That crazy life of Some Guy!
So. I made some severe miscalculations on my funds last week. I knew I couldn't do math that well anymore, but didn't think it was to THAT extent. And for some reason, I decided I didn't need overdraft protection. That's a choice that doesn't make sense at all. So now I am a lot in the hole, after making several purchases like a $41 footlong at Subway, and a $37 bottle of soap at the dollar store. Yay overdraft charges. I'm going in to the bank today to beg for forgiveness and for my account. Hopefully I can get the fees drastically slashed, so I'll have a positive amount after I get paid tomorrow, and can keep my bank account open long enough to get my tax return.
This will still put rent as being late, and still put me at going "How am I going to afford to get to work and things?" until next week, but hey, better than nothin, amirite? And thinking of rent. My landlord appearently saw a gnat somewhere or something. So he is freaking out, going "OH MY GOSH I HAVE TO BOMB THE BUILDING A GNAAAT!!!111!!" Which is making him freak out about my apartment. He's all "Dude you have to clean you'l killl us all!11!!!"
Now, my apartment isn't incredibly organized right now, but it's actually decently clean. I've got a stack of papers next to me. The dishes I've used in the last 13 hours here at the computer (I just had lunch!), as well as a box of Sociables I just keep here to snack on. I've got a box and a computer on the floor next to my shelves. I just don't have enough shelving for everything I need shelves for. Oh, and my other chair is currently filled with a few papers and a couple of throw pillows and a pile of spellballs. There are a few boxes next to the door, because I have a hard time pitching them. A part of me is like "NooooOO I need boxes for movings!!" Not sure why.
But point is, my place isn't that bad. He freaks out a lot. ....I haven't told him rent will probably be late yet.
So. Random other story. I had several tabs open in Firefox when I sat down this morning, as I normally do, and one of them was on Cassia (plant). This made me go "Huh. I wonder what's up with Kaskaskia?" For those who don't know, Historic Kaskaskia was the capital of Illinois Territory before Illinois was a state. It's on the Missisippi River. Before the capital moved to Vandelia (and then later to Springfield), Kaskaskia had a population off over 7000. This died down some when the capital moved, but thanks to the powers of STEAM rivers were a big deal, and steamboats would come through, and this kept a lot of little towns on the river alive.
Ironically, it also killed a lot of little towns on the river. Steamboats would many times use wood for fuel. Wood that came from the trees on the shores of the river. Trees that held the banks in place. And so without the plant matter that held the crazy banks of the Mississippi together, they fell apart. Eventually, this, probably combined with an undocumented earthquake or something, caused the river to move. The Mississippi river was no longer to the west of Kaskaskia. It was to the east. Running the town over int he process. It was pretty much totally destroyed, and rebuilt to the south, on partially man-made land, which eventually started to wash away, so the town was re-re-moved to its original location, on what is now Kaskaskia Island.
I was there long ago. My family used to travel a lot in the summer, camping long vacations out in the area, before we started spreading out further and further. Back then, it was a fairly small town. Not much there but a historic site. Maybe a McD? I have trouble remembering. But it was a small town. But I learned things and had fun there, whee. And so I looked it up on Wikipedia to see how it's doing.
As of 2000, it had 9 people left there. The Great Flood of 93 had the whole city underwater, pretty well destroying it.
I was talking to Kris about it. It's kind of strange, knowing you've been someplace that may not even exist anymore, ya know? Of those nine people, three were over 65. One of those lived alone. There were two people under 18, but no households had kids under 18, so the place listed as being occupied by "individuals" must have been a pair of 17ish year olds trying to make it on their own. According to gender statistics, one would be male (57.4% male, specifically), and the other female. One elderly couple, one younger couple. And that's all the men in the town, as of 2000. This gets confusing, as it says there are three families there. I guess this means there's a single mom, with a college-age girl (there's one college-age person there). And one other single woman, between 25 and 64.
I was wondering if it's even there anymore. Did the kids find a way to leave the island death trap, or did they decide to stick with it? Are any of the three older peopel still alive? Are other people stickin with it, just because?
At first, I had a glimmer of optomism, and hope for everybody there, but then that faded, and I couldn't help but think up some horrible, twisted story about man vs nature and traps of our own creation. The protagonists ended up being the two people under 18, a young couple who decided they didn't need their parents, and that they could make it work in this little town, where they'd grown up together, and the powers of their love and human determination could overcome any obstacle, despite their young age.
The old single woman was a representation of the past, and possibly death. A constant reminder of all the pain and suffering that had transpired in that place, and a reminder of the mistakes that human-kind has made.
I haven't decided much on the other characters yet. Maybe the other older couple represents Tradition, and how We've Always Done It This Way Even When It's Bad? "BY golly, we survived 93, and our granpappies survived The Big One, so what's the point in worryin!"? Among other things?
Since this is the kind of horrible book that was probably written too long ago that you get forced to read in school, the single mother with her college-age daughter probably appears to be more down to earth, with the mother possibly representing the heavy application of gender roles, the mother feeling powerless without her husband, because there's no way she can take care of her over-age daughter and find any hope in the world without a man, or something horribly dumb like that, with the daughter being the contrast to that, high spirited, with a "you don't need a man, you need to get off your butt and FIX it" attitude, held back only by her lack of ability to change the world around her, cut off from most of the outside world. Possibly disliked by most people because she wants to go to college and get away, and make something of herself, when she should stay at home and stick with it?
This just leaves the other married couple. I haven't decided on them at all. What horrible cliche of American or human stereotype could they be, that I haven't included?What could they contribute to the story?
