Katrina

Wow!  This is my 101st post.

I've been watching all of the national reports about Katrina's 5-year anniversary and that has been difficult for me.  I remember sitting on my sister's sofa in Pensacola, worrying about my husband who was still in our house and watching New Orleans drown and civil society fall apart.  I won't give you my personal Katrina experience here, but there is more than what the reports show.

In addition to the heartbreaking scenes at the Superdome and Convention Center that Brian Williams documented, entire neighborhoods of $500,000+ homes were destroyed and many of the city's doctors, lawyers and business owners left the city and have never returned.  Others of us returned to a New Orleans where everything green had died and turned brown; cars were strewn on medians, streets, and lawns with windows fogged from weeks of stagnant water;  orange Xs were painted on every home to document what was found within; and a brown line adorned trees, fences and houses marking the dirty, oily water's reach.  We struggled or are still struggling to rebuild our homes and personal lives.

The world reached out to us.  Schools all over the US educated our children for months; communities sheltered our newly homeless families; animal shelters rescued our pets and kept them safe; relatives opened their homes to us; wherever we were "riding out the storm" we were hugged and helped.  When we finally were allowed to return to New Orleans, religious groups, school groups, and individuals from everywhere joined together to help clean out and ultimately rebuild our ruined homes; animal shelters reunited us with our pets; Levees.Org gathered grass roots support and pushed our government to build better levees; Women of the Storm hounded the federal government to come to New Orleans and see the destruction first hand; Habitat for Humanity, Brad Pitt, Harry Connick, Jr. and others raised money and built homes; we celebrated and supported every business that returned.  We re-found our community and Katrina reminded us to appreciate our home.

Coma

It's 7:41 and Coma is still sleeping.  I woke up early (as usual) and turned on Morning Joe for my morning dose of the latest happenings in the world.  I've already eaten my breakfast and am on my second cup of coffee.  I've read two articles, checked my email, fed the birds and made a grocery list.  It looks like I'll have to wake Coma to take her out for her walk.  She's sleeping more and more now, but I guess at 14 (old for a bloodhound) that's normal.  The tumor on her side is still growing--she's gained 15 pounds since May and her veterinarian thinks the weight gain is all tumor.  Consequently, she is beginning to stumble a bit and occasionally falls.  She's eating a special food to help her kidneys and it seems to be working.  She's still her sweet self and greets me every morning (usually early) and every evening (when I get home) with a wagging tail and slobbery head shake.  She's my best friend.

June 2011 Conference

Beautiful morning!  I can see out of the window since the humidity has decreased so much and it it is only 72 degrees outside this morning.  It's supposed to be relatively cool and dry all week--a precursor to fall.  Last night there was a beautiful full moon and I had every intention of "walking when the moon was full" but I had a headache that I couldn't shake--sinus I think because of the weather change or maybe too much thinking yesterday.  This morning I'm fine and I'll try again to "walk when the moon is full" next month.

Remember my agreement to help with the evolutionary computation convention that'll be in New Orleans in June 2011?  Well, it's time to start helping.  The convention attendees are 90% male and a large percentage of the attendees are from Europe.  Those two facts inform decisions about the event.  The main social event is going to be a reception and dinner on a riverboat and we're trying to decide between the Natchez and the Creole Queen. She has comparable prices from both with these differences--the menu for the Creole Queen is more robust and their proposal includes both a dixieland band and a jazz bank; the Natchez has better reviews on the Internet.  Anyone have any experience with one or the other?  I'm being asked about the comfort-level of both--Is one bigger?  Does one feel more spacious?  Is one more comfortable?  Does one look better?  Do they both leave from the foot of Canal Street?  Let me know if you have any answers...I'll save my other assignments for a different post.

Distribution Center Design and Operations

My second class for the fall semester is Distribution Center Design and Operations.  For the purpose of the class, Distribution Center and Warehouse are the same thing.  We're learning all about warehouses.  Did you now there are over 500,000 warehouses in the USA?

We spent yesterday's class learning about each other and talking about administrative things.  Here's the breakdown by home country of the 39 students in the class:

• India     12
• Turkey    9
• USA       8
• Taiwan   4
• Korea     2
• Iran        2
• Jordan    1
• Nepal     1

There are 5 women in the class.  The professor is also from the USA and he is a well-respected teacher and researcher.  His style is interactive so he expects discussion in his class.  We'll be doing a project with AFLAC--they have a warehouse full of forms that needs to be better managed. 

Maybe that new distribution center for Rooms-2-Go near I-59 on the way to Poplarville needs someone to manage it!

Beginnings

Walking to campus today felt so good.  There was an excitement in the air that exudes from excited young people.  There were plenty of young people and being part of their world made me smile all day long!  I guess everybody felt the same way, because I didn't see anyone who wasn't smiling.  Freshmen were excited about their new life and their new-found freedom; seniors were excited about finishing things and everyone else was just excited because it is fall semester at Auburn.  At dinner tonight, a table of three young women was next to me.  They talked and giggled and enjoyed each other so much that I wanted to peek through the curtain separating us and tell them I remembered being 20 and giggling with my girlfriends.

I had my first Systems Engineering class today and it was great!  The class is taught by the chairs of the Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE)  and Computer Science and Software Engineering (CSSE)  departments and a well-respected  CSSE professor.  It'll be a lot of hard work, but worth it since I think I've found my next career step.  Systems engineers know a little about a lot of things and use that knowledge to solve problems by understanding the big picture and pulling a variety of people together to design and implement successful solutions.  The government is funding (read: scrutinizing) this class because they don't think there are enough systems engineers and want reputable universities to develop them.  One of the people involved in making the class happen is getting her Industrial and Systems Engineering PhD through government funding and I need to take her to lunch to learn more about the feasibility of my working in this area.

Tomorrow is my first class in Distribution Center (warehouse) design and management.  It should be an interesting class too.  The professor expects a lot of his students and is, by reputation, a great teacher.  The course fulfills one of my requirements, but I'm looking forward to learning from and getting to know the teacher.  I love having time to read both the required and supplemental material--oh to always be at the beginning!