French Quarter Surviving?

I've been monitoring the Hurricane Katrina news as much as possible here at work today, and one thing has struck me more than any other thing: The newer parts of the city, downtown, etc., have buildings collapsing. But the pictures I've seen of the French Quarter look wet, but not damaged much at all.

Now, my knowledge of New Orleans geography is not good. I have no clue what part of the city the Quarter is in, how close to the levees or the coast it is, or any of that sort of thing. But it just strikes me that whoever built those buildings, way back when, surely knew what they were doing.

New Orleans

The news on New Orleans and the hurricane they're going through RIGHT NOW is hitting me kind of hard, for several reasons. And they're sort of selfish reasons, for whatever it's worth. Don't get me wrong... I'm completely sympathetic to the poor people who live there and the fact that many of them are going to lose their homes, and frightened for the people who couldn't get out of the city. And the historian in me is aghast at all the amazing history of the region that could be lost.

But the selfish part of me is thinking "I never got to visit there." I have wanted to visit New Orleans for a VERY long time - as silly as it sounds, ever since the computer game Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father came out, I have wanted to check out what seems to be the most amazing city in the United States. And having met some online friends who live there has made it even worse. I hope that Jack, Laura, Tom, Gabe, Ralph, Riley, Dallas, and Rich are all okay. I hope that I'll get to meet them soon and I especially hope that their losses are minimal.

And the history part of me is horrified that the city where my Fellrath ancestors entered the United States is under such heavy attack from the forces of nature. I had hoped to go there and see where my forebearers entered this country from Germany.

I hope I'm not being too fatalistic - New Orleans has been through horrible storms before and has always come out on top. And maybe I'm letting the panic-driven newscasters on TV get to me with their talk about how "this is the big storm that New Orleans has always feared." But for a city I've never been to except in books, movies, and a video game, I feel a sense of kinship with those folks down there. I'd hate to see a wonderful amazing city like New Orleans be damaged too heavily. I don't want anything to change before I'm able to visit.

Compliments Can Go A Long Way

I was walking down Crestview this morning on the way to the bus stop and stopped to talk to one of my neighbors. He asked me if I take the bus, since he sees me walking down there most mornings, and I said yes. And then he complimented me for it, out of no where. We had a brief discussion about how cars have ruined America, and then I went on my way.

But it was very nice to have someone simply compliment you for no reason. Makes your day. Helps if the day is as gorgeous as today is, naturally, but it's got me in a pretty good mood. And that's especially nice on a day when I was feeling a little negative when I got up.

Is "Hoops" Catching?

Got a press release about the recent Crew 1:0 Dallas win today, and in it, Crew PR Director Jeff Wuerth referred to Dallas as the "Hoops."

THEY'RE NOT HOOPS! They're stripes - they don't even go all the way around the jersey!

And there's only ONE HOOPS: CELTIC.

Christ, it's bad enough they changed their names to FC Dallas... now they've got easily-led PR directors calling them "The Hoops."

They're the Burn. They're never going to lose that name. Just deal with it, Dallas.

Rap Songs In the Commercials

Been watching this Target commercial recently where they're advertising their backpacks for the upcoming school year with a re-lyricized (is that a word) version of Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Go Back," and it's striking me as totally surreal every time. This is even more pronounced than when I saw a car commercial using "How Soon Is Now" by the Smiths as its music.

Anyway, this got me thinking: How many OTHER sexually-motivated rap songs could be used by the various corporations to drag in more customers? Here starts the list!

• Rally's: "Me So Hungry" by Two Live Crew (The obvious first choice)


• Jell-O: "We Want Some Pudding" by Two Live Crew (anyone noticing a trend here?)


• McDonald's: "Milkshake" by Kelis (you'd only have to change a few lyrics here...)

Your input is welcome, naturally. :)

Appalachian Trail

Along with working today (and I actually got a lot done, despite what I'm about to tell you), I read the trail journal of a fellow kilt-wearer who did the Appalachian Trail kilted. All it did was make me want to do it myself even MORE. The trail, that is. Kilted or not, I want to try it... kilted would just be that much better.

I read the first part of Bill Bryson's A Walk In the Woods and that started me thinking about it. I haven't ever sat down and thought about how much it would cost, etc. I should. But I'd want to do it with Jenn and Duncan... how would I do that? I'll have to wait a number of years, probably - until Duncan's a bit older and we can re-finance the old mortgage and put some money away to take care of this plan. Until then we can hike around Ohio and into Michigan, hopefully. Do some real backpacking and such.

Well, if nothing else, it's a dream to hold on to. Maybe a retirement thing to plan for, if I'm ever able to actually retire given the economy and the ability of companies to get away with murder by mistreating their long-term employees.

Time Travel Questionnaire

My friend Dale Price showed this "time travel questionnaire" today on his blog, and being a person who enjoys a little look back at life on occasion, I decided to run with it.