Obviously, as a story of the shortcommings of humanity, and of how we are no match for nature, or for the mistakes that our anscestors have made, just about everybody has to die by the end of the book. Probably one to illness or natural causes. Half of everybody who is left probably to another flood.
Thoughts, comments, questions, conscerns, irritations?
But seriously. I wonder if there's anything left in Kaskaskia, or if it is entirely empty now? I kinda wanna drive clear down there just to see.
This will still put rent as being late, and still put me at going "How am I going to afford to get to work and things?" until next week, but hey, better than nothin, amirite? And thinking of rent. My landlord appearently saw a gnat somewhere or something. So he is freaking out, going "OH MY GOSH I HAVE TO BOMB THE BUILDING A GNAAAT!!!111!!" Which is making him freak out about my apartment. He's all "Dude you have to clean you'l killl us all!11!!!"
Now, my apartment isn't incredibly organized right now, but it's actually decently clean. I've got a stack of papers next to me. The dishes I've used in the last 13 hours here at the computer (I just had lunch!), as well as a box of Sociables I just keep here to snack on. I've got a box and a computer on the floor next to my shelves. I just don't have enough shelving for everything I need shelves for. Oh, and my other chair is currently filled with a few papers and a couple of throw pillows and a pile of spellballs. There are a few boxes next to the door, because I have a hard time pitching them. A part of me is like "NooooOO I need boxes for movings!!" Not sure why.
But point is, my place isn't that bad. He freaks out a lot. ....I haven't told him rent will probably be late yet.
So. Random other story. I had several tabs open in Firefox when I sat down this morning, as I normally do, and one of them was on Cassia (plant). This made me go "Huh. I wonder what's up with Kaskaskia?" For those who don't know, Historic Kaskaskia was the capital of Illinois Territory before Illinois was a state. It's on the Missisippi River. Before the capital moved to Vandelia (and then later to Springfield), Kaskaskia had a population off over 7000. This died down some when the capital moved, but thanks to the powers of STEAM rivers were a big deal, and steamboats would come through, and this kept a lot of little towns on the river alive.
Ironically, it also killed a lot of little towns on the river. Steamboats would many times use wood for fuel. Wood that came from the trees on the shores of the river. Trees that held the banks in place. And so without the plant matter that held the crazy banks of the Mississippi together, they fell apart. Eventually, this, probably combined with an undocumented earthquake or something, caused the river to move. The Mississippi river was no longer to the west of Kaskaskia. It was to the east. Running the town over int he process. It was pretty much totally destroyed, and rebuilt to the south, on partially man-made land, which eventually started to wash away, so the town was re-re-moved to its original location, on what is now Kaskaskia Island.
I was there long ago. My family used to travel a lot in the summer, camping long vacations out in the area, before we started spreading out further and further. Back then, it was a fairly small town. Not much there but a historic site. Maybe a McD? I have trouble remembering. But it was a small town. But I learned things and had fun there, whee. And so I looked it up on Wikipedia to see how it's doing.
As of 2000, it had 9 people left there. The Great Flood of 93 had the whole city underwater, pretty well destroying it.
I was talking to Kris about it. It's kind of strange, knowing you've been someplace that may not even exist anymore, ya know? Of those nine people, three were over 65. One of those lived alone. There were two people under 18, but no households had kids under 18, so the place listed as being occupied by "individuals" must have been a pair of 17ish year olds trying to make it on their own. According to gender statistics, one would be male (57.4% male, specifically), and the other female. One elderly couple, one younger couple. And that's all the men in the town, as of 2000. This gets confusing, as it says there are three families there. I guess this means there's a single mom, with a college-age girl (there's one college-age person there). And one other single woman, between 25 and 64.
I was wondering if it's even there anymore. Did the kids find a way to leave the island death trap, or did they decide to stick with it? Are any of the three older peopel still alive? Are other people stickin with it, just because?
At first, I had a glimmer of optomism, and hope for everybody there, but then that faded, and I couldn't help but think up some horrible, twisted story about man vs nature and traps of our own creation. The protagonists ended up being the two people under 18, a young couple who decided they didn't need their parents, and that they could make it work in this little town, where they'd grown up together, and the powers of their love and human determination could overcome any obstacle, despite their young age.
The old single woman was a representation of the past, and possibly death. A constant reminder of all the pain and suffering that had transpired in that place, and a reminder of the mistakes that human-kind has made.
I haven't decided much on the other characters yet. Maybe the other older couple represents Tradition, and how We've Always Done It This Way Even When It's Bad? "BY golly, we survived 93, and our granpappies survived The Big One, so what's the point in worryin!"? Among other things?
Since this is the kind of horrible book that was probably written too long ago that you get forced to read in school, the single mother with her college-age daughter probably appears to be more down to earth, with the mother possibly representing the heavy application of gender roles, the mother feeling powerless without her husband, because there's no way she can take care of her over-age daughter and find any hope in the world without a man, or something horribly dumb like that, with the daughter being the contrast to that, high spirited, with a "you don't need a man, you need to get off your butt and FIX it" attitude, held back only by her lack of ability to change the world around her, cut off from most of the outside world. Possibly disliked by most people because she wants to go to college and get away, and make something of herself, when she should stay at home and stick with it?
This just leaves the other married couple. I haven't decided on them at all. What horrible cliche of American or human stereotype could they be, that I haven't included?What could they contribute to the story?
Obviously, as a story of the shortcommings of humanity, and of how we are no match for nature, or for the mistakes that our anscestors have made, just about everybody has to die by the end of the book. Probably one to illness or natural causes. Half of everybody who is left probably to another flood.
Thoughts, comments, questions, conscerns, irritations?
But seriously. I wonder if there's anything left in Kaskaskia, or if it is entirely empty now? I kinda wanna drive clear down there just to see.