Admittingly, I wrote most of this up on Facebook and am re-printing it. For those who don't like organized religion or religion at all, this isn't about trying to convert people (it's a catholic group going to a heavily catholic country), though some of the money may go to help church construction costs or to churches that provide for their remote community. It's a good opportunity to give where money can help directly, like poor families that live in and off of dumps and people who need money for medicine, etc.
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Me and a church group will be leaving on May 20th for a mission trip to Allende, Mexico. I'm raising money independently to support the people and communities that we'll encounter, projects undertaken, and any extra costs to maintain the mission. Our primary objective is to live out our Christian and moral beliefs by bringing hope to the immensely poor, ill, neglected, and fringe groups who have been mostly forgotten or split apart by outsiders. If you've ever thought about donating oney to a truly worthy cause that affects real people, I can say from personal experience that this is it.
First and foremost, I ask for your prayers for me, the mission group, those who will be receiving us, and those we'll come in contact with.
Secondly, if you can provide $10, I'll say a personal prayer for you in one of the handful of churches we'll visit along the way.
If you can manage $20, you'll get the prayer as well as an "Emmaus rock" handpicked from the middle of an easy-to-get-lost-or-hurt-in Mexican desert.
In both cases, your name will be added to a list that I'll put in a small capsule and place by a Christ statue associated with miracles. When we return, you'll receive a detailed letter along with a link to all the photos I can humanly take. [E-mail if you'd like to mail a donation (by check). I'm going to single out Meredith as my reference since she can hopefully back me as being honest and involved in this sort of stuff.]
Additional money is certainly welcomed and receipts for tax purposes can be provided. Tell your friends and please keep this mission in your prayers. If none of this is for you, please feel no obligation and know that your friendship alone will have an impact on the good works that take place between May 20th-28th, 2006.
I went for a drive yesterday through the Lower 9th Ward, Arabi, and Chalmette. I thought I had a pretty good idea of how bad things were based off what I've previously seen, what I've heard, and what I've read, but it's becomes a completely different experience when you're actually there.
Things seem to be slowing down some with the number of incoming people to BR. Regardless, there's still a shortage of people to help out around the LSU area. If you're in the area, you can call the volunteer line at 578-0296 to schedule a 4hr block of time during the week.
Me and a friend were just sitting around this weekend, so we decided to go to the PMAC and see if we could be useful. There have been stories of people being turned away, but they were pretty good about accomodating us. Right now not much is happening, but one of the things people are needed for is to help move patients from vehicles (helicopters) to beds (most of which are empty, so they seem to be doing pretty well at this point thanks to a lot of volunteer medical support). If anyone likes animals a lot, the coliseum is in need of walk-ins to help keep pets active and fed.
I also noticed that they had some clothes distribution areas at the PMAC and asked the girl there about donations. They're definitely taking clothes, so feel free to ship me anything you want.
Volunteering around here actually hasn't been too easy and most of the places that you'd think would be helping out aren't or are closed until Tuesday. So the LSU area is the place to be. If anyone has a HAM radio license, the Red Cross has a network set up for helping people find family members or get trips to the airport or around town.
Rumors are spreading all around Baton Rouge of thefts, gunshots, and break-ins. A few are at least somewhat true. I arrived at work today and Lockett was almost entirely locked up, presumably because of the increase of people around here. I talked to a waitress at Chelsea's who's been volunteering time at the PMAC. Despite no medical experience, they're so desparate for help that she was used as an assistant in 4 ambulances. She added that there have been women having babies, people recovering from major surgeries that haven't been getting medication or antibiotics, and many dehydration and malnurishment cases. Many friends I've spoken with aren't interested in helping out, which is fine, but the locals are the only ones that can make a difference. Most churches are taking in hundreds of people, and the RiverCenter (Centroplex) downtown is packed. Medical and emergency sirens can be heard day and night and coast guard helicopters pass overheard frequently (some at treelevel).
Mostly, things are pretty normal despite all this, but it took a while for me and a grad student to find gas for our near-empty cars. You can tell who's been re-stocked recently because the places will be packed with lines of waiting cars. Fortunately I found a BP next to The Chinese Restaurant with no lines at all for $2.59/g. The streets are busy, people are driving more insanely, and only a few places around town still don't have power.
Some of you may have received this via PAWS.
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There have been confirmed reports of civil unrest in the Baton Rouge
area this morning. These incidents appear to be confined to specific areas
in the downtown Baton Rouge area and specific locations around the
community. At this time, local law enforcement are reported to have the
situation contained. To insure safety, we have instructed that all
buildings on campus be locked and we ask that occupants remain indoors. We
are confident in the security procedures of LSU Public Safety and these
actions will permit their timely response to any incidents that may occur
on our campus.
This is a trying time for all of us in the affected areas and beyond.
Our efforts now center on safety and recovery. We are primarily concerned
with the safety and well being of the LSU community and we urge that safe
choices be made. For those on campus who would feel more secure in their
homes, we urge that you leave campus in an orderly fashion. Please be
aware that these incidents of unrest in the community make travel an
unknown risk at this time. Permitting time for the law enforcement
personnel to work through these challenges will likely improve the security
outlook in the near term.
Above all else, think through the choices being considered to assure
your safety.
My Philadelphia/New Jersey/New York trip was a sweltering success. Thanks to those that made appearances. I returned to work today and remembered why I took off in the first place.
