Gustav Update

So the evacuation order for New Orleans went through this afternoon. It begins tomorrow.

You can check out the press conference here.

Quote from Mayor Ray Nagin:
"I normally am very calm about these press conferences, and I am normally trying to give assurances to our citizens. Take that hat off tonight. You need to be scared. You need to be concerned, and you need to get your butts moving out of New Orleans right now."

Also, "If you decide to stay, you are on your own."

Hurricanes

Not sure what people know about the company I work for, but the main office is based out of the New Orleans area. The reason an Austin branch exists today is due to Hurricane Katrina which hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005 (that's three years ago today).

Living decently far away from the Gulf of Mexico, hurricanes have rarely affected me except for the occasional increase of rainfall as they breakup pretty rapidly once they make landfall. That makes it really weird when I get a meeting invite for "Hurricane Gustav Plans."

2006 and 2007 were pretty tame as hurricane seasons go, and there wasn't much by way of panic in the Gulf areas, but this year is a little different. I think the biggest concern people have is the timing - there's a potentially powerful storm that will be hitting the Gulf by Saturday afternoon, and no one knows where it's going from there...AND it's so close to the anniversary of Katrina. People are nervous. NOLA officials already have mandatory evacuation plans in place if Gustav's projected path aims for the city, and they have a very itchy trigger finger. They plan to call for evacuation 60 hours in advance of landfall. 60 hours!

We're having this big conference call today to discuss possible evacuation and how the Austin office will be covering for the NOLA office... it's the first time I've really experienced contact-nervousness. Heh.

Wow - and apparently we have an official "Hurricane Plan" now. That's oddly creepy...

Realism

I am a realist.

Dictionary.com defines a realist as "a person who tends to view or represent things as they really are." Yup, that's me. I'm not a fan of sugar-coating, I don't take things with a grain of salt, and, when it comes to ME specifically, I am very aware of who I am on the inside and what I look like on the outside.

People tend to mistake that for low self-esteem or self-degradation, but it isn't; it's the truth.

Stuff-n-Things

This update brought to you by Bongotezz!

Haven't been updating much since I don't have a lot of import to say, but um. So I've been pretty busy with all this Drunk Duck Awards business - trying to get fifty different people to contribute to panels and presentations is like herding cats, only slightly less successful. It doesn't help that I keep making errors in my record-keeping (like assigning two different people to one presentation...yeah). All the same, despite the mini-fiascos, I think it's going to come together beautifully in September.

I've been thinking a lot lately about theme songs...mostly for the characters in Salt. I finally settled on one for Jane, but the others...not quite yet. Well, except maybe Brio. But to reveal THAT song would give far too much away, hehe. It's hard to think of the Brio he is today and the Brio that he becomes down the line as the same person.

Quote of the Day at Work: "No one in this office knows a damn thing about anything. I think you're out of luck." ^.^ I can never remember the contexts, but I work with some stellar and verra funny people.

I need to stop writing this and finish inking and coloring the update that's supposed to go live in two hours. Heh.

Work Fun and Medieval Times

Overheard at work: "If they come in here, guns blazing, I'd say that's negative behavior...not 'I want to change my fiscal calendar.'"

So this weekend, my dad turned 74 years old! Robert (my brother) and I drove up to see him and Mom. Our sister and her daughter went as well. We went to Medieval Times for lunch/dinner - if you're unfamiliar with the concept, it's a dinner theater of sorts - you're served food during the show which involves a jousting tournament and fights for honor and whatnot. Anyway, there were six knights in the tournament with different banner colors. Robert, Mom, and I snickered about them and made up new names for them.

The Yellow Knight was the Knight of Cowardice.
The Blue Knight was the Knight of Sadness.
The Red & Yellow Knight was the Knight of Condiments.
The Black & White Knight was The Nascar Knight.
The Red Knight was the Knight of Embarrassment.
The Green Knight was who we were supposed to cheer for (because of our seating arrangement), and he was the VILLAIN! It was awesome. So he was just "The Green Knight." Pretty much a badass.

It was really fun ^.^