Hello, everybody. First off, apologies for the long absence between posts – since my last in-depth entry, I've moved to Boston and have been mired in house-settling/redesigning, unpacking, class registration, etc. Things are still chaotic, but the dust is finally settling. I'll post more in depth about that in my next entry, but first, current events.

Hurricanes and friends unhoused

One reason I've been silent lately is the whole Hurricane Katrina scenario. I felt bad recounting tales of moving and new-school excitement while so much other tragedy is happening elsewhere. My stories of a life in boxes are nothing compared to my poor friend SarahScott, who had just started school down in Tulane and whose house is now off-limits. I haven't yet heard a final tally of how much of her stuff has been lost, but at least she got out OK and is physically unharmed, saints be praised. At the moment she's geeking out at DragonCon to help get her minds off of floods and imminent transfer to another school possibly in Houston. Go, young geek, and be happy – my thoughts are with you, Kasi.

For all of you out there inclined to help with the disaster relief, please do make a donation at www.redcross.org.

Saying goodbye to the Supremes

I woke up this morning to the news that Chief Justce Rehnquist finally succumbed to his battle with thyroid cancer. It must be difficult to have so much of your life thrown to the masses when in government; while I'm sure hundreds are personally saddened by the loss of the man, millions are chattering about this new secondary opening on the bench. There's already rumors abounding that Bush is going to try and transfer his nomination of Judge Roberts over to a nomination for chief justice. Personally, this feels a little weird to me. Shouldn't the new kid on the team be required to really prove his mettle before he's allowed to lead?

What I'm hoping is that the current administration's complete fumbling of the New Orleans disaster will lead to enough outrage in the American populace to finally give the Democrats some tiniest semblance of a backbone. Our current administration is so cloesly tied to the oil cartels that they're allowing the oil companies to get away with $3-a-gallon gouging before Katrina, and their current profiteering on this disaster to justify $4-a-gallon costs. Maybe now that people are really feeling the pinch on their wallets, they'll finally wake up and take a good, hard look at the damage this administration is really doing.

Coming up next: life in Beantown

Tons of news and photos to recount. Living in Boston is going to be amazing, and I'm utterly thrilled with the prospects for this year's classes and things. More on all of that soon, I promise!