As If It Matters

Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath continues to haunt the rest of America. I’m on several different email discussion groups - especially ones that have to do with political organizing and technology - and they are all talking about how to solve this problem (thanks to SoRo for the link). This morning on Dan Gillmor’s Bayosphere, Tim Bishop outlined the problem: “create a single database of all the people missing in the aftermath of Katrina that their friends and family can use to connect with them”. Turns out that there are already a number of options springing up, from the Katrina PeopleFinder Project to a CivicSpace effort to Wal-mart’s own attempt to help. But the one that made me choke up a bit was the Lost and Found section of Craig’s List New Orleans - mostly because it reminds me of Sept. 11 in New York City, people desperately searching for their loved ones.

There is also a mailing list for on-going discussion of technical response to emergency events; I’m not on it myself, and don’t know what it’s like: Digital-ER. But let’s return to the PeopleFinder project, which a number of my friends and colleagues are involved with. Noting that the Red Cross fulfills much the same function, the PeopleFinder project has a page explaining why they’re doing this:

I love the iPod Shuffle. I love it more than the iPod. I started with the 1 gig Shuffle, and then gave it to my brother to trade down to the 512 MB shuffle.

Why? Because there was something fun, something nice, about a small selection of songs. It was easier to enjoy them, easier to have variety. Something about the massive selection of my massive iTunes collection makes enjoying the music borderline impossible. You end up listening to the same small collection of tunes again and again.

But with the Shuffle, everything is different. Having that limit, that ceiling of 120 songs is surprisingly liberating. And the small size and long battery life makes for incredible portability - and consequently I listen to more music than I ever did before.

I have been singing the praises of the Shuffle to friends & family for some time - but this morning I saw this blog post about why the Shuffle is superior and decided it was time to Blog It!

My dear friend Andrew Doss just called me and told me to go to CNN and listen to the Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin. I don’t have Windows Media Player and couldn’t listen to it, but luckily Dave Winer is pointing to the original as a podcast - listen to it here. CNN has a good summary of the interview.

Andrew Doss, my buddy, is from New Orleans and put me up there in June for a long, fun weekend. He’s okay, and his family is okay, but heart-broken and terrified. And the Mayor in that radio interview is the same: angry, frustrated, terrified, and full of a desperate desire to help his people. He gets upset about all the politics, and calls for a moratorium on press conferences until someone actually decides to help. What a terrifying and sad thing for him to say - “They thinking small, man, and this is a major, major deal,” - you’ve got to read it, and then help.

I have put up yet another roll of photos from Sophia’s birth - this is from my visit yesterday, whereas Roll 1 and Roll 2 were from my visit on Saturday, just a few short hours after her birth. Roll 3 includes her first Mets cap, a very exciting event indeed. As always, the entire bunch are available in the main gallery and we encourage purchasing of the photos and the “gift items”. I’ve order about a gazillion mugs to pass out.

I confess to being a bit overwhelmed by the feelings involved - something deep and tribal (or maybe primal?) has been tapped, and the intensity of my love and devotion to this little baby is beyond anything I’ve known. Beware, world: Sophia’s Uncle is Fierce with Love for her.

I was also amazed at the difference between the baby on the first day and the second day. On day one, a few short hours after her birth, she was mostly asleep and occasionally awake but in a fairly low-key manner - not a lot of crying. By Sunday, she was loud and alive - paying attention to all the noises and movements. Amazing. The notion that I can’t spend every single day with her is painful.

I’ve added a second roll of prints from yesterday’s marathon visit. The first roll is still available online, and both rolls can be seen in the master gallery. I’ve also enabled the print feature so you can order 4 by 6 inch prints - slightly larger than standard size, but then again digital cameras do not take photos in standard 3 by 5 size. In addition to prints, if you choose “photo gifts” from the pull down menu, you can order everything from t-shirts to mugs to magnets. Proceeds go to the Sophia Josephine Mele college fun. Go nuts.

Dear Lord, fire-eating custodian of my soul,
author of hermaphrodites, radishes,
and Arizona’s rosy sandstone,
please protect this wet-cheeked baby
from disabling griefs. Help her sense when
to rise to her feet and make her desires known,
and when to hit the proverbial dirt. On nights
it pleases thee to keep her sleepless, summon
crickets, frogs and your chorus of nocturnal
birds so she won’t conclude the earth’s gone mute.
Make her astute as Egyptian labyrinths that keep
the deads’ privacy inviolate. Give her her mother’s
swimming ability. Make her so charismatic
that even pigeons flirt with her, in their nervous,
avian way. Grant her the clearmindedness
of a midwife who never winces when tickled.
Let her be adventurous as a menu of ox tongue hash,
lemon rind wine and pinecone Jell-O. Fill her with awe:
for the seasons, minarets’ sawtoothed peaks,
the breathing of cathedrals, and all that lives –
for one radiant day or sixty pitiful years.
Bravely, she has ventured among us, disguised
as a new comer, shedding remarkably few tears.

(Photos of Sophia here.)

(by Amy Gerstler. Originally titled “Prayer for Jackson”)

After some consideration. I’ve decided sophia josephine is the prettiest name I’ve ever heard.

I am an uncle! Sophia Josephine Mele, 8 lbs, 6 oz. 21 inches. 8:21 am, Saturday morning, August 27, 2005. More details to come… (I’m mo-blogging from the train up to nyc on my sidekick….)

At 8:21 AM this morning, my brother & Barbara had a baby girl. There were several false starts - and at least twice over the last two weeks it seemed like she was about to give birth - but now it has happened, and she’s here. Unfortunately, I have no other information - don’t know her name, her weight, or any details of her birth, but I’m about to hop a train to New York City and will share all shortly.

The Radio Silence has ended. The last month has found me overwhelmed by my life, from every angle, and managed not to blog. Travel was big - North Carolina, California, New Orleans, Memphis, New York - but mostly I’ve been pretty bone-tired. And now I am blogging to you from an airplane — I kid you not, Harish is here with me and he just blogged — on my way to India. Bangalore, India. I have no idea what I’ve gotten myself into, but we were so late to the airport we got a free upgrade to business class. I guess it pays to be late…