Dulupdate: August 2005

hurricane thoughts

I am working on an update of my san francisco trip to put here in all its excruciating detail, but first I wanted to mention a few things about the hurricane.

I understand the want to do something and hear the TV call for people to send cash. Yet, the homeless and people without cars were left in the city to huddle in a sports stadium. Wouldn't it have been better to get some money for some busses before hand instead of leaving people there. It seems to show such little value for some human life. I realize that money would be needed anyway for people who chose not to leave, but people in the superdome wanted to leave, but couldn't. I mean who would chose to sleep on stadium seats. Why didn't anyone care to get some school buses and get them out?

Secondly, my friend sent me this blog posting and I saw these pictures. It shows a black man who has “looted” food and some white people who have “found” food. I think it is a good example of subconcious racism. Still I think this is far less shocking than the fact that no one seems to even question a policy of leaving those without cars in a city that from all predicitons would be destroyed the next day. I think it just shows the American pattern of responding well to disaster and not caring about simple solutions that can avoid them.

Anyway, stay tuned for a lengthy and detailed SF update.

Personalized music station

I’ve been doing this launchcast music thing and I love it. You rate artists, albums, and music and they create a personalized radio station based on your preferences. I like it because you can still hear new things, because it makes recommendations based on your preferences. The commercials are also shorter than regular radio commercial breaks. Anyway, if you want to hear my station there is a link on the side here, or you can use this address (http://launch.yahoo.com/lc/?rt=0&rp1=0&rp2=1267092470). If you have one, let me know your yahoo address so I can listen to it.

Homeowner weekend and I hate it

I spent the weekend like a homeowner taking trips to the hardware store. I’m trying to get these stupid lack shelves from Ikea drilled into the wall, and they aren’t going up. I’ve bought several types of screw, drill bits, and a drill. I think I’m getting closer. I guess this is something I had to do in my apartment too, but it was so easy there. One trip to the hardware store was all it took. I’ve been waiting so long to put my books away. I’m sure somehow having these shelves up will solve my clutter problems… not realistic I guess.

readin' the bible

Hey all. A few days ago I made an impulse buy. I was on the trolley on the way home and I was reading Elmer Gantry. It is about a hypocritical preacher and I realized that I had no idea about the references it was making to ezekeneber, methusda and other such people. So I got off at the mall stop (avoiding the dear – thank god) and bought myself the bible for dummies. So now I'm reading the bible. I'm not going to put that on my friendster profile, because lord knows what kind of freaks would decide to talk to me. The one that I bought has lots of maps so I know where places are and has a list of 100 people in the bible you should know. I don't understand why the bible is always on such cheap paper, though. You can see the text from the opposite page, which is especially annoying when you have so many brightly colored infographics. So far the bible has been a thouroughly enjoyable book, but I'm still in genesis. It goes fairly quickly so far. God sees it, makes it and it is good. Then a few thousand years later it is bad and he destroys it. Very to the point and no nonsense. I'm sure I'll annoy you all with talking about it for a while, because this books says it will take 3 years to read, the bible. But that is reading only 10 minutes a day (that is the plan of this bible... 10 minutes a day to rock hard abs... I mean salvation). I'm going quite a bit faster than that. I'm annoying my roomates by saying things, like, “I think I'll retire early and read the scriptures.” The novelty hasn't worn off for me yet.

update

Hello all,
Just a little update and a request for fundraising. It has been a stressful summer to say the least and a hot and humid one to make it all the more miserable.

To answer some of the most common questions. Everything at the new house is going well. I've made some poor choices in appliance shopping ( e.g. buying a refrigerator that is too big and moved it in during a heat wave). But so far home ownership has been not too different than renting. And good thing. I don't want to be one of those people who spends their life doing home improvement.

Work is going good. The bike plan is still up for review if anyone wants to comment. It is at http://www.co.delaware.pa.us/planning/bikeplan.html .

I also wanted to ask for anyone with some extra cash to donate some money for the MS 150 ride. This is an annual event where people (including my foolish self) ride their bikes from suburban Phila to the shore in New Jersey. 75 miles each day. The money goes to MS research. Please click here to donate online ( https://www.nationalmssociety.org/PAE/home/epledge_search_1.asp). It will ask you to specify Justin Dula as the person you are donating for. You don't need to worry about the team name. Also I'd like to stress that any amount is okay, you'll see most of the donations are between 10 and 30, but even a dollar would be helpful. More information on the ride is available here(https://www.nationalmssociety.org/PAE/home/epledge_search_1.asp). To learn more about MS click here (http://www.nationalmssociety.org/about%20ms.asp).

You can also get to the link from my blog, which I have largely used to replace the mass e-mails. If you miss getting more regular mass e-mails you can subscribe to the blog and it can send you updates when ever they happen. There is a link on the blog to let you do this. The address for the blog is http://dula.blogspot.com.

Love,
Justin

greatest hits

I saw another deer by the trolley on Friday. It made me think of one of my favorite posts from the past. Here it is again from 4/23/04.

Today on the way to work I saw actual deer in the short strip of wilderness along the trolley route. I’ve commented many times on how scenic this route is, but I was certain it was a tromp d'loeil (yeah, that’s right! Youz got problems with fancy phrases! I thought not). The whole stretch can’t be more than half a mile wide. It is wedged between the Springfield Mall, related suburban strip mall big box stores, and a golf themed adults only condominium community. I don’t know how deer could possibly manage to reproduce in such a tiny area. I suppose they have acres of grazing on the golf courses.

The other day a woman was commenting on how there were deer along that stretch of the trolley ride. I didn’t really believe her. I suspected that she had some mental issues (is that the sensitive way to put that… perhaps sanity difficulties or alternative reality complex) because of the constant clicking sound she was making. I didn’t help that her next comment was that she would hate to have the trolley driver abandon her in the middle of this stretch (where there isn’t a stop) because she was afraid of deer. I dismissed it and assumed the deer were also a figment of her imagination.

Now I am thinking that perhaps she is right to be frightened. If these deer can live along a steeply sloping ground in the middle of some of the most horrific suburban developments I’ve ever seen, perhaps they’ve had to mutate to survive. Perhaps they have been forced to acquire a taste for human flesh, particularly those of mall shoppers and elderly golfers. Perhaps my mentally disturbed trolley pal and I can get a kiosk at the Mall of like minded citizens who will eventually storm the forest with pitchforks and torches eliminating this genetic abomination before it can spread to shopping centers and golf courses throughout the Country.