nothing better in my life and I will not ever be able to surpass being a father. In some ways you could say that it is my life’s achievement, but at the same time it is a work in progress. I am responsible for bringing them into the world and helping to make them people of integrity and good character.

Sometimes it is really hard. I know that there are people out there who have bigger challenges and I am appreciative of that, but this is my challenge and there are moments in which I tear out large clumps of hair.

At the moment I have two kids, a 4.5 year-old boy and a daughter who is 13 months. My son has reached the point at which he has decided that he is tired of sharing attention and is working hard to garner as much of our time as he can. In this house it means that he is obstinate, insubordinate, determined, relentless and willing to accept most consequences.

Friends and family laugh because they say that he is a clone of myself, and to a certain extent that is true. I see it and I acknowledge it. My father had to deal with it because in many ways arguing with him is like yelling at the mirror. Some traits are passed along at a molecular level.

Some people have argued that corporal punishment is the way to go and that it will straighten him out. I am not sold on that. There have been moments in which he earned a swat on his tuchus, but they didn’t do much good. They just pissed him off more. I am the same way. When I was five I told my father that I didn’t want to be punished and challenged him to a fist fight. The story is that he laughed and whatever I was in trouble for was forgotten, but the point stands.

When I was in 9th grade a senior decided to pick on me. I got irritated and went after him and that was the end of it. In truth I was lucky. He was much larger and could have remodeled my face. I am thankful that he didn’t. So what does this all mean?

It means that my son got stuck with the same wacko gene that allows us to risk life and limb and I am not about to press that button unless absolutely necessary. I have found a few other tricks that work, but they require constant monitoring. That is part of what they don’t tell you about being a parent. They leave out the part about how you give up your time to make sure that they are not playing with the toy you took away or circumventing the consequences of something they did. Have to set boundaries and stick with them.

He really is a good boy and for the most part he listens well, it is just frustrating because he has endless amounts of energy with which to test me.

My daughter is capable of walking but hasn’t decided to do so yet, and that is ok with me. But that hasn’t stopped her from wrecking the house. I am not sure that I could do as much damage. Give her 5 minutes in a room and the shelves are bare because all of the items that had been on them have been thrown on the floor.

At 13 months she doesn’t quite understand why we do not allow her free reign to roam and explore. I love her curiosity and I hope that it never disappears. She also has exceptional energy and more often than not is on the go.

I love these two, but I am tired, so very tired. Lately it feels like I have little to no time to myself and that is something that I require. I need a few minutes to restore and replenish my batteries.

I am sure that this is just a phase and that the cycle will pass, but sometimes it just wears on me a little and I find my patience to be less than it should be. I feel badly about that because I always want to be excited about playing with them. I can tell that some of this frustration is coming out because my son has a new line.

When he is frustrated he says “For Crime’s Sake.” I suspect that he is repeating what he thought he heard me say.

Anyway, I don’t doubt that the two little ones know that I love them I just cannot help it. I want to be better and do more for them.