JamesSavik

Here in Mississippi it's hot and noisy. Power and communications are spotty, I only just got power back yesterday. We don't know how many people are missing. There were huge evacuations in the days before the storm and it's a very confusing situation. Worse still, people evacuated to places like Wiggins, Sliddell and Hattiesburg which have traditionally been safe havens only to find those communities also smashed by the storm. The sounds of chain saws are everywhere from dusk to dawn. In many places the debris are so deep that you've got to dig to find where the roads are. So many huge trees are down, ancient, proud trees that have weathered so many storms- have simply been uprooted and splintered. Even the stately oaks at the Grove in Oxford weren't spaired. It stinks here. The smell of death and decay is everywhere, greatly accelerated by the heat and humidity of late summer. It's coming from decomposing foods and dead animals- to things buried in the debris that we don't even want to know about. In New Orleans there is chaos. Roving street gangs have armed themselves and are looting the stricken city taking what they want and exchanging gunfire with the remnants of the city police and rescue and even the national guard. In a grim, almost medieval fashion, rescue personnel are leaving bodies in houses in New Orleans and marking the houses with black paint. There is great fear that there may be outbreaks of disease caused by the conditions there. Here in Mississippi, there are thousands of volunteers. Literally coming out of the woodwork. Neighbors are combining their tools and equipment to clear debris from homes and roadways. Emergency management people in Mississippi have enormous manpower but we are very, very short on fuel. It's here. We just don't have electricity to pump it. That situation is changing day to day but the clock is running. There are people and places that we just can't get to yet and it's very frustrating. Mississippi is usually such a quiet, sedate place. I will never, ever say I wish that something interesting would happen here. We've had a belly-full of this kind of excitement. We're all hot, grubby and very tired. I'd gladly pay $50 for a hot shower.

Holy Crap! Holy Crap on a Crap Cracker! If you are EVER 1000 miles from a cat 5 storm, RUN LIKE HELL. It's awful. This storm was so powerful, it CHANGED the MAP. It wasn't hard to clean up here. I had the downed trees in a neat pile by noon the next day but I only just got power back. Since we've been blacked out, we haven't seen the news or understood how big this is.

I'm 150 miles north of New Orleans. The hurricane is expected to be on top of us here in Jackson by tomorrow afternoon at Cat 3 strength. Katrina is some 400 miles wide affecting everything from Destin, FL to Innercoastal city, LA- and of course ALL of Mississippi's gulf coast. The whole state is shut down. No school or work until at least Tuesday, probably longer. This may be the worst hurricane ever to hit the US. Here in Jackson as of about 2:00am local we're just beginning to see rain. Wind has been increasing steadily since 10pm. The emergency management people have ordered that all mobile homes and wooden structures south of I-20 be evacuated by 10:00am latest. This is a brick house and we're riding it out. There is the potential for utility disruptions so you may not hear from me for a while but don't worry. Hurricanes kick the crap out of us regulary and we know what to do. -JS

I am off that foul medication. I now have $80 worth of crap to flush. I'm guessing it wasn't supposed to do that. It wasn't really a rampage. More of a...yeah, I guess you'd call it a rampage. That crap really brought out the delinquent in me. Sad part is, I haven't had so much fun in years. Nobody got arrested so we'll just keep this to ourselves.

I forget where this came from: Leacherous drunk at a bar: So, what's your sign sugarpants? Smar@ss: Well, I'm a Leo and let me guess: you're a feces right?

Yup. The Beast is way off his leash. Woof! Due to a change in the medication that they dart me with everyday to keep me from eating the tourist, the Beast is in a MaNiC state. Usually this isn't such a bad thing until he gets arrested. Damn cops have no bloody sense of humor. OK, so I spray painted the mayor is a putz in hunter's orange on city hall. It's true. What's the deal? So I took some liberties with the virtues of the young men in our village. I DID. Now they won't stop calling me. So I hacked a porn DVD into our Cable TV's downlink station. At least it was good porn, and it was damn sure better than their programming. WTF is everybody so upset for and why do I need a lawyer? I make this place a hell of a lot more interesting just by being here. Leash-law my @ss!

I had a bad burrito at Sal's Thursday afternoon. I knew that a Xanex and mushroom burrito didn't sound like such a good idea but what the hell- anything with con quesa sauce on it is wonderful. But I digress. This magical burrito opened my eyes to the true way. The one way. The one true way that only hallucinating people of vision can see: Pirates! The decline of Pirates are responsible for the decline of modern civilization. It's true! Pirates are the Master's tools of entropy spreading their particular brand of chaos across the world. That chaos has a ripple effect that keeps the destructive energy of other systems in check. Since pirates have been on a steady decline since the 1800s and are now reaching critical lows, the world is being afflicted with war, disease, global warming at a terrifying escalating rate. Therefore, it is imperative that we train and equip a new generation of Pirates or the world will ultimately be destroyed. The will and knowledge of our great Lord and Master-- the Flying Spaghetti Monster, be done. RaMen! Church of the Holy Flying Spaghetti Monster

I don't need a program or astrology to tell that I'm 100% compatable with Ryan Phillipe.

