from ben:
hey guys…
here are some photos from last week's disaster. Some are from my roof top, some are from ground level just a few blocks from the whole thing the following day (the 12th).
as per the link, you can find those pictures here. some of them (most of them) are rather large, so they might take a couple of seconds to load.
a good weekend. that it was. i feel a little guilty for having such a pleasant weekend in the face of everything that spins around us in the world, right now, but i think everyone deserves whatever measure of happiness they can claim.
i didn't really do much. i hung out with guy and had a late lunch. we looked at guitars. we went to the skateshop to see if our friend sean was working. he wasn't, so guy called him. sean tipped us off to a big cookout thing out at his girlfriend's parents' house. we rolled all the way out to lagrange, ky and spent an evening cooking smart dogs on the campfire and eating amazingly delicious baked beans. we swung on a rope out over the lake (not jumping in, due to it being kinda chilly out), trying to top each other on what outrageous method we would use to swing as far as possible out there, even launching from the top of the nearby picnic table.
i was amazed by how many stars you can see in the sky when you're a good 20 miles outside of town. it was a nice night, staring at stars, talking to new friends. a very nice evening.
but what about the rest of the world? i was involved in a conversation at the skateshop about local islamic owned businesses. someone asked about omar's gyros. the comment leveled after that was "omar's flying the flag. he's spooked." where i support omar's decision to fly the american flag outside of his business, i wish it were just to show his support for the country and those who had their lives snuffed short. but the second part, about omar being spooked, just isn't right. we live in a land of freedom. we live in a land that, ideologically, should be opposed to discrimination of any kind. i am constantly amazed that racism still persists in this "free" society of ours. it shows ignorance and poor education. it shows fear and cowardice. omar should have no reason to be spooked. he should not have to fear for himself, his family, or his business. omar may be of arab descent, but omar is an american. it makes me sick that instead of uniting as a country that has always been a "melting pot," we're squabbling amongst ourselves and discriminating against our friends and neighbors.
omar is a good man. he's a business owner. an american.
and he makes the best damn falafel you'll find in this city.
okay…so the nightmarish week that has transpired for the entire country is just a bit too much to write about, at this point. so let's start small…
guy and i were looking at various websites the other night, when we got distracted by the tv and it's endless coverage of the ongoing disaster/investigation.vigils/etc. we leave the computer running and watch tv for a few minutes. we go back to the computer and bam. dead.
i proceeded to try to troubleshoot the problem for a while, only to discover: yep. it's dead. motherboard or processor is fried. ain't that a bitch? well…i hung out with guy for the rest of the night and then went home. i hooked up the mac to try to dial in and check my email. no dice. no dial tone. no phone. totally….gone. yep…the phone got turned off. don't ask.
so…making lemons into lemonade, i'm at the library, looking for some more books to read as i have suddenly been shot into the realm of lud. ain't this a blast?
i decided not to trek up to chicago this weekend. i was supposed to be in nyc (thank god i'm not, but i'd still like to be there to help out in any way possible), but i thought maybe a trip to chi-town might be nice, instead. no dice. decided against it. i was still thinking of going as i began typing this, but i decided against it because i'd have to drive home after the show (hey mercedes at the metro. go!), because i have to work tomorrow. i'm exhausted just entertaining the idea.
she still won't return my calls. i told her i was going to new york. i don't recall if i told her when, but she didn't even call, just to make sure i was okay. some people.
as bad as life seems, right now…i still have my health, which is more than a lot of people can say.
we've set up a mirror site full of various video feeds and photo galleries of the destruction in new york. there's not much in the way of stuff from the pentagon crash, but if you look there is a bit.
once again, you can find that site here:
matt pointed this out to me earlier, but i thought i'd go ahead and link to it now.
it's a very well put together photo diary of the devastation in lower manhattan.
ran across this at scripting.com:
a new yorkers unique idea on how to rebuild the trade center towers.
i finally got ahold of ben late last night. he was the last of my new york and washington dc friends that i was able to get ahold of. i'm just thanking whatever forces are responsible for their safety.
i spent the entire day trying to reach ben after everyone else had checked in in one way or another. when i finally got ahold of him, he told me it all happened while he was still in the shower. he never left his house to head into work in manhattan. he watched the towers collapse from the roof of his apartment building. after a while, ben said the only mildly humorous thing i'd heard all day:
"a whole lot of postcards just went out of date."
