(no subject)

Dear iTunes:

I know I have called you psychic many times of late. I know that you often provide songs appropriate to my mood or topic of conversation. I am often weirded out by this, but I often appreciate it, too.

Please forgive me for wanting to ATTACK YOU WITH A NEODYMIUM MAGNET.

Launching into "My City of Ruins", by Bruce Springsteen, as I am talking to someone about the Red Cross and New Orleans and Katrina counts as provocation in my book.

*sigh*

( The song is about the economic devastation of Asbury Park, NJ. It was later invoked many times for New York after 9/11. The lyrics are here if you want a look, but honestly, I just want to thrash iTunes right now. )

(no subject)

Boss seems to think that if I have my procedures written down, and if I have a few other things wrapped up, I should be able to take two weeks of vacation and go where the Red Cross needs me. Should know by end of day.

To use a phrase which I have used before, further bulletins as events warrant.

Events warrant.

Have called Red Cross and told them I can leave as early as tomorrow. They will call me back to let me know if they still need me.

Somehow I think they will. Maybe not tonight/tomorrow after all, but... soon.

.... lord, it ain't good when the signal cuts in and out while the reporter is trying to hold down her hat and report on the hurricane in Mississippi. C'mon, lady, just throw that mike down and yell "I QUIT" already.


ETA: Spoke w/someone at Red Cross chapter. He said it looked like in all likelihood I would be deployed tomorrow, and asked what disaster function I wanted deployment as. I told him DCO (disaster computer operations) for preference, but that I would do Mass Care/ERV driving if necessary.

Red Cross has a bunch of different functions within disaster services, see. Most of what you see on the news is generally either mass care, family services, or damage assessment, with the occasional Disaster Welfare Inquiry stuff going on. What you don't see are the other functions- Communications, Logistics, Disaster Accounting, Administration, etc. Every one of these jobs deploys infrastructure to make sure that the work is done as efficiently as possible and that we keep track of who's doing what and how the money's being spent and distributed. That's where I come in. Nearly all the disaster records are kept on computers at job headquarters, backed up nightly, and transferred to National Headquarters each day. Someone's got to keep the machines running so that we can keep track of what's going on. I'm a DCO- disaster computer operation- person. Generally this means I get sent to somewhere that a disaster operation is about to happen, and find that there are metric assloads of machines waiting to be set up and tracked. So that means three days of setting up and running around like mad, and then the rest of the job is spent in maintenance work and in helping out all of the other functions.

It's not as exciting as other jobs- last year in Florida I drove an Emergency Response Vehicle for some time, before I got transferred to shelter operations- but it needs doing. And there are far, far fewer geeks volunteering for Red Cross duty than there are people who can hand out food, conduct disaster impact interviews, or fill out forms. So, am volunteer geek.

Circumstances REALLY warrant.

Tomorrow at 2:45 PM I'm taking off from Newark International Airport and flying to Charlotte, and thence to Houston, where I will arrive around 9:02 local time. The next day I begin my two weeks of Red Cross duty. I return on the 13th of September.

I'll be at job headquarters in Houston, out of Katrina's way. I'll be doing disaster computer operations, so I'll be one of several geeks helping to run things smoothly.

cadhla, I still intend to get my ass to OVFF despite burning my vacation time for this. Even if it's only the weekend.