I am a long time X-men fan and Beast is sort of a role model for myself- big and dangerous but smart and gentle.

And Yes- you read that right- a gradual student. I got a Computer Scieence degree in 1986. It is pre-Internet so it needs a serious booster shot. I'm taking Network Systems, C++ and Web design. Seems I'll be busy for a while and might learn something useful. It's kinda fun going back to school at my age. All the kids treated me with the utmost respect thinking that I may be taching one of their classes.

I'm in the middle of a collaborative project called Collision. It's a round-robin mystery and it runs at a bunch of sites. Collaborations are difficult unless you set up some ground rules and stick with them. If you would like, I can email you some insider documents that we used with our project to help keep the wheels from flying off.

Anybody listen to Bright Eyes? I saw a snippet of them on Logo late at night while I was changing channels. What I heard sounded OK, kinda weak compaired to what I usually listen to. I like some metal edge/power in my music so that I can turn it up and drive away the Baptist when they encroach on my territory. _________________________________________________________ A long time ago some idiot revivalist came to our school encouraging us to bring our albums (off of a list) to his crusade so that he could burn them. You can guess who was on his list. Kiss, Black Sabbath, the usual suspects. When I saw Rush, Pink Floyd, Yes, and Kansas on his list, I asked him why and he couldn't give me a straight answer. It was clear that he had never heard of the groups and didn't know what the hell he was talking about. I got sent to the office for arguing with him about it. Seems you're not supposed to disagree with a preacher- especially when he's outrageously and embarrassingly full of sh*t.

I'm not exactly "new" but... I discovered Comicality's "My Only Escape" on deBeagle and came here for more of his stuff.

My friend Tragic Rabbit has written a powerful and disturbing story about a period in our history that a lot of people would like to forget. However, if nations have souls, Americans had better never forget it. Link To>>Dog Boys

Feed the cat cause there's no peace while he's hungry! Sometimes I wonder if he's really a cat or a fuzzy pig.

Be very, very careful mixing alcohol and pills of any kind. The results can highly unpredictable. If you are old enough to remember Karen Anne Quinlin, the first high profile right to die case, she slipped into a coma after having a drink and some valium. She stopped breating long enough for brain damage to set in before they could get her breathing again.

Dom- I do. And I take great care in picking what I'm listening to as it can drastically effect the writing. Whenever I buy a CD, I just rip it to the hard drive and store the original away and listen. Lately I've been listening to the Black Crows, Stone Temple Pilots, Evanescence, Good Charlott, Tool and NIN. I've got a bunch of older stuff but since I kicked drugs, I've been staying away from the Pink Floyd. -JS

Dom- It's a waste of energy to "flame back" at flamers. I have noticed that the vast majority of the flamers have nothing posted and those that do suck. They are wanna-bes and never-will-bes trying to steal some of your shine. Criticism is one thing- constructive criticism is even welcome to most authors but a diatribe that says, in so many words, YO MAMA is best ignored. THe net has many wonderful people and a few well traveled a-holes. They get around and they hurt peoples feelings cause they get off on it. I've seen authors up and quit because of it. First- this is why I became a mod. I am in a position to protect authors from abuse and I will come down hard on this if I catch it. Second- a lot of the authors here are quite young. Our current moderators are protective of them. We REALLY want to create an atmosphere where they can spread their creative wings without having some yahoo take pot-shots at them. The easiest way to get knee-capped- err, I mean banned, is to mess with our authors. Finally- I know that it's a big temptation to flame back at some j@ck@ss that has flamed you because a story that he is reading for free didn't turn out the way he wanted it too. Rather than waste your time and considerable talent on a response, let the moderators know and we'll take the appropriate action. Don't let it get to you Dom. You've forgotten more about writing that quite a lot of people will ever know. -JS

Which is which?

Sorry but I think that the answer is clear as mud. Yes and no. Yes- I think that it would sell better than expected. No- part of the appeal of online fiction is that it is free and anonymous. People that would NEVER, EVER buy a copy of the Advocate at their local Barnes&Nobles or Borders can and do access it on the net so that they can read without outing themselves. Another thing that would cause a LOT of contreversy is the age of the characters in some of the stories. The good Reverund Wildmon would pop a gasket. It's not that teenagers NEVER have sex. Our society has been so in denial of it for so long that it might come as a rude but necessary shock. Why is it that every time the teenage pregnancy numbers come out, everyone is so shocked?

I like the dark. Dark for dark business. Besides, if the sun hits me just right, I collapse into a pile of ashes... Whups, I've said too much. If some nut that calls himself van Helsing asks, I wasn't here.

Happy birthday Julian- Hummm... another Leo. RRRROOOAAARRR! -JS

I hate coffee, am deathly allergic to eggs and am not at all fond of carrots.