New Orleans Metblogs » no_chris

Astronomy Update

no_chris — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:02:00 +0000

The Space Shuttle & International Space Station will both be flying over New Orleans this evening at approximately 6:22 pm. The shuttle was docked to the space station until about 3:30 this morning when they undocked, but are still flying in fairly close orbit. Sunset is 5:51 pm and skies are clear, so get up on your roof and keep your eyes peeled. Both should be fairly high in the sky, brighter than the stars, and moving fast.

Also; total lunar eclipse coming up Wednesday night.

ADDENDUM:::::: Dude, brah, that shit was KILLAH!!! Space shuttle was like 45 miles ahead of space station. USA! USA! Astronauts! Michoud assembly facility! How often do you get the chance to see the shuttle and the station tailing each other directly overhead? RARELY.

This is melting my brain

no_chris — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:26:58 +0000

Things I have learned today:

There are 34 Cafe Du Monde locations in Japan.
Some are “A-Type”
Some are “B-Type”
All of them serve Hot Dogs. A-Type hot dogs look similar to American hot dogs, B-Type hot dogs look a little strange.
“Gombo soup” is served on the A-type menu.
You can also get Gratin.

I am exasperated. Not because our treasured and storied local coffee stand has been sold and mass-marketed to the Japanese, but because the Japanese version looks way, way better.

I’m coming out of blog retirement for this

no_chris — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 15:19:23 +0000

In the battle of Live Oak Tree vs. RTA Bus, Live Oak Tree is victorious.

Taken today on Carrollton Ave. at Claiborne. Sorry for the crappy cell phone pix.

Neat Toy

no_chris — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:12:19 +0000

Found this site today that does a side by side comparison of Microsoft Virtual Earth and Google Maps. Why would anyone care about this? Well, because the Microsoft site is using local satellite imagery from approx. February 2007, and the Google site is using stuff from December 2005 or thereabouts. So if you look at them side by side, you can see the progress New Orleans made in one year. I have to say it’s pretty impressive. Blue roofs turn to new roofs, empty highways and parking lots have cars again, destruction is cleared away, etc. If anyone wants solid visual evidence of progress in this city, this is it.

IRS / Road Home Bullshit

no_chris — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:37:11 +0000

So the T-P just published this article today saying people will probably have to pay income taxes on their road home payouts– if they claimed a casualty loss in their 2005 taxes.

So let me get this straight; someone claims $60,000 in casualty loss on their 2005 taxes. this negates their $30,000 yearly income for 2005 and 2006, so they pay no taxes for those years, saving them roughly $8,000. In 2007, road home gives them $60,000 to cover the loss. Now they owe income taxes on the $60,000 plus their income. $60,000 + $30,000 = $90,000. Income tax on $90,000 is roughly $18,000.

Now, I understand that a roadhome payment from the government does pretty much negate your casualty losses. And maybe it’s not fair for someone to escape paying income tax for two years and then get a huge payment from the government. However, in this scenario, not only are they paying back the $8,000 they avoided paying in 2005-2006, but they’re penalized an extra $10,000. How the fuck is that fair? Not to mention the fact that they probably already spent their road home payout thinking it was tax free. This just doesn’t make sense.

Saints Predictions: Week 1

no_chris — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 22:32:43 +0000

We all know the Saints play the Superbowl champion Colts tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. to begin the 2007 NFL season. This is possibly the most highly anticipated moment of the year so far for New Orleanians, I’m sure the streets will be eerily quiet and the sky a strange hue, ionized by the raging ecstacy of the who dat nation. Most everyone in the city will have bitten off their fingernails and ground the enamel from their teeth by kickoff time. Many will return to their jobs on Friday without the luxury of a voice.

As for the game itself, I would love to offer a gory, hyperboled prediction but I think everyone knows the Colts are very formidable opponents and that we don’t want to go jinxing things this early in the season. Therefore, I will just offer this conservative and concise prediction: Saints win by 10 points; Bush and Brees both have 200+ yard games. Peyton Manning, overcome by emotion, hometown pride, and possibly a concussion, retires from football during a post-game press conference. He rescinds this announcement the following day. Drunken Saints fans maraud local supermarkets, hoarding the collectable limited edition “Who Dat” bags of Zapp’s.

