Random bits

[susandennis]

The Yankees lost. I tried not to care. I tried not to watch. I really am not that fond of the Angels. But, in that last inning, when Alex Rodriguez was at bat and then the last out, I felt pure 'neener, neener, neener.' I am a resentful, grudge bearing bitch. There's no way around it.

The down side is that I had already decided that if the Yankees won, I was totally freed from any more post season game watching. Now, I'm sucked right back in. Here's the new deal. If EITHER the Astros OR the White Sox get eliminated THEN I am totally freed from any more post season game watching. People, I my TiVos are getting crammed. Netflix is just before sending someone to my house to check up on me. I can't be wasting the fall on baseball.

And, speaking of TV, so far I gotta say, this new season is really better than most. No great standouts but plenty of just good, easy, teddy bear knittin' watching. And, the ones that really sucked have already been canceled. And, so far, they have not canceled stuff that I'd like them to keep. Nice.

I think my email/lj comment thing is pretty ironed out. I'm not 100% comfortable relying so much on Gmail but gosh darnit, it's just so damn reliable. I would be happier, I think, if there were a way to save it all locally, once in a while, for a backup. But, even without that, I'm afraid they have really sucked me in.

I heard on NPR this that migrant workers - who came New Orleans from other places to do the menial rebuilding jobs - were caught staying in the housing meant for hurricane survivors. The report pretty much painted this as scandalous. "A black eye in the recovery efforts." ???? I think there are probably plenty of black eyes in the recovery efforts but I'm a little stumped on why helping people willing to help rebuild is one of them. I'm not sure I quite get what is so horrible about that.

The holes in my walls were not repaired yesterday but I'm sure they will be - probably today. I did learn that the president of the condo board who lives down the hall had massive water damage. He apparently was not home when his ceiling leaked. He's got a big ole mess. It's all about perspective.

Time to make the donuts.

Comments

[rsc.livejournal.com]

The continuing saga of A-Rod's "contributions" in the post-season fill me with a delicious sense of Schadenfreude¹. Remember the "ball-slapping" incident from last year? And that 9th-inning double play is just the capper.

Yeah, if it ends up being a Cardinals-Angels series it's going to be very hard to care.

As for TV: since House is off during the playoffs, we decided to give Commander-in-Chief a try and, somewhat to our dismay, we kind of liked it. If we still like it next month we're going to have a problem.


¹There's no really apt English equivalent for this, but it more or less means "delight in the misfortune of others".

[susandennis]

A-Rod never really redeamed himself after fleeing Seattle. Instead he just seems to be augering down a black hole. 'delicious sense of Schadenfreude' is the PERFECT description of my feelings.

I'm totally with you on Commander-in-Chief. I knew it was going to suck and watched it only to prove my point. And then watched the second episode to make sure the first one was a fluke. I may even give up the excuses and just enjoy the next episode.

Now you see why one TiVo isn't enough.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Now you see why one TiVo isn't enough.

Yeah, it looks like we're going to have to break out the VCR.

We are not alone

[susandennis]

I just found this in The Seattlist:

http://www.seattlest.com/archives/2005/10/11/sweet_sweet_schadenfreude.php

Re: We are not alone

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's perfect!

[qnetter]

I would be happier, I think, if there were a way to save it all locally, once in a while, for a backup.

There is. Enable POP access and download it.

[susandennis]

Yep, I realized that is the only solution... And it's only good for mail after July 1. I think probably, I'm just too much in love with redudant systems. But, having said that, I'll probably pop what I can into something this weekend.

[keelamonster.livejournal.com]

I think the problem isn't so much that there are migrant workers who are willing to do the clean up, it's that they're being trucked in by contractors from other states who are promising them a wage and housing as part of the work. And then the contractors (who are making a killing on this work, btw), instead of actually providing housing for those workers are dropping them off at the shelters and relying on the Red Cross, et al, to provide their corporate housing rather than doing the right thing and providing housing for their workers.

In other words, they're taking advantage of the charity of others to save a few bucks and make a killing. Yeah, that's definitely a black eye. The problem isn't with the workers so much as with their employers who are doing this. But they're not the ones that are so easy to catch. The migrants staying in the shelters are easier to catch and therefore expell.

Also, there's a big ole uproar about how the contractors are bringing in illegal and migrant out of state workers instead of hiring New Orleanians to do the work. Here's something we have to be reminded of every day as Americans: there are people who are poorer than we are who have less than we do who want better things and are therefore willing to do the shit jobs that we feel like we are too good to do. So there will be thousands of New Orleanians who are going to sit and wait for the government to somehow pay them for being victims instead of doing honest, albeit it difficult, clean up work and getting paid for it. This is a bigger black eye than most, I think. But then it could just be me.

[susandennis]

Wow! I totally did not get the contractors who were making a killing part. Nor did I get the bit about New Orleans locals not getting the work. I actually thought that NBC reported - on the news last night - that there were just not enough people there to do it.

Gathering up people and dumping them is wrong even without huge profits but making profits off of those trying to help is unconscionable.

Thank you so much for the insight. I'm so glad I mentioned it so that I got the straight poop. Thanks.

[keelamonster.livejournal.com]

there's the problem of there not being enough people there, but also, there's the problem of people not wanting to do the so called dirty work. It's all fairly despicable.

But the contractors using Red Cross shelters as free corporate housing? They have a special circle of hell reserved for them, I think.

[dragonvpm.livejournal.com]

Keep in mind though that even though some contractors are real slimeballs who are just out to make a quick buck at anyone's expense, the federal government does tend to encourage that sort of behaviour in it's contracting policies.

It's possible that the contractors in question are using the RC facilities as corporate housing just so make a little extra money, but it's equally possible that the only reason they got the job is because they planned to do this from the beginning and that's one way they managed to come in as the lowest bidder.

It's interesting to see how often government contracts go to the lowest bidder even if that bidder is quoting a price that just can't be achieved through legal/legitimate means.

So, the bottom line is that while what these contractors is doing is slimey, it's possible that it's symptomatic of larger problems in the government's methods for awarding contracts (then again seeing how often Haliburton is awarded no-bid contracts would tend to make me think the same thing) and it's not automatically just a case of evil contractors scamming people.

[susandennis]

Even more interesting info and another informed 'take' on the thing. Wow. Thank you. I do think that the media is generally hyper vigilant about any kind of scams with special points for governmental ones and anything having to do with New Orleans is getting mega bonus points right now.

While this vigilant can be valuable, I think often they look so hard that sometimes their imaginations (or hopes for a great story) kick in. And there's nothing more juicy than looting and rebuilding scams right now.

It's so hard to know the real story. But, your point about low bidding is an excellent one... The process seems, in many ways, to encourage problems - and no bidding, seems to invent them! Man, I'm glad no one is looking to me for the answers!