news from the home state

Bye, Trent! Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Biloxi's Recovery Shows Divide

While Gov. Haley Barbour (R) has hailed the casino openings as a harbinger of Mississippi's resurgence and developers have proposed more than $1 billion in beachfront condos and hotels for tourists, fewer than one in 10 of the thousands of single-family houses destroyed in Biloxi are being rebuilt, according to city permit records. More than 10,000 displaced families still live in trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

While getting money for lower-income residents to rebuild or for the construction of affordable rental units is like pulling teeth (if you can manage it at all -- according to this article, the state argued at first that bailing out homeowners without flood insurance would just encourage them to forgo it in the future), Haley Barbour wants to divert $600 million in federal housing aid to fund an expansion of the Port of Gulfport, including creating an "upscale tourist village" with hotels, condos, restaurants and casinos. Because they claim that the already-funded programs are adequate to meet the housing needs of their displaced residents. Clearly.

the wishlist meme, collected

I've seen this floating by a few times already this year, and I'd like to collect links to take a look at later. (I'm afraid if I start surfing for them now, I'll not get any of the work done this week that I absolutely must finish.) If you've posted a link of your own, or would like to direct folks over to the list of someone you know, please add a link in the comments. Anonymous commenting is on if you don't want to post links with your name attached; IP logging is still on, but I don't have the energy to go tracking them even if I had any desire to do so and nobody else can see them. =)

I love this particular meme, and I do try to play anonymous wishlist fairy from time to time if I can manage it. If you don't know which meme I'm talking about, here's the text:

Step One
- Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.
- If you wish for real possible things, make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.
- Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ, or link to this post (it'll be public) so that the holiday joy will spread.

Step Two
- Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:
- If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it.
You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call.
There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

I'm unsure whether I'll post my own list; I might do it later, once I've had a chance to think about it.

Another entry in the ongoing "I would totally buy this" series.

Cowbell Hero. (YouTube video) I would play it over and over, taking breaks only to read my copy of "Watchmen Babies".

Cow power ready! Moo!!


Dear lord, I have got to stop procrastinating.