b.rox

Starting today, I’m on vacation. But I’m not going anywhere. Or perhaps I should say that any trips I take will be inside my own head. The point is I won’t be going to the office for a couple weeks or so. I haven’t had a vacation since campus reopened in January, and frankly I [...]

I recently learned that the library here at the University has a stockpile of a few hundred educational filmstrips from the 50s and 60s. They’re getting rid of them, selling them to some company that extracts the silver.
I guess that’s better than just throwing them away. I guess they don’t have much real value. Over [...]

I spent a good part of the last three days at a conference entitled Humanity and the Earth: The Legacy of Elis?©e Reclus (1830-1905). It was put together by John Clark at Loyola University. Topics included “Classical Anarchism in the Age of Reclus,” “Kropotkin and Reclus’ Friendship and the Cross-fertilization of Ideas,” “The Future of [...]

According to my friend Kelly, I should be planning for my retirement now. My dad retired when he was 56. The trend is to work longer, but I feel like bucking that trend. I mean, I enjoy my job, but I don’t think I’d want to be doing it when I’m 70. I’ve always enjoyed [...]

I am happy to announce that our house is finally secure for the first time in many months. Our four downstairs doors had no locks. In fact one of the doors fell off its hinges a couple months ago. The only thing keeping trespassers out has been luck. But I got new knobs and deadbolts, [...]

Taisha is a young girl who lives across the street from us. She and her mother moved in a few weeks ago. Before that she used to attend the school where Xy teaches in Algiers, though they didn’t know each other there.

Last Friday Taisha’s older brother was gunned down in Central City.

This incident merited four [...]

I made a page on the New Orleans Wiki for the Nov. 7th ballot. Please add any relevant information.

Click to enlarge.

How would you like to boss me around? If you think you’ve got what it takes, you can apply for the job.
(I just discovered that October 16th was National Boss’ Day. I should’ve posted this then.)

This morning I noticed an old white guy standing across the street. He wasn’t doing anything, just standing there looking at the house across the street from ours. I remembered seeing him there yesterday morning too.
When I carried my bike down to the street, I said hi and we talked for a while. He said [...]

I went to grab some lunch at Minnie’s and was surpised to see lights and a camera crew and some well-dressed people milling about. Next thing I know Congressman William Jefferson is shaking my hand.
He’s been in the news a lot lately, and not for anything nice. So as he shook my hand, I didn’t [...]

Xy had to drive herself to the emergency room yesterday morning. She sliced her finger open with a scissors, and it just wouldn’t stop bleeding. She bled all over the school, and finally they sent her to the hospital. Fortunately she didn’t need stitches. They just used that Dermabond stuff.
Of course it took all day. [...]

OK, this is a little gross, but it’s also kind of funny. Don’t look if you’re extremely squeamish.

A brief recap of the past week:
Monday night I attended our weekly grassroots neighborhood planning meeting.
Tuesday night I attended the monthly board meeting for a nonprofit group I’ve been working with.
Wednesday night I attended a meeting to revise bylaws of our neighborhood organization.
Thursday night I thought I’d catch a break, but I ended up [...]

Congrats to J & Day on the completion of their house. This means it’s taken less time for them to build a brand new house than for us to renovate half of ours.

I took a walk down Tulane Avenue last week. I had my camera with me, and I took some pictures.

Tulane Avenue is a major thoroughfare which runs through my neighborhood, Mid-City, and continues all the way into the Central Business District. These pictures were taken in the blocks near Carrollton Avenue, which is where the [...]

I saw a house at 3215 Bienville just the other day. I noticed it because the doors were wide open and the moldering contents were lying in plain sight from the street. It was one of those houses that has sat untouched since the flood.

Now it’s gone. I noticed its absence this morning as I [...]

Stephanie Bruno has another story about our ongoing renovation in this morning’s Times-Picayune.

Although I’m proud of Xy for being a good teacher in the public schools, it’s also a source of frustration for both of us. She so often comes home worn out, angry and overwhelmed. Every school day is an exhausting drama. Not only that, but most of her evenings and weekends are full of homework, [...]

I took this picture this morning at Jeff Davis and Conti.

I think anyone in New Orleans would recognize what this marker means: that’s how high the water came during last year’s flood. As a point of reference, the waterline was about the level of my neck, and I’m tall.
What I wonder about is: Who put [...]