roly-poly little bat-faced girl

dumpster desks

2008-11-23T05:49:15Z

I needed to buy a bunch of plywood for my final project in painting. Then I found one of those crappy IKEA desks next to a dumpster behind a house on my street, so I took it apart with a screwdriver and recruited Rob to help me chop it up with the Cloyne table saw. I know how to use a table saw. I'm just afraid it will get stuck and kick back and hit me in the stomach and rupture my spleen. Anyway, my plan is to start digging through Berkeley dumpsters every December and May and eventually accumulate enough discarded IKEA desks so that I never have to buy wood again. Buying wood seems stupid in the same way buying bottled water does.

Anyway, this is pointless.

There are a bunch of ideas in my head right now that have never been there before.

imapinkfrosty @ 2008-09-08T00:54:00

2008-09-08T07:54:45Z

Dear Freshmen Who Roll Their Eyes, Sigh Loudly, Argue, or Attempt to Walk Past When the Security Monitor Asks For ID:

You are not rebellious or cool. If you're too grown up to be babysat a little, WHY ARE YOU LIVING IN A DORM??? I am not an overbearing power-hungry authority figure. I'm just trying to make some fucking money. So if you sign in without throwing a shit-fit, I can go back to studying and/or reading web comics and you can go back to being clueless and planning which frat parties to go to so you can stumble back in at 2 AM and vomit in the elevator.

Welcome to "CAL!"

Erica

imapinkfrosty @ 2008-07-27T14:41:00

2008-07-27T19:08:55Z

I am in Croton for a month. If you're reading this now, there is a 96% chance that I miss you and wish I could call you but I am so out of touch with everyone that I'm seriously considering sitting in my room and wandering around in the woods until August. I definitely only feel compelled to write in this thing when I'm in New York. Otherwise I either legitimately have other things to do or the internet connection in my Berkeley house hates livejournal.

I made the mistake of trying to take a summer class again but quickly realized that a class on social networking is as useful to me as a class on rollerblading would be to your pet goldfish. If you don't have a pet goldfish, think back to the time you won one at that rig toss game at the fair and then it died in a week. Anyway, I had to take the class for one of my majors and it almost but not quite disillusioned me on the whole idea of college.

That aside, it wasn't a bad summer. My radio shows are now Tuesdays 6-9 AM so lots of people listen and call in, I expanded my work hours at Alternative Tentacles, went and saw one of the best shows ever for Jello's 50th birthday, made a couple road trips down to California's inferior half (musical & political reasons), moved into a new house where I will actually be able to stay for a while, started a really half-assed summer fling with a guy who may be living in a mini bus outside my old co-op when I get back, got commissioned for a design project with someone who pays me, painted a massive mural for my old house, hikes, work, merch tabling, Six Flags, and no sleep.

Croton, you are useless.

here's something for the youth to choke on

2007-09-19T17:04:38Z

When you actually want to get something done, the following means of communication are frustrating and inferior:

- email
- facebook walls
- myspace comments
- text messages
- AIM
- voicemail

Nothing's gonna beat talking face to face. Barring that:

+ phones
+ telegrams (seriously, they come find you)
+ singing telegrams

Computers turn real people into text on a screen, which then makes them really easy to fuck with and ignore. I'm not a fan.

Co-ops are sweet because:

+ free food
+ there's always someone on dinner workshift who knows how to make a good meal out of tofu
+ endless distraction
+ baking parties at two in the morning with iTunes on shuffle
+ the house is crawling with british and aussie boys
+ the mail manager is the only guy at uc berkeley who regularly wears a mini skirt.
+ he has great legs
+ my room hasn't gotten fleas yet
+ I'm back on northside

Also, I quit my job, which I was planning on doing, but at least not until I found another one on campus. On Saturday, my manager accused me of coming to work stoned. Not only was I sober, but I'm probably the only person who works there who always comes in sober. So we got into a fight and I quit on Sunday. I would very much like to stay in touch with some of the people I worked with, but now that I don't need the free food anymore, rad coworkers is almost but not quite enough to make me want to stay. Anyway, now I have weekends! I'm gonna sleep and eat brunch at the house and do better in school and go to Monterey. Someone should pay me to make art.

imapinkfrosty @ 2007-08-14T21:38:00

2007-08-15T04:44:49Z

I feel like I'm 13 years old right now on so many different levels. SO many different levels. It's not really a good feeling or a bad feeling, maybe sort of sad, but the kind of sadness you just want to wallow in. But mostly I feel completely ridiculous. I knew home would be a mindfuck. I knew it. I have an insane superhuman ability to not get over anything ever.

imapinkfrosty @ 2007-08-09T10:05:00

2007-08-10T01:20:26Z

Tomorrow, I'm going home.

