I just realized that both places I’ve vacationed in this year (New Orleans, North Carolina Coast) have been subsequently trashed by hurricanes. It would probably be a good idea to stay away from me for the rest of this year. Or perhaps there’s a place you don’t like that I should visit. Los Angeles perhaps?

On the subject of Katrina, I disagree with the notion that this is a natural disaster. This is a planning and engineering disaster. When I was there a few months ago there was an article on the front page of the paper about what could happen if a large hurricane came through. And it did. You shouldn’t have people living under sea level when there isn’t enough there to protect them. There’s no doubt that the impact of this hurricane would be far less damaging if 80% of the city wasn’t flooded. That’s a human disaster and also the reason why I’m a software engineer and not a civil engineer. No one dies when I create a bug.

Of course where I live is a disaster waiting to happen. I live in crack between two very large fault lines. This is something I accept. Worse, my house is in a “liquifaction zone”. This means that in a massive earthquake, the earth may break up below me and sink into the San Francisco Bay. Yahoo! is in even worse shape: it’s practically on the bay. At least my cube is on the second floor.