Learning to live with power outages and without the internet / Le Blog, that is. To mark this historic start of hurricane season (which I stubbornly refuse to capitalize), I purchased a dead-tree copy of the Picayune, only to have the Living section tell me to start paddling because I:
– don’t have a large charcoal grill (only a large electric smoker that takes out half of the LGD’s power grid),
– need propane for the camping stove,
– cannot swallow much of the recommended three-day supply of shelf-stable food,
– have many dry-goods to acquire,
– might burn my house down with the number of candles I’ve purchased, and
– may put preparation off until the last minute.
The pumps will fail, as they did soon after this last Mardi Gras. Evacuations and busting levees can wait until August and September, but please prepare for flash flooding of side streets and the lack of electricity. Also, create your plan to include friends and/or neighbors – it thwarts panic attacks as the rain thrashes against your roof and the wind howls through your windows. One of my first experiences with New Orleans involved a tropical storm during which I was alone, the power went out, one can of garbanzo beans sulked in the pantry and a large chunk of flying debris flew towards my balcony.
A portrait of that patron saint of Lost Causes may not hurt, either.
My glamorous weekend plans include provisions shopping, getting friendly with tubes of caulk and reading Son Of A Witch (thanks to R and J for introducing me to the precursor, Wicked!). The cocoon generated by good books and friends can help a lot of us through this challenging time.
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Otherwise, I am disturbed at VeriChip’s sales-motivated idea of tagging immigrants with RFID chips. Business has a long history of dictating law, but positioning one’s IPO at the expense of human privacy is a whole new level of porky egregiousness. Invading the body of a legally-present immigrant or guest worker only weakens the bonds of foreign relations and treats them as nothing more than commodity. Yesterday, Wisconsin became the first state to ban forced RFID chipping, giving civil libertarians like me one more reason to move back there.
VeriChip Chairman of the Board Scott Silverman has been promoting the VeriChip as a partial solution to immigration concerns, proposing it as a way to register guest workers, verify their identities as they cross the border, and “be used for enforcement purposes at the employer level.” He told interviewers on the Fox News Channel that the company has “talked to many people in Washington about using it.” …
Perhaps it is time to introduce Silverman and his ears in Congress to The Island Of Dr. Moreau, ca. 1996.
As we, um, discussed how safe it was for my daughter to take a walk around our new block the other night, my wife actually suggested RFID IDs for the kids. I think those would only be useful in the event of identifying someone’s remains, and I’m not ready to go there. I’d rather she learn some self-defense moves (the most important being the B-Movie technique of running really fast while emiting piercing screams).
Then we got onto to the idea of RFID badges, etc. for workers, which we agree is a bit anal-retentive on management’s part. (Most management couldn’t spell Orwell, so I don’t think they have any evil plans beyond making sure we don’t malinger in the bathroom. And I don’t have the problem anymore. In fact, I’ve been wondering about the waterproof bathtub laptop, but have been able to find one online yet.
Tagging your daughter – I’m sure she’ll like that. Track her movements on the computer, that sort of thing.
You have or haven’t been able to find a waterproof laptop online yet? I’m sure the military has all kinds of goodies up their sleeves in that line.
Wonder if this will hold up to bath scrutiny.