I called my mom earlier because I haven't talked to her in a while. She said she got my fall tuition bill and that we need to talk about it when I get home. Hmmm. Sucky.

I wonder if the suicide rate will go up at all now that the last Harry Potter book is out and there's nothing left to live for. I had Amit tell me everything that's happened since book three. At least I think that's the one that came out when I was in sixth grade or however old I was when I lost complete interest.

For anyone out there wondering, "the sickest hardcore show ever" was exactly that. We got there in time for the first band, and the place was already packed which was exactly what I was hoping for. Although it was hard to tell whether anybody was all that amped for Said Radio, as hardcore shows usually involve a lot of guys standing around looking bored with their arms crossed like they're too cool to be there. I myself am not a very effusive person, but I make a crappy solemn hardcore kid and I was having trouble containing my adrenaline-infused uberjoy at the prospect of seeing one twenty-minute set that I'd managed to build up in my mind to near apocalyptic glory. I've been listening to the Nerve Agents for so long with no hope of ever seeing them live that I was totally entertained just hanging around the stage while Said Radio set up, watching Eric and Dante walk around in 3D. "You mean they aren't disembodied voices that live in my headphones?" That sort of thing.
A day and a half later, I still felt like I needed to jump around and scream and yell and fuck shit up. But that's okay because the same tour is coming to NYC on the 20th. Who's coming with me??!?!? You know, out of the three people who still read this shit.
I just wanna say that "Cue the Crickets" was the best best best best singalong ever.

But right now I am sitting on the big green KALX couch. I just slept on it, and now I'm using it's comfy tastelessly upholstered cushions to study right down to the wire for this final exam Marx/Durkheim/Weber orgy. I just finished my last in-training radio show, which was good but not great, but good enough. Lakshmi joined me in the studio and entertained me mostly by laughing at my dumb jokes. She is easily amused and that is what I love about her. I have no idea why I'm not exhausted. When I said I slept on the couch I meant that I was lying on it for two and a half hours listening to people talking in the studio and having weird daydreams about the music that was playing. And now I want a cookie.
For those of you who might be wondering how I plan to take a test in four hours, here is your answer:

Top ten signs that Erica needs to leave the Bay...

Yeah. Well I'm gonna go drink this shit, talk to Mona about random things, then head to class, and lay down some theory. Then I'll probably come back and yammer on about how I don't want to write a paper or go to work tomorrow morning at 5. As badly as you want to shoot me right now, you have no idea how much I'd love to do it myself. I could probably out-whine some starving kids in Africa if I tried.

imapinkfrosty @ 2007-07-27T15:41:00

2007-07-27T22:58:46Z

I had a crazy week. And it was fun. But it was also the last straw. And now I'm tired. And I wanna go home.
I'm fucking Berkeley'ed out on too many levels.
This is the rundown of the last two weeks before New York:

eight days of work, at least half of which are about to be A-W-K-W-A-R-D
6 workshift hours (a co-op thang)
a possible trip to Monterey
sickest hardcore show ever.
...seriously, ever.
last in-training radio show.
final exam.

mama taught me to run, run, run

2007-07-14T01:16:53Z

Our lovely neighbors spilled their compost all over the stairs outside and now the entire apartment smells like vomit. Thankfully I'll be going out later, but the only other thing on the agenda for today was catching up on my soc reading, which I finally took over to Brewed Awakening where it smells less like someone's unexpectedly externalized lunch and more like coffee. I hate studying in coffee shops. This has nothing to do with coffee shops in and of themselves and I guess that sentence could be revised to read "I hate studying." Either way, I am a spoiled art kid who never has to do any work that isn't at least moderately enjoyable. Now that I have to write papers, I want to throw my laptop out the window. Which reminds me of the time Andy Sold and Lana and I sampled the dictionary.com guy saying "DEFENESTRATE" and then made a techno song on garage band.

Arg.