I was trying to put a new harddrive in a guy's PowerMac G4 when a cow-orker comes in and asks me to drive him to the hospital. That was at 3:30. I just got home past midnight. It's incredible how long they make you wait considering that you're intentionally going to the emergency ward and not an after-hours clinic.
Hopefully Rick's still driving me to the New Orleans airport at 8am on Friday. I still haven't started packing and don't have everything I need here. It's funny how every time I think I have things will work out, major problems come up and I'm racing at the last minute to re-gain my bearings.
I just got home from the store a little while ago. After putting away a box of "gogurt" and some checkout-girl-recommended malt liquor, I passed by my answering machine and discovered a message from the FBI. Why can't I have a normal job, particularly one that ends at 5pm?
Several disturbingly funny things happened today, but the following that I transcribed to a friend in e-mail is my favorite:
Today I went to help an "old" friend get his computer working. One of his
daughters, her daughter, and their pets were in town after evacuating
Miami and were staying with my friend and his wife. The youngest
daughter, Madeline, established herself as being quite rambunctious
shortly after our introduction. There was one "Madeline moment" in
particular that's worth re-telling.
...
Me, my friend Wil, and Madeline were upstairs in the computer room. I was
explaining a few things to Wil while Madeline terrorized her passive cat.
After a little while, she got up, left the room, and returned with a
flattened cardboard box which she began to assemble. Then she spoke.
M: "Do you have any packing tape?"
I was kind of suprised to see a 7 year old that didn't know how to fold
box flaps, ignoring the unusual request of whether or not I had packing
tape. Since I didn't, I folded the flaps upon each other and showed her
how she didn't need any tape to hold the box together. Impressed, she got
up and went to grab the cat.
J: "Are you going to put your cat in the box?"
M: "Yep."
J: "Uh...should I turn this box over?
M: "Yep."
At the time, it seemed fairly innocent enough.
Cat in hand, she put him in the box. The cat passively sat there, clearly
unaware of what was soon to happen. In the cat's defense, he did
momentarily try to escape when she began to close the top lids.
M: "Can you do that thing again where you folded the cardboard shut?"
J: "uhhhhh....you're going to close the cat in the box?"
M: "Yeah."
J: "Don't you think that will be a bad idea?"
M: "Nope!"
J: "Oooo-kay. Hmm."
Much like the defeated cat in this girl's wake of abusive relationships, I
folded the flaps and turned my attention back to Wil and the computer. A
couple minutes later, Madeline trudged by, pushing the cat-filled box out
into the hall and around the railing of the stairs.
J: "Woah...what are you doing?"
W: "Madeline, behave now."
J: "Are you going to push the cat down the stairs?"
M: "Um-hmm!"
J: "He'll get hurt!"
M: "He'll be okay."
Since Wil's mostly attentive to one task at a time, he was fairly
oblivious as Madeline eased the box down the first step at an angle. It
seemed she at least knew better than to completely let go of the box, but
onward she went, thumping the box slowly down the stairs. I decided to
obey the Prime Directive and continue working with Wil.
About 5 minutes later, I heard a loud shriek, followed by Madeline
storming up the stairs and into the room. She did something, walked out,
and walked back in a few minutes later with a purse. She puts it
somewhere in the back of the room and repeats this pattern one more time.
I asked her several times in passing about what happened since she was
holding a towel of ice against her cheek. Eventually I get a reponse.
M: "Mom slapped me."
Madeline then fumbled in the back of the room for a little while more,
then passed one last time to exit.
Shortly after this was taken, a friend of mine was nearly run down by a police car and then asked:
"Excuse me, Ma'am, this will sound like a strange question, but have you seen Batman?"
LSU employees display the new “LSU Tour Book” at the publication’s recent coming-out party. The book features several different types of tours of the campus and offers details like a blooming schedule and points of interest in the campus area.
My boss mentioned twice that I should take a week vacation before the semester starts back up. So here it is. Here's my in-town vacation.
Last night I slept so horribly that I built a shortwave receiver. There's nothing worse than realizing at 3am that you just wasted duct tape and paper clips on a something that can only pick up a dicussion on Hulk Hogan and the WWF. I finally got to sleep and woke up for good at 6:30am. Then I went into work for half a day.
Next time I'm going to DC to get everyone evicted from the Dirt Farm and polish the trip off by calling the cops on Blake.
I left the Chimes yesterday and started walking back to my car. Some girl was cleaning up her boyfriend and saying, "It's the drugs, sweetheart! The drugs are doing this to you. It's the cocaine." She was apparently mopping up blood dripping from his nose while he stood like a vegetable as people passed through the fence besides them.
I'm on a federal jury panel this week and the case is one of those depressing ones that can't even be made up. The first thing I did after discovering that they were putting me on the jury was to walk to St. Joseph's during the initial recess. Only later did I club a baby seal.
A few things I've learned about federal courts:
1. Bailiffs aren't very attractive people, but since all they do is tell people where to go and will occasionally pass a microphone, they get very lonely and enjoy pointless conversation.
2. Giving jurors wrapped candy is a bad idea, especially when the same lady unwraps a new candy every 15 minutes, drowning out whoever's speaking with the sound of crinkling.
3. Having a bachelors degree (in fine arts, no less), working as a system administrator, and doing so at a university are not as likely to get one rejected as everyone seems to think. I was picked 8th of 8 out of 18 possible.
4. Dress as if you're about to depart on an arctic expedition.
Brian, it's been said that the judge really has no legal standing about how a juror performs other than in the courtroom. When he says "no outside investigation", is there concrete legal backing behind that?