The question: what were you doing 10 years ago, 5 years ago, 1 year ago, and yesterday?

Ten Years Ago: I was living in Lansing, Michigan, and I worked at Professional/Technical Development there, and my client was the Child Support Enforcement System. I was implementing their computer system all over the State of Michigan. I was extraordinarily happy to be out of my parents' house and working at a place that made pretty good money. I was moving up the ranks at work nicely and felt that computer implementation was a good fit for my skill set.

Five Years Ago: Living in Columbus and working at Information Control Corporation as a consultant, and I BELIEVE my client at the time was American Dairy Brands. Glad to be done with them - the less said about that the better. I had moved from up near Shrock Road to my new apartment near Easton Town Center and was enjoying the location thoroughly. Wasn't dating anyone at the time. I was on a rec soccer team with some good friends and life was pretty good.

One Year Ago: Oh, how things change: my wife Jennifer was pregnant with our first child and I was working at Ohio State University's Comprehensive Cancer Center full time. We'd moved from the apartment near Easton to our rental house in Clintonville, which we enjoyed a lot. Jenn was luckily past her awful morning sickness phase of her pregnancy and we were seriously in "getting ready for the baby" mode.

Yesterday: I was home with my son Duncan, who was running a fever and (as we found out later in the day) has an ear infection. I can't imagine anywhere I'd rather be than home with my family, either. I'm still at OSU, happily married, and life is great in our new house and fantastic life.

Dale - thanks for posting yours! This was a fun look back. It's amazing how to look at the massive changes one's life can take can put you in a different frame of mind.

Being a Fan

I was amongst the witnesses to a great deal of unpleasantness last night, and I'm going to give you my take on it.

Last night, the Dallas Burn beat Columbus 3-1 in overtime in the U.S. Open Cup. Both teams played a good game, it was entertaining, and the Crew seem to be continuing on their fine form of play for the most part. However...

The fans at the game (the COLUMBUS fans) need to learn what sportsmanship is, and what being a fan is. Now I've been a passionate fan of the Crew and many other teams before them, so I feel I'm not speaking out of turn when I talk about passionate fandom. I've actually broken furniture celebrating a Notre Dame national championship. I'm NOT a casual fan of either the Irish or the Crew - I love 'em both to death.

But I also know the difference between being a good sport and being a pathetic whining loser.

To explain: the score was 1-1 when Columbus and Dallas went into overtime to settle their game (as it's tournament play, there had to be a winner in this case). Danny Szetela and Frankie Hejduk were ejected for bad tackles at 101' and 103', respectively. I didn't think Szetela deserved a red for his tackle, though a friend of mine who I respect as a fan said that a former referee he watches the games with thought Szetela did deserve it. I won't go into detail. I will say that Szetela didn't seem to be arguing much as he left the field.

Hejduk most CERTAINLY deserved it. Bad tackle on the same guy that Szetela took down - studs up and all. Very dangerous, and I agree with my friend Keith who said that if he was the Crew coach, he'd bench Frankie for the next game for that stunt.

Anyway, when these things happen, it's just part of the game. You have to take it in stride, even if you don't agree with it. But the "fans" of Columbus decided not to do that - the whining of every single call the referee made for the rest of the match commenced immediately. This continued to the point where Kyle Martino got called for an obvious offside and the folks in front of me started whining about it. I blurted out "Oh, come on. If you don't think that's an offside then you need to go back and read the rulebook." That didn't get a lot of smiles, I'll tell you. It got a "shut up" from the moron who was doing the whining, that's for sure.

And after the game, most of the fans stuck around to berate the referee as he left the field. After he actually called a good game. And the absolutely stupidest thing I heard on the way out was (to paraphrase): "I'm not saying the red cards weren't valid, I'm just saying that sometimes those calls need to go our way."

Um... no. Not if the offense wasn't there. But the Crew fans in general (and generally NOT the folks I watch the games with, but most of the people around us) got so mind-numbingly blinded to the idea that the Crew might actually have been at fault on those calls that they couldn't see anything but that Dallas played a good game, took advantage of the situation that Szetela and Hejduk put us in, and won. To them the fault HAD to be with the refs at that point.

This is where sportsmanship takes over. Yes, it was an unfortunate loss. But if you've got such a hard-on for your team that rational thought leaves you when a game is going on, then you probably need not to go to any more games. You probably have larger issues than just soccer in your life. That's not being a fan, that's being an issue-laden moron who's put way too much importance into a useless form of entertainment like pro sports.

Yep, that's all it is, folks - entertainment.

And I know that today the Matchnight forums are lighting up with anti-ref banter and calling for the heads of the referees for U.S. Soccer, but I'm not adding to it by going over there and talking to those chuckleheads. To me, they're not fans. They're just as bad in their way as the hooligans who fight over soccer in Europe (or, to some extent, here). They just don't use knives and fists for it.