Ashley Morris: the blog

Arctic thaw raises security concerns

So I am eating my homemade bread, drinking my morning coffee, reading the news. And I see this headline "Arctic thaw raises security concerns ". I thought Duh, welcome to global warming. Slightly pleased that even CNN noticed that flooded New York might become a problem, I opened the link. That ended my pleasant morning, because the security concern was about which greedy pig will get its paws on the fossil fuel that's under the melting ice. 

Oh well, I really need to become more cynical.

Do I stay or do I go?

I guess a lot of us, who came here to help and repopulate the city after Katrina are beginning to second guess our naive optimism. 

We knew there was crime before the storm but we decided that living here and feel alive is better than living anywhere else and be safe and bored. 

When we got here and saw the devastation and the apathy of all who were supposed to care, we were assuring each other that we can change it. 

I have lived here for 3 years now so I did not really know the city before the storm but I came to love it as my second home. I will not live anywhere else in US. I have moved 5 times before I came here and this was the only place where I felt home. If I do move, I will go back to Europe. Don't want to.

What makes this city so great are the people here. And they are endangered now. In the past 3 months, 4 of my good friends either moved or are seriously thinking about moving because of the crime. The problem is that if people like them move, the city will not matter anymore. If all the people hanging out in Marigny, Mid City, and Uptown move because of the crime, there will be no more quirky, fun loving, very smart, community-active crowd that makes this city sooo cool. It will become just like all the other places with deserted, crime ridden downtown, where everybody else lives in far, far suburbs.

I don't have a solution, just a cry. I don't know how to stop a stray bullet from going through your bedroom wall and killing your wife. I do know though, that if people move because of crime, the crime will move in. It will take over. I fear the day when my nice street populated with teachers, architects, and journalists becomes a home to chop-shops, drug dealing, and street shooting. I know it is right around the corner. Actually, on the other side of the small cemetery I am looking at right now. 

So for now, I am holding the fort. I am not moving because I don't want anyone to deal drugs in front of my house.

And this Uptown murder could have happened anywhere. It has nothing to do with the drug related killing spree that's going on or with the innocent bystanders caught in. It does not prove how wide spread violet crime is. 

Please Buy

They are after me on Twitter...

OK, Twitter for me was a Gustav related thing and I rarely put anything on it nowdays. That however, does not stop people I have never heard of from following me. But the best one was today: Rouses Market is following me on Twitter. I expect Winn Dixie and Walmart to follow.

Dale Gribble was right. Never give any information to a computer. They will follow you on Twitter.

Has anybody seen my camera?

Or my laptop, or my address book, or the other million things I can't find anymore? Oh yeah, they must be in one of the piles of my possession in the girls room. 

They ripped up the floor in the kitchen. Here is my many layers of kitchen floor (from the top): vinyl sheet in unobtrusive beige from the 80s. Under that are sheets of plywood. Under that are very cool vinyl tiles in red and white from the 50s. Under that is insulation/padding from the 50s (completely disintegrated and gummy at this point). And under that? Original (1912) beautiful hardwood floor in great condition. 

So I ripped the whole mother fucker out and I will have hardwood floors everywhere. However, gummy insulation from the 50s stinks like hell at the moment. 

When I find my camera, will will supply pictures