December 28, 2004
"Tsunami: A One Act" by God
I'm still trying to get my mind around the tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. As the scope of the horror grows and grows, the effect for me is something like a shutdown. I'm being careful not to watch too much news. Last night when I went ot bed, the death toll was at 38,000, when I woke up some reports are already at 55,000. And they're no where near done. They're finding a 9/11's worth of dead people every six hours.
I haven't written much over the past week, well except for my epic ode to a Bing Crosby Christmas. Some is due to the general busyness surrounding holidays and some work I've had to finish but it's strange, I've actually been busy in a way that doesn't warrant sitting at a computer. Yay! Though I'm feeling the pangs of blog withdrawal. In a way it's like that feeling you get after you've worked out regularly for some time, and then you miss it for a week and you feel like hell. Writing, like any muscle, is one you build only when you flex, and flaccidity is just around the corner.
One immediately visible fruit of labor: a greatly expanded (and still growing) Imageplex, featuring all sorts of graphics and stuff I hadn't uploaded before. I'm still in the process of writing captions and uploading photo sets, but there's some good new stuff there.
I'm also working on a section that goes through some pieces I've done in steps so you can see the work in progress. Here's an example.
And admist all the apocalyptic nightmare, a minor miracle: I think I've actually met some that if circumstances were to point in the direction of something interesting, I'd be open to entertaining an interst in following where it goes. :-) He's starting this coming semester at Stanford, so logistically, he's close by. We met on Christmas and we hung out together the following evening. He wound up staying the night, and...God it was nice. I'm a realist, so it's possible I won't see him again, but ultimately there this: I can still have feelings like that, and I hadn't felt them in quite a while.
God...the BBC is reporting from Phuket, the main tourist resort in Thailand. The weariness in the reporter's voice is audible. There are entire stretches of beach with full, occupied tourist resorts - fully occupied hotels - where there are no survivors. Everybody's dead. Hundreds and hundreds of people, mostly foreign tourists, are piled up in crannies, in corners, smashed against planters and pools. The reporter said some are being found in their rooms, crushed against the back wall, where they were pinned by the water. So many bodies have washed out to sea, they expect them to wash back up for months, effectlve eliminating the central pole of Thai tourism idefinately. And they're only getting started.
I'm going to turn off the news now. That was enough.
I don't want to hear any bad jokes about this one. You know, there's always that guy, at the party, who thinks the "Need Another Seven Astronauts" joke is funny. I can't even begin to fathom levity toward something so horrific and massive. If you're that guy, and I run into you on New Years Eve, and you have a tsunami joke, please go the fuck away, and go straight to hell.
I haven't written much over the past week, well except for my epic ode to a Bing Crosby Christmas. Some is due to the general busyness surrounding holidays and some work I've had to finish but it's strange, I've actually been busy in a way that doesn't warrant sitting at a computer. Yay! Though I'm feeling the pangs of blog withdrawal. In a way it's like that feeling you get after you've worked out regularly for some time, and then you miss it for a week and you feel like hell. Writing, like any muscle, is one you build only when you flex, and flaccidity is just around the corner.
One immediately visible fruit of labor: a greatly expanded (and still growing) Imageplex, featuring all sorts of graphics and stuff I hadn't uploaded before. I'm still in the process of writing captions and uploading photo sets, but there's some good new stuff there.
I'm also working on a section that goes through some pieces I've done in steps so you can see the work in progress. Here's an example.
And admist all the apocalyptic nightmare, a minor miracle: I think I've actually met some that if circumstances were to point in the direction of something interesting, I'd be open to entertaining an interst in following where it goes. :-) He's starting this coming semester at Stanford, so logistically, he's close by. We met on Christmas and we hung out together the following evening. He wound up staying the night, and...God it was nice. I'm a realist, so it's possible I won't see him again, but ultimately there this: I can still have feelings like that, and I hadn't felt them in quite a while.
God...the BBC is reporting from Phuket, the main tourist resort in Thailand. The weariness in the reporter's voice is audible. There are entire stretches of beach with full, occupied tourist resorts - fully occupied hotels - where there are no survivors. Everybody's dead. Hundreds and hundreds of people, mostly foreign tourists, are piled up in crannies, in corners, smashed against planters and pools. The reporter said some are being found in their rooms, crushed against the back wall, where they were pinned by the water. So many bodies have washed out to sea, they expect them to wash back up for months, effectlve eliminating the central pole of Thai tourism idefinately. And they're only getting started.
I'm going to turn off the news now. That was enough.
I don't want to hear any bad jokes about this one. You know, there's always that guy, at the party, who thinks the "Need Another Seven Astronauts" joke is funny. I can't even begin to fathom levity toward something so horrific and massive. If you're that guy, and I run into you on New Years Eve, and you have a tsunami joke, please go the fuck away, and go straight to hell.
