b.rox

There’s something I wanted to write at the first anniversary of Katrina, but I never did. I thought about it again at the second anniversary, and the third and the fourth. I still wanted to write about it, but there was something in the way. Too much to do, and time slips away. Or maybe [...]

It’s that time of year when remembrance dominates our minds and the media. For some it can be painful and even oppressive, for others it is necessary and therapeutic. But no matter your attitude, it’s virtually inescapable. Because humans have five fingers on each hand, this anniversary gets special attention, and the remembrance is not [...]

After eleven years on the job in faculty development, I just led my first session that didn’t have anything to do with technology. The subject? A moment of silence. We began the session with a brief moment of silence, then I led a short discussion. What mindset is most conducive to learning? What mental states [...]

I’ll be on that panel tonight (Katrina 5.0) and they’ve asked me to read a post from my blog from the first few weeks after Katrina. The question, of course, is which one? My mind immediately sprang to something I wrote at the end of that dark November, which I titled Random Electronic Squawking. But [...]

Now that school’s back in session and my daughter’s back in daycare, I’m back to riding on the Jeff Davis bike path each morning on my way to work. That takes me past Comiskey Park and a sad tableau of signage for a community center that never materialized. I thought to myself a couple times [...]

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Dear Persephone, A friend recently asked me if we would be having a party for your half-birthday. That conjured images of yet more presents. Trust me when I say you’ve got more than enough stuff at this point in your life. Our friends and family have been very generous to you. So I thought we’d [...]

I look to houses and buildings for signs of our progress — or lack of it. People are more important than buildings, of course, but people move around. Many people never returned to the city. Besides which, people can hide their pain. The buildings are easier to read. Five years after Katrina, we still have [...]

Next week I’ll be on a panel called “Katrina 5.0: A Symposium on Technology & Blogging” hosted by the Louisiana State Museum. Among other things, I’ll be talking about blogging, my experience of writing about the aftermath of the levee failures, and how the platform or community has evolved in the past five years. I [...]

I’ve been reflecting lately on how happy I am, and this makes me nervous. I love my daughter and my wife, my health is fairly good, at work I’m pursuing a line of inquiry which is fresh and exciting to me, I’ve been reading some good books, we’re finally seeing some progress on the greenway, [...]

I’m quoted in this article from the morning paper.

I wanted to write something here about how to enjoy a book, novels in particular. I’ve touched on this before, but I wanted to expand on that theme. It’s not enough to read for an hour or so before you go to bed. Read when you first wake up in the morning. Read at lunch [...]

Instead of strengthening into a named storm, Tropical Depression #5 petered out and dissipated into nothing but a bunch of rainy weather. If it had played out differently, school might have been cancelled, but as it was today was the first day of classes at Xy’s new school. Yes, she’s teaching again, as I mentioned [...]

Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made. — Otto von Bismarck I had the chance to observe a bit of sausage-making yesterday. I attended the meeting of a committee charged with selecting a team to design a greenway for the Lafitte Corridor. A little context may be in order. [...]

Over the last week I’ve been sleeping less soundly and remembering my dreams better. I believe the two are related, and decreased alcohol consumption probably plays a role in both. The most vivid dreams come just before I wake up. This morning, I dreamed that Brian Denzer was working on a newspaper story about the [...]

Tales of the Cocktail is over. But there are a few more things I wanted to mention. I really liked the way Tales handled media this year. The application process was more rigorous, but once approved, I was guaranteed access to five seminars. That worked very well for me, and was a big improvement over [...]

The dry spell was broken at last this morning. Purple (and Black) Rain by Editor B

I’m taking this week off work to get some things done around the house. My main objective is to repaint the porch. As I noted previously, the paint has worn away at a surprising rate. I suspect it’s an inferior paint or simply not enough coats. I’m pretty sure there’s a layer of lead-based paint [...]

Happy belated Lammas or Lughnasadh or whatever else you may call it. (I guess it’s over now. I get confused with these traditional-style holidays that last from sundown to sundown, essentially extending into two days of our modern calendar.) This is a time, in the Northern Hemisphere anyhow, to celebrate the beginning of the harvest. [...]