My friend’s brother and new bride were in Cancun during the hurricane. Here’s some excerpts from an email I was just got:

“Thanks and tell your contact that my brother and sister in law thank the Mexican people, Mexican consulate, the Mexican government and the Mexican military. They were fantastic, they cared for them and made sure that they were safe and got out ok. The US government on the other hand, well, the email talks for itself. Nothing like having your government tell you ‘you’re on your own, we won’t help you, you were warned, its not our policy to evacuate our citizens’ The British Government was there within a day with representatives and as soon as they could get a plane down, they bussed all 900 UK citizens out in one convoy, loaded them on airplanes, sent them to the Dominican Republic and then flew them to the UK. Makes me sad to be a US citizen.”

And another email from a different person who was also down there, in the same shelter as my friend’s brother:

“I agree with you about the US Government not doing enough to help us. As far as heading the warnings, the hotel completely blocked CNN from our TV’s and we had no way of knowing of the intensity of the storm. It became so powerful so fast and by the time Thursday came, there was no way to get out. Another really strange thing is that planes were still bringing people to Cancun up until Thursday afternoon!”

“While the tourists at least have a home to go to, the residents of Cancun do not. The locals who worked at the shelter were some of the nicest people I have ever met and throughout the entire time at our shelter, while they did not know if their families were OK, they had a smile on their face and did everything they could for us. They were really great people and their livelyhood completely depends on the tourism industry. I would like to go back there one day again and I hope that others will too. ”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051026/ap_on_hi_te/remote_control_for_humans

Just got this from a friend on email:

Check your driver’s license. Now you can see anyone’s Driver’s License on the Internet, including your own! I just searched for mine and there it was. Picture and all! Thanks Homeland Security! Privacy, where is our right to it? I definitely removed mine, I suggest you all do the same. Go to the web site and check it out. Just enter your name, city and state to see if yours is on file. After your license comes on the screen, click the box marked “Please Remove.” This will remove it from public viewing, but not from law enforcement.

Go to this site: http://www.license.shorturl.com

I am so effin irritated with all this copyright protection crap on downloaded music! I bought (yes, legally) a song on iTunes a week ago, only to find out it gets downloaded in some weird Apple Proprietary format. So, screw them. I’m going back to Musicmatch which interface I like better anyway. Bad thing is, Musicmatch won’t work with my iPod so I still have to have iTunes installed. Fine, I can live with that.

So today I download a song from Musicmatch and it’s in WMA. I’ll just convert it to MP3 beacuse iTunes has to have it in MP3 to send to the iPod. Wait a minute, if iTunes has to have it in MP3, why do you download in their weird Apple format? Anyway… I can’t convert it because it’s “Protected” WMA. So now my only alternative (I’ve tried like 4 converters on this thing) is to burn it to audio CD and then rip it back to MP3.

ARGH! Yet another example of how some rules hurt just us honest people. Anyone have a hack program that will ignore the protection?

I just don’t get it when I read things like this:

“It’s like, the sun’s out, let’s go, and we’re still here,” said Lynn Wickum, of San Francisco, Calif., as she drank a beer at one of the few Cancun bars that finally opened. “We feel the frustration building. You wouldn’t want to make a scene, but at the same time, you’re ready to go home.”

Many of Cancun’s own 500,000 residents had lost nearly everything in flooded or destroyed homes.
From TimesDaily of NW Alabama by AP

Here you are, in the middle of a disaster that not only has flattened many people’s homes but is going to ruin their year due to significantly less tourism this season - which they rely on in order to feed their families. All in a country that already has economic hardship. So sit back, drink a beer and complain how you have to wait (patience is not an American virtue) a little bit longer until you get to go home, away from it all and plan your next vacation.

For some time I’ve wanted to find out more about different volunteer needs around my area. Today, I ran across this site, VolunteerMatch which lets you search by keyword, geographic area, etc. Worth a look!

Here’s another cool site idea: www.taxicabshare.com

At a party a while back, a girl named Sara mentioned ODD - Oppositional Defiance Disorder. So I’m posting it here in order to remember it later when my memory fades. Thanks Sara!

Earlier I posted something about dry ice and hurricanes, and today I ran across this article about other weird ideas…

My new truck:

It’s the exact same, except just a couple years newer and a whole lot better.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/13/mp3_breast_implant/

I have nothing more to say about that.