I spent twelve hours straight at the radio station last night and I'm still recovering.
I hit it off with the DJ on after me, though. She slept on the couch while I DJ'ed. I slept on the couch while she DJ'ed. She went back to sleep while I did an office shift and we spent the last hour up until her office shift badmouthing other radio stations and the FCC. And then Mona told me embarrassing Morrissey stories.
When I came to UC Berkeley, I thought "Oh yeah, East Bay, totally. Everyone's gonna be a musically/artistically/politically passionate, super intelligent anti-society rabble-rousing deviant."
NOPE.
The radio station is not the only thing that makes me happy here. That would be a very thin thread to hang onto. Yet I might be very unhappy without it just because it is the only university-related community I feel comfortable in.
My show itself also put me in a fantastic mood. I got lots of calls, which never happens to me between 3:30 and 6 in the morning. So it was apparently a good show.

* = request

TV On The Radio "Satellite"
Sugar & Gold "Do It Well"
Rasputina "Thimble Island"
Whodini "Haunted House Of Rock (Acapella)"
Misfits "Die Die My Darling"
Dance For Destruction "Dark Forces"
Aggrolites "Reggae Hit L.A."
The Police "Man In A Suitcase"
Trouble Funk "Funk N Roll"
Fischerspooner "Never Win"
Weakerthans "A New Name For Everything"
Golden Smog "Can't Even Tie Your Own Shoes"
*Rancid "The 11th Hour"
Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros "Redemption Song"
*The Clash "Radio Clash"
Gogol Bordello "My Strange Uncles From Abroad"
Mariee Sioux "Two Tongues At One Time"
PJ Harvey "Angelene"
Tegan & Sara "I Won't Be Left"
Ohio Players "Streakin' Cheek to Cheek"
Chubby Checker "Love Tunnel"
Washington Dead Cats "Pizza Attack"
*Joni Mitchell "Twisted"
Loretta Lynch "Missin' Kissin'"
Avett Brothers "The Weight Of Lies"
David Bowie "Starman"
A Band of Bees "Got To Let Go"
Boo Radleys "It's Lulu"
Minutemen "I Shook Hands"
Bad Brains "Hired Gun"
Christ On Parade "Twenty Years"
Jaqueline Taieb "7:00 AM"
Chromeo "Fancy Footwork"
Low "Monkey"
Congratulations Fruit "TJ Touchstone"
Soft Boys "I Wanna Destory You"
Pinhead Gunpowder "New Blood"
Dinosaur Jr. "This Is All I Came To Do"

I feel like while I'm actually in the mood to write more than four sentences, I should ramble about some adventures or something... uh.

I saw Cyndi Lauper and Erasure for free a while ago because a security guard saw Eimmy and I sitting lonesomely behind the theatre and gave us his extra tickets out of the goodness of his heart.
It was so badass.
Cyndi still looks good, more importantly, still sounds good, and naturally we had lawn tickets so we were five miles from the stage give or take, but that's where all the best dance parties happen anyway. Long sentences. Short attention span. I'm going to go heat up a can of spaghetti-o's and do nothing until 9:30.

I'm just a square goin' nowhere

2007-06-16T03:57:19Z

I can now say from experience that Fremont kind of sucks.
Also, I haven't sunburned myself this badly since I was in Africa.

It's Saturday night aaaaand it looks like I'm going to spend it watching Six Feet Under and eating whatever's in the fridge (condiments and hot dog buns, as far as I know). Which is a shame because I don't have to be at work tomorrow until noon and for the first time in a few days I'm not completely exhausted.

The city of Berkeley as a whole hosts a higher concentration of people who rule than anyplace else I've ever been. Most people who go to UC Berkeley, however, still suck. If you're studying to be a doctor because your parents are making you, and you really hate it and will grow up to be a neurotic maladjusted psychopath, I don't WANT you to be my fucking doctor, so you should probably stop and figure out how to do something you like. On the other end of the spectrum, if the only thing you're really interested in doing is smoking so much weed that you can no longer engage in normal conversation, I recommend that you stop wasting your money/time, drop out of school and come back later when enrolling in college is actually a means to an end rather than something you did because you had nothing better to do.
And get a fucking job.

That being said, here's a bunch of radio show's I'm doing in the next couple of months. They're all from 3:30 - 6 in the morning.

June 28th
July 12th
July 19th
July 26th
August 9th

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION!!!

2007-06-13T01:09:13Z

For those of you interested in listening to good music and hearing me speak awkwardly on air, I have a radio show tonight! ...as in tomorrow morning, Wednesday, June 13th from 3:30 - 6 am west coast time. (that's 6:30 - 9 am east coast time). Although I don't actually expect a single person on the face of this earth to voluntarily wake up at any of those times, it gets lonely in the studio at night and I hereby extend an invitation for y'all to call and harass me (AND REQUEST SONGS