Hrm... first class day wasn't bad.

...there was a lot to do today - go to class, deposit monies, get groceries, and such. Got a little annoyed at someone because they waggled their finger at me in the parking lot, thinking that I was going to steal the parking space they were angling for. I smiled and gave a rather curt "After you" gesture to her, and then got annoyed that she thought the worst of me instead of something else. Then again, it is a parking lot. There are worse things to have your honor challenged on.

In addition, the store that I usually frequent for my grocery now has greeters who speak a trite phrase to all those who enter. While most of their checkout units remain unstaffed. And, I suspect, who will terminate on the spot anyone who fails to deliver the phrase to all those who enter. I don't like that several jobs that I hear of people being at require perfection day in and out, and then dangle over the heads of their wage-slaves the very-real threat of simply replacing them with someone who needs the money desperately enough that they'll put up with the policies that create high employee turnover. What I worry most about is that this attitude is creeping upwards into the professional realms as well. That would be unforgivable.

I find out that moltare has once again conquered the Internet. Wanting 0 of 0 target on that one, Mol. las provides us with a handy reference of how to write fantasy that will slay the editors.

Out in my travels, I came across a group of protestors in the area. I thought about sketching them then, and decided against it. Later, I thought better of it. Unfortunately, they were gone by the time I returned. But I still got an art inspiration idea out of it. Such I present the rather rough "Liberty Plaza". It's rather liberal. Although I'm not sure it would work as well for me with conservative messages. Most of the things that I can see protestors over are "liberal" causes. Having accounts that promote the military in a children's pizza parlour doesn't help things much, either.

I was struck by the familiarity of an icon I saw around... a quick Google search reminded me of where I had seen it before - it was the text of a CrimethInc poster about gender roles. The basic gist is: For every girl who wants to be "one of the guys", there's a guy who would be perfectly okay with being girly. This icon finished the poem with a rainbow colouration. Sometimes, it's worth having something you've seen come back and say hello. Sometimes you learn more from it the second time around.

I hear more about the way that Louisiana is being handled. The message appears to be - Pictures may be lying. Especially if the President is in them.

The people there are noticing. They don't trust that the government will actually do anything. There's a good chance they're right. After all, the feds didn't take advantage of a carrier that was in the area after the hurricane came through. They still haven't. They're too busy pointing fingers at everyone else.

Yet some politicians are doing good work to help things out. Something like that is enough to make some people speculate on alternate history. Even there, though, they suspect that a Republican would be in office at this point. Whether it would be a competent Republican, I have no idea. Probably not, considering that the words "Republican" and "incompetent" seem to be drawing ever closer in the mind because of those people who masquerade as both.

There's something about the disaster that is, well, paralyzing. I feel trapped in between two outcomes. On the one hand, signing up for volunteering and heading down to the area to help out is an acceptable outcome. At the same time, classes have begun, and thus I am tied down here. I know that I'll stay here (I did just check and see that there was a blood drive coming into town on Friday I will have to see if there are other locales and dates before/behind it that I can walk to. I definitely need to do that on the regular schedule.) and go to my courses. For a rather selfish reason, comparatively speaking - it costs a lot to get the education, and I probably can't put it on hold for two weeks or later to do this. I feel trapped by my own logic. So I'll justify it to myself that the little bit that I threw in and if I can get a walk-in on the blood bit, that I'll have done something to help. It may not feel like enough, but then again, I might only think it was enough if I had the personal finances to get everyone who needed out, out, fed, clothed, housed, and built the pumps that would suck out the water. It's very over-the-top to think that, and it's not really logical. It still doesn't mean I don't think about it. I watch the people go by, doing their things that they have the training for, and wonder whether I have anything useful to contribute at all. It's not logical or sane, but it feels like that sometimes, when I stop to think and when I read these accounts. I am not Superman. But times like these makes me wish I were (or that someone was). This is even after reading Watchmen and seeing what sort of world superheroes could create.

It's probably a Calvin thing. Faced with something like this, I feel a bit more like a six-year old kid who talks big and plays with his "imaginary" friend than an adult.