A photoblog and other things

This is the first post from my new apartment in the US. My flatmate and I just got the wireless network up and running and everything seems to be working a-ok.

From the gap in the blog postings you may have thought that I had run out of steam. Not so. I’ve just come back from a long weekend of partying in Key West, frolicking with alligators and having an awesome sing-a-long/play-a-long session at a friend’s birthday party. Prior to that I very busy with work and trying to tie up loose ends over here in the US. To those of you I have promised things or have e-mails to reply to – you know who you are – you’ll be hearing from me in the near future.

I honestly could not think of anything more appropriate than the above title. Honestly.

Yes, Ft Lauderdale and surrounding areas got hit by hurricane Katrina last week, which meant we got Thursday and Friday off of work! Of course, that didn’t really mean you could do anything… it was too dangerous to go outside not only because of what might be lying around, but because a lot of traffic lights were out and that’s just scary.

Katrina grew up and is now going to turn New Orleans into the next Atlantis or something. I hope they hold out alright because that place is awesome.

Car. Stupid car. I still haven’t got my car. I have insurance for the car, but no car. There is a hold up in getting the leasing company for the previous owner to get up off their arses and cash the damn cheque so I can receive the title to the car. That may take over another week yet!

Apart from that I am settling into my new apartment and finding the joy that is a couple of hundred TV channels. Actually, I really only like a couple of them, they being the independent film channel and comedy central. There are a couple of others that have the odd interesting thing on here and there. My flatmate knows the channels off by heart pretty much. Convenient yet scary.

Well, it seems this week I’m actually gaining some of my energy back. I’ve been utterly exhausted recently as has been shown by the lack of posting, but that’s probably also in part due to the fact I have no internet connection at home yet.

Anyway this was just a quick post to prove that I am sort of still alive. And Goldberg, yes, at some point I will take a listen.

Righty, another storm looks like it’s going to hit here. Whether it will be a hurricane by the time it makes landfall is another story, however from the brief visit to the Target store I just made I could plainly see that some people were in a state of hysteria again. It was all “hurricane this… hurricane that” at the cash registers and people were stockpiling big time.

Onto other interesting things, there was a discussion with my lunch group regarding gay marriage and whether it should be allowed or not. The discussion got very heated but I didn’t really join in as I have not formed an opinion on the issue yet. I don’t think I ever will actually as I don’t really care about it. Some people in the discussion were against it because it would indicate to people that being a homosexual was normal, when in fact they argued it was not. Others argued against that saying that it’s their right to get married if they want to. The counter arguement to that was that the only real rights we have are to food, shelter and safety or something like that. This went on for a while and it sort of got into a “think about the children” case.

And this is something I’ve noticed here in the states. People spend their time discussing stuff that really doesn’t make a f^*ken difference to anything, or they argue how it will make a difference when the effects will probably be quite minor.

But there is a war going on overseas that will make a heck of a difference in the future if it hasn’t already now (but of course it has). People are either sick of talking about it or they just give up realising there isn’t much they could do about it anyway. Meanwhile of course the conservative right seem to be taking over this country, just to add to the woes. There are two real points for discussion: an unjust war and how you solve the problems caused by it, and the extreme Christian right who can’t see two inches in front of themselves who are taking control of the country. In the end, who gives a flying f@#k about gay marriage.

Think about the children.

Right now I am completely and utterly exhausted. Hold on, I think I’ve written a post starting like that before. During the week I sealed the private purchase of my new car. I’ve sent the cheque off to the seller’s financing company but I won’t be actually picking up the car until next week. Once I get the existing title, but more importantly the insurance sorted out, then I can pick up the car.

And this is where stuff starts to bite. Because I have not been licensed in Florida for a year yet I will be paying through the nose for my insurance. Oh, the other factor is that insurance in Florida is crazy because people have too many accidents. From what I’ve seen lately: people reading books while they’re driving; people driving with their sunshield reflector things still up; people driving and eating cereal; people constantly lane surfing; this doesn’t surprise me at all. At the moment my insurance will cost me 8 times that of what it did in Australia. Freaking unbelieveable. I do have other things to try yet but I really have to have this sorted out by Tuesday next week.

In other news I’ve been preparing my move to a new apartment with a friend from work. This is going much better and the pricing is going to be much more reasonable, thank god. Luckily we’re both experienced with living with other people so problems should be kept to a minimum.