Dorkbot

I paticipated in my first Dorkbot Detroit on September 4th. I used one of Jeff’s old Echoboxes for the event. Check out the information and pictures here. Sorry these entries are so brief. I’ve been terribly busy trying to study for the G.R.E. as well as work and keep the rest of my life in order. I’ll write again soon I promise.

Kwame Kilpatrick meets with art community

Kwame #2
Originally uploaded by Hindowashi.

Kwame spoke to the Detroit art community in a public Q & A forum at George N’Namdi’s Gallery. Jeff attended and said the discussion went well.

Girl’s Night Out

The Girls after some comedy
Originally uploaded by Hindowashi.

Last Saturday I went out to Ann Arbor to be with the girls. We went out to dinner at The Prickly Pear. We then went to Babs for some after dinner drinks and photo booth pictures. Eventually, we made it to Ann Arbor’s Comedy Showcase for some laughs where I got called out for recording one of the comedians (have it on video, hilarious) and where I eventually won a drawing. It was one helluva good time! I can’t wait to hang out with them again soon. Next time we hope to go to a rollerrink for some long overdue rollerskating action. Hokey-pokey dance excluded.

Welcome sign

Hamtramck’s new welcome sign
Originally uploaded by Hindowashi.

Hamtramck’s new welcome sign at the edge of town. What do you think? Maybe they could add some lights below it for night illumination?

From the words of a Survivor, etc.

Coinincidence that someone who lived through the hurricane is mad at BUSH? No. This is just to prove to the racist Bush lover who commented on my blog (I’ve already erased it) that its not just the african american community complaining okay? Its white people like me and like this survivor who KNOW Bush DID NOT do his job. He very easily could have gotten up off his ass at his Texas Ranch and went back to work on Monday instead of Wednesday. Its called paying attention to whats going on in the country, especially if you are PRESIDENT and its your job. I’m not saying Bush made the hurricane come for goodness sake. All I am saying is he should have taken action IMMEDIETELY. But then again that might be expecting too much of him….Bush is kinda SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW now isn’t he? It takes him lots of vacation time to comprehend things I guess.

From a survivors Blog

“Katrina aftermath update
Finally made it to Baton Rouge w/another LJer (Lux aka Ultraluxe) as one of our group of 8. Horrendus is not a strong enough word to describe what we all went through both together and separately. Terrifying chaos and danger.

There will be more updates later when I am in Houston as my job has relocated there and offered to get me there and set up and continue working with my bosses who relocated. From there, I will make my way perhaps to Troy, New York and eventually end up in Providence, Rhode Island. As with many, I ended up with the clothes on my back, a backpack w/my laptop (that is now wet – oh well, maybe once it dries out), and my two cats who are boarded at a Vet tonight and getting emergency medical treatment.

I am safe and still sane (insanity may come later). What you are seeing on CNN and the other news channels, at least as of tonight, is accurate – except three times worse. I am so disgusted with George Bush that I may head to DC and personally castrate him. Fucker mother fucker. He has the biggest target on his back – I wish the crowds in New Orleans and elsewhere had stormed him and torn him to fucking pieces.

PLEASE PLEASE anyone from New Orleans post your whereabouts if you can and how you are doing. I’ve heard from Lux that Andy and Melanie made it out as well as Tim and Micah and others. I really need to know if anyone (Todd?) has heard from Michelle and Rory – I am so worried about them I am sick.”

Hespeth

Now for a timeline I copied from Blastmilk (don’t usually do this…so I hope she wouldn’t mind)

“Here’s a timeline that helps explain why the Bush administration should be held largely responsible for the state of New Orleans today. This is long, but READ IT.

2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the three “likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country.”

January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh as head of FEMA. Allbaugh is an old Texas friend with no previous experience in disaster management.

May 2001: Allbaugh & Bush administration announce the downsizing & privatization of FEMA. “Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into an oversized entitlement program. Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level.”

December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh leaves to start a consulting firm for companies doing business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy, Michael Brown, who also has no previous experience in disaster management.

March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from a cabinet level position & folded into the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is refocused on fighting acts of terrorism. FEMA’s preparation & planning functions are reassigned to a new “Office of Preparedness and Response”. FEMA will henceforth focus only on “response and recovery”.

Summer 2004: The administration denies Louisiana’s pre-disaster mitigation grant funding requests.

June 2004: The federal budget for levee construction in New Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management chief Walter Maestri comments: “It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay.”

June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. This district was the hardest-hit area in the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes.

