Several days after the majority of diaries from Yearly Kos have been posted, I come bearing a few more pictures. I had originally planned to travel back to where I go to college and post from there, but after finding out my new place has some issues (lack of a/c, the toilet doesn’t work, and the internet connection sucks as well) I had to travel all the way back to my parents house, where I am finally free to get on the internet and post while wearing my pajamas.

To put it simply, the YKos 2007 was amazing. Great people, great panels, great speakers, great times. Sure the alcohol was a bit expensive and a salad with cucumber and tomato was $8.00, but several people were so kind to me when they saw that I was a college student. I recall reading a diary before the convention from another student who complained about the cost of getting there, but after selling my soul to Pizza Hut, I could afford the travel. But while I initially worried about food and drink, I found that was simply unnecessary. People fed me their leftover (but delicious!) pizza and bought me drinks. Two people I really need to thank are trashablanca and sobermom. Thank you both so much! I’m sure you helped me out because you hate me so much, just like Bill O’Reilly says.

Four days ago, I got in my car and made an hour long trek to Shreveport, Louisiana, to pick up campaign signs and bumper stickers from Foster Campbell. On the trip up I passed more than a few cars with bumper stickers bearing the name of President Bush and one of the candidates for governor, Bobby Jindal. I could do nothing but shake my head in shame and hope for a chance to pass them up so they could get a peek at my own bumper stickers. My own car is like a walking advertisement: one sticker lists the name of my college, another reads "No you can’t have my rights, I’m still using them," and my favorite "Impeach Bush." As I drive along in my car, I get a few people flipping me the bird, yet surprisingly enough, I get far more people giving me a thumbs up. Maybe Bob Dylan is right, the times they are a-changin’.

Now I have one more bumper sticker on my car. Foster Campbell for governor.

It is another blistering hot day here in Louisiana. An afternoon shower has fallen, and the steam is rising off the pavement from the rain. Even with the thermostat set to 78 degrees, the air conditioning is still running constantly. After spending my whole life in Louisiana, it is not the heat that brings about the wariness of the summer months. It is the fact that the warmer weather brings about the inevitable start of hurricane season.

Here in Louisiana, we have every reason to be vigilant with the start of a new season. Yet, it is difficult to concentrate on the dangers of the new season, since many of the problems that resulted from Hurricane Katrina have yet to be resolved.

I posted my personal story yesterday, but like they say, images say a thousand words. So I made a collection of pictures from Slidell, from during the storm, the immediate aftermath, and 6 months after the storm. The images are not as devestating as many pictures taken in New Orleans, but to those that live here, it breaks hearts.

Warning: very image heavy

Louisiana has a history of liking its politics the same way it likes it rice: dirty. But after the disasters of Katrina and Rita, we have learned the important lesson of needing to clean things up around here. We cannot, should not, keep a man with serious ethical problems in Congress, allowing this man to control some of the most important aspects of our life; our health, our homes, and our very lives.

It has been almost a year since Hurricane Katrina made landfall and devastated Louisiana and Mississippi in particular. I can remember the days leading up to it quite vividly, watching it from college to see which way the storm would turn and preparing to take in my family in my residence there. I have lived in Slidell my entire life which is the place where the eye of the storm passed over. I'm close to New Orleans, just a short drive there, as well as another short drive to Waveland, which was leveled to the ground during the storm.

But I've resolved not to keep looking on the past, shaking my fist at God, the government, global warming or whatnot for letting this storm happen. I'm sitting at my home in Slidell, rebuilt unlike many other places around, and wondering what I can do to start rebuilding, to make this place better while our dear leader, President Bush, sits on his ass.

So, what can we do?

I have been reading Daily Kos for almost two years now, but signed up for a much shorter period of time. After joining this community, I have spent a lot of time deciding whether of not to post a diary and just what the first topic would be. I am 19 years old and have not had as much experience in the world as many of you, and would hate to make this wonderful community spend time reading a diary that is not up to its standards. However, I am making my first diary be on something that affects my world, that world being one of a college student in this day and age. These days, the affects of mental illness on my classmates is apparent. All the signs and symptoms are there.