Obligatory Katrinaversary Post

no_chris — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:20:04 +0000

Well, two years have gone by. I think most residents have learned to cope with the slow pace of recovery and the persisting swaths of destruction and the inconveniences this brings. I know I am far more concerned about the crime, the increasing cost of living, and the general air of uncertainty that we are faced with. But too much has been said about all of these things already, so screw it. I think it’s more important to look at small metrics of progress, and so here is the report from my block.. Block meaning both sides of my street on the block that I live. The flood waters peaked at about 6-7 feet from street level here, making it deep enough to screw most everything up, but we weren’t as hard hit as neighborhoods closer to the lake and of course most of St. Bernard and the Lower 9th Ward, which had over 10 feet in many places.

So, as of now, there are six houses with people living in them. That’s three doubles and three singles, mine included. There are two houses undergoing a slow rebuilding process. There are four houses that have been gutted and are laying vacant. At least one of these four is supposedly slated for demolition, with no set timeline. There is one vacant lot where a double was demolished this winter. Perhaps most strangely, there are two houses which did not receive flood waters, yet are uninhabited.

So out of a total of fifteen houses pre-K, there are six that have folks in them. That’s 40%. And this is supposedly one of the flooded areas that’s come the farthest in its recovery. So that’s where we’re at. I don’t really know what else you can draw from it.

At least we’ve got the best neighborhood bar in the city on the next block. And the best neighboorhood restaurant is 5 blocks down.

New Orleans as a Retirement Destination

no_chris — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 03:59:59 +0000

Everyone seems to agree that the city’s economy is in need of some serious restructuring if we ever want to enjoy a decent quality of life, and most people seem to think they have the answer. I think just about everyone agrees that tourism is not sustainable as the main industry. I’ve heard lots of people say we need to be a technology ( i.e. computers) leader, although we probably missed the boat on that one. Lots of people are already working on building up our biotech industry, which I think is a good idea but probably another ten years down the road before we see a real return on that investment. Anyway, I was thinking about it and it seems like the city is missing out on a pretty obvious way to beef up our economy; out of town retirees. After you quit laughing, bear with me for a second.

The baby boomers are just starting to turn sixty. This is a huge segment of the population that will be retiring over the next decade or so, and they have a lot of fucking money. And lots of them are not content to move to some gated condominium complex in Florida. That’s what their parents did, and nobody likes to follow in the lame ass footsteps of their parents, right? This is the generation of rock ‘n roll and free love. Not all of them, but at least some of them are probably looking to retire someplace that’s a little more in-tune with the flamboyant excesses that characterize their generation. Do you see what I’m getting at here? The beach bum types we’re not going to attract, but people who like art, food, music, Mardi Gras and all that other shit we’re famous for, well they’re not going to find that in Florida or Phoenix or wherever else people go to die now. We’ve got warm weather, a casino, museums, theater, nightlife… fuck, I’d retire here!

Now obviously with the crime where it is we’re probably not going to be attracting many regular folks, let alone elderly ones. But say that were to change and we somehow convinced Marriott to bulldoze the Iberville housing projects and turn it into a retirement community or something, would that not be a good idea? While it might not be something to base our economy on, it would at least be a shot in the arm and another way to revitalize and bring investment downtown. It might not bring high paying jobs but it’d still bring jobs and outside money into New Orleans. I don’t know, it just seems like a silly market to ignore, especially considering some people might really enjoy retiring here.

Sometimes the TV news really delivers.

no_chris — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:00:19 +0000

Seeing this story on the news tonight made my day better. You gotta feel sorry for this poor lady but at the same time it just cracks me up for some reason. Kinda reminds me of this old bluesman quote; “You know, old folks say, it’s a long lane don’t have no end and a bad wind don’t never change. But one day, back when Hoover was president, I was driving my cart down Beale Street, and I seen a rat, sitting on top of a garbage can, eating a onion, crying. “

Something useful

no_chris — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:56:06 +0000

This is a new graphic I found on the NHC website, it’s the tropical weather outlook for the Atlantic. You could hotlink this somewhere (or just bookmark this posting) and be able to keep an eye on the tropics just by glancing at it. Much easier than going to the NHC website or waiting for the TV weather people to deliver an update on the tropics. You can click the graphic for details.