August 2005, Hurricane Katrina: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion catastrophe, Bush mugs for the cameras, cuts a cake for John McCain, plays the guitar for Mark Wills, delivers an address about V-J day, and continues with his vacation. When he finally gets around to acknowledging the scope of the unfolding disaster, he delivers only a photo op on Air Force One and a flat, defensive, laundry list speech in the Rose Garden, which includes:
“I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees”.

WHAT??! Certainly FEMA didn’t when they made their declaration of likely catastrophy back in 2001. Certainly your own administration didn’t when you slashed FEMA in favor of sending funds overseas. Certainly the Louisiana state government didn’t when they urgently requested pre-disaster mitigation grant – which your administration DENIED.

Is there such a notion as “criminally-inept”?? You reap what you sow, Mr. Bush – I refuse to call you “President”. And I sincerely hope that, with this, you have reaped yourself RIGHT OUT OF OFFICE.
Look, I’m actually a bit adverse to politicising this catastrophe, for right now, at least. But his quote yesterday, “I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees” TOTALLY FREAKED ME OUT. They’ve known for years this was imminent. And I knew they knew before Katrina as I pay attention a little to New Orleans politics. It is just appalling.”

New Orleans

Like most people, I have been watching and listening to the terrifying images and tales on TV and the radio. I seriously CANNOT believe New Orleans as we know it is GONE. It must feel like the end of the world to those who have had to live through this horrible tragedy. I don’t mean to fingerpoint but why did it take Bush so long to send help to those stranded people? I am pissed that he cut his “Vacation” two days short to get back to work on Wednesday. Why didn’t he cut it short 4 days early? What the hell is wrong with him? He should have been back to work on Monday right after the storm and when people were stuck on their roofs beginning to starve and dehydrate. When the sick starting dying because they ran out of oxygen, medicine, and had noone there to assist them. He should have been there when people had to leave a loved one who died on the the side of the road or floating in the water or stuck in their house. He should have had military and the Red Cross on their way from the get go. NOT FIVE days later as we saw today! What the hell is wrong with our president? Honestly? Can anyone tell me what in the sam hell this guy is thinking? The only feelings I can equate to the desperation these people must be feeling (Mine amplified 100 times to equal what they must be feeling though) is when we had the blackout a couple years ago. It was one of the hottest days of summer, everyone was frantic and trying to get gas and food. I was all alone in Ann Arbor and had only a radio and some candles. My land line wasn’t working and I had no means of contact with anyone in my family or any friends. I was alone and scared. All I could think about was when the electricity was going to come back on and if I would run out of food and water if the blackout lasted more than a week. I was glued to the radio and was elated when the electricity came back on the next afternoon. Unlike the blackout though, there is no “fix for all” for the people in New Orleans. Some have their lives but no homes, no jobs, some have lost family members, and have been starving for the past week having to live amongst human waste and dead people. People have had to do whatever it takes to just survive. I can’t even imagine the consequences this will cause on their health, the potential diseases and so on. Its all just sooo sad. I feel so helpless. I keep wishing this is all just a bad movie and Superman will fly in any minute to save the people of New Orleans. But its not and he won’t. The people in New Orleans are stuck with only their prayers and the rest of the country’s. They need food, water, and a new place to live and start over. Mainly, they need the Government’s help TONIGHT like they have since MONDAY. They just want to survive and get the hell out of New Orleans.

I have been a stalker of this blog called Blastmilk for some time since the person who started it had another website I frequented years ago ( an absinthe website). The blogger used to live in New Orleans and has friends who lived down there (most having already escaped). I actually saw one of her friends on “Dateline Tonight” tonight. I didn’t know this fact until I read her blog after I saw the show and realized I saw her friend on tv. Her friend Liz and some friends walked 80 miles from New Orleans to Baton Rouge to escape the chaos and terror. I only wish everyone could do the same. I just heard on the news that they aren’t letting people leave by foot anymore. I hope this isn’t true. I don’t understand what is going on? Do they WANT these people to die? What is wrong with our country?
I keep waiting for this nightmare to end and it just keeps getting worse.
This government needs to get their head out of their asses and just HELP THE PEOPLE stranded in NEW ORLEANS!! Funny how we can bomb a foreign country in a day yet we can’t send help in the same amount of time or less to those in our OWN COUNTRY. SICK. It just makes me sick.
There is no excuse GEORGE! None. You are satan.

I have a Moonflower!

Opening
Originally uploaded by Hindowashi.

Yay! I planted moonflower seeds in May and only got the vine. One day I noticed a bud and that bud produced this flower. FINALLY a moonflower! I thought I would never see one on my vines. I have one more bud evident on the same vine that should produce another flower soon. I can’t wait. They smell so good and are so very beautiful. They look so delicate and fragile don’t they? I love em’.
Click on the picture and then on my photostream to see my other moonflower pics.