yep. i hope they find as many survivors as possible…
as always, our hearts and minds are with everyone in the beautiful and shaken cities of new york and washington dc.
i swear…the interstate and mondays just don't mix. it doesn't really matter, though…the dumbass on the road did nothing but make me laugh at him for the entirety of my drive. thank you, sir, for being the butt of my joke…
as i merged onto the highway, this guy cruising along in the fast lane decided it was important to blare his horn at me (and i mean blare) and give me a dirty look and even give me the finger. now…keep in mind i was coming in off an entrance ramp and merging into the slow lane. not the fast lane where this idiot was residing. he wasn't looking to hit the slow lane at any point, either. i had my eyes on him the entire time, which is why it was so baffling that he blew his horn. yes…i was planning on cutting him off, that's why i was watching him. no, i hadn't cut him off yet. i like to take my lanes one at a time, thanks.
so i let him ride past me and watched him yell through his window at me, presumably about my need to learn how to drive. and then i decided it was high time to go ahead and get that cutting off out of the way. he needed it…and i'd feel better for doing it.
so i shot ahead and cut him off, earning another toot from the horn of his chrysler. he rode up on my ass. i slowed down to the 45 of the old lady next to me in the slow lane. he kept diving up on my ass and i kept flashing my brakes, making him float back to avoid a collision.
so then i decided to lose the chump. he then followed me forever, even eventually pulling alongside me and rolling his window down. he was yelling. maybe he spilled his latte? i rolled my window down and heard nothing but a faint yet limp whine over the wind. i smiled and waved at him. how unfriendly is this guy? i waved! i was being nice! he gave me the finger again! twice from this joker! can you believe it?
some people.
i ended up losing him by driving 85 and watching him get cut off by someone else (!) as he tried to catch up to me.
now i'm at work, still polishing off my morning oj.
as long as it doesn't get any worse…
i swear i'm about to fall asleep. today has been one of the more ridiculously boring days here at "work."
and the coffee didn't help one bit, even with that extra shot of espresso. what's up with that?
more importantly…what's up with these bourbon burps? mixed with chocolate and coffee? this is some strange shit, indeed.
so i took a 15 minute break and proceeded to close my eyes and concentrate on resting, but not falling asleep. i don't know if the experiment was really a success or not, but no one complained about any snoring, so i think i'm okay.
i sat in the breakroom earlier, eating lunch and watching tv. they had some kind of truck commercial advertising a winch feature on one of the mammoth, gas devouring, environment destroying megalith machines. i was like "what suburbunite needs a fucking winch on their suv?" and then it hit me: when i used to play with remote control cars and all that hooey, i always wanted the remote control truck with the working winch on the front. i thought it would be the g.i. joe accessory to end them all, really. i mean…snake eyes is stuck in the mud? use the winch! pull his sorry ninja ass out!
the need for a winch on an suv is obviously just an extension of this very same mentality. the well-to-do suburban mall-dweller is probably just biding his time until he's out in the wilds of ohio and his wife gets stuck in that damned quicksand. fuck it all! he's prepared! use the winch to help the wench!
and…yes…that is probably the most retarded thing i have ever written. thank you.
i go to sleep now.
the last couple of days have been excrutiatingly uneventful. i worked on wednesday. had some sesame chicken from double dragon for lunch. realized that nothing can match the sesame chicken from kim's. oh, kim's…how i miss you…
and then i came home. nothing much. wow. what a wednesday, huh?
thursday was a little more eventful, placing me on the scene at the comic shop for the usual weekly comics and lunch and then out to pick up my paycheck. i ven went to the bank. i tell you what…i'm a regular action hero. i ate q'doba again last night. i've settled into a nice every other day pattern. but my q'doba card is now all punched, so the next burrito is on them. damn straight. that's like 10 fuckin' burritos i ate to get to this point (not to mention all those times i forgot i had the damn thing in my wallet). it's a holy day, i think. i may even eat q'doba again today, just because it's free.
that's always the case, isn't it? the free one is the one that makes you sick of the joint. maybe i'll hold off…
so the rough plan is to get ahold of my dad today. maybe take him out to a late lunch. you know…if i can get ahold of him.
other than that? my day is looking just as boring as the last two. maybe i'll go beat up some mimes…
