Conferences

This shit really pisses me off. Three years later we still see FEMA trailers and tent cities are popping up under overpasses. You still see houses marked with the mark of the dead. People are homeless, desperate, and hungry. While poverty is not something new to these folks they now find themselves alone with no community or family left to lean on. What pisses me off even more is the accusatory looks that I got from folks because African American natives chose me to speak to, converse with, commiserate with, share with...quit fucking whining about "discrimination" and understand (or at least don't share with me) because when I am faced with the REALITY of Katrina 3 fucking years later I can really give less than a shit if you are mad because a young African American woman hands me a flier for a poetry slam and ignores you or comes to me first at a counter or speaks to me on the street (did you speak to them first or clutch your pocketbook a little tighter when they rounded the corner?). Really???...is that your biggest concern about what you have seen (or chosen not to) while in New Orleans?

If you are offended by what I have written maybe you need to be. In the end, one can only pray that the real New Orleans can one day be resurrected.

After getting here we checked into our hotel which is fortunately very close to the conference center and right off of the capitol bldg. (I may stage a protest while I'm here), came upstairs and unpacked, and immediately discovered that I left the AC adapter for my MBP in IN! After frantically calling around to every computer store in town (ok, I called 4) I decided to do some quick investigation and learned that they had just opened an Apple store in town 4 days ago! How is that for timing? And the real deal adapter was 30+ bucks cheaper than CompUSA wanted to charge me! On top of that the very nice Apple boy who answered the phone took my name and offered to stay late so that I could make the 25 minute drive from my hotel to the mall. I did a mad dash to the mall only running one light and bumping a few pedestrians along the way (and damned near giving Lisa a stroke) I made it to the mall and got my adapter so that I can maintain my ever connected status during the conference.

Now I must go to bed so that I can actually make it to the conference center by 8 a.m. for the opening session, but I think that a quick run to the vending machine for a candy bar may be necessary first!

Night all!