The news from Katrina has been pretty grim. It's sad to see all that devastation along the gulf coast. From the sounds of things, it's going to take a long time to get everything cleaned up - lots of people without homes or places to work, etc... In addition to the tragedy factor is the economic impact, which is already in full effect here. Gas prices yesterday jumped from about $2.69 to $3.09 in the course of four hours or so. From reading stories like this one, it's a pretty safe bet they'll only be getting higher in the near-future. Gas prices over $4/per gallon are a distinct possibility, and that's some scary stuff.
Tuesday I had a workshop in the new South Campus Gateway building where HR has it's offices now. It was a very snazzy new space. Still pretty opposed to the whole Campus Partners thing, but it's a done deal now... and I don't think protesting the stuff would really be all that effective. I'm not that passionate about it at any rate. Like I said, the new building was very cool, and the 4th floor view over campus was very snazzy. After the workshop I briefly wandered through the B&N and hit up the new Potbelly Sandwich Works for lunch with Amy. I didn't go very far in, so what I saw of B&N was pretty typical... Potbelly was a pretty good place. The sandwiches are good sized and pretty well priced ($3.79). I got "The Wreck" which was ham, turkey, roast beef and salami - very tasty. They grill the sandwhiches in a similar way to Quiznos. Good food - I'll definitely be going back. The atmosphere inside was pretty cool as well - a lot nicer than most other campus places.
Yesterday was the Mike Nelson show at Shadowbox, and MAN was it a great time. Group-wise, it was just Amy, Pat, and his co-worker Amy. I really can't believe I couldn't talk more people into going, but a) I didn't try TOO hard, and b) it did come during kind of a financially pressed month for more folks. The good times started out pretty quickly, actually -- on the Shadowforums, I'd mentioned that I was a little bummed they'd added the tonight's show AFTER I'd already had tickets for the Wednesday show... and that it would've been nice to come on my birthday. Now, I know we could've probably gotten our reservations moved to the second night, but we stuck it out. Well, because Shadow-folks are 100% completely awesome, they had Mike sign a t-shirt for me with happy birthday wishes. VERY COOL! Could I love the place any more? Big thanks to Jimmy, Julie, and whoever else was involved in that deal. The show itself was awesome!! Some spoilers below, so if you're going tonight (which you SHOULD) don't read after this: XXXXXXX It had a good portion of the current Best Of show, but also had a sketch Mike had written specifically for the show (which he was in as well), another sketch where he ripped on a few movie clips MST3K-style which was very funny (and defintely brought up some MST3K nostalgia with a quickness), he was in Gary & Galinda (which became Mike & Melinda), he was in Girls 101, and he played Dr. Mystery in one of the older Dr. Mystery bits! Band-wise, the music was almost all from Best Of, but they did do a rockin' cover of the MST3k theme-song, and Mike sang the lead on Sci-Fi Girl!! Such a cool time, and I'm so glad I went - definitely worth the price, and then some!
I've gotta get back to work now, slack-time is over. I'll leave this interesting link: a library in Holland lets you "check out" people with non-mainstream lifestyles/viewpoints/backgrounds and chat with them, learn about them, etc. I think that's a damn cool idea! Being open minded to other viewpoints is a GOOD thing, despite what the moral majority would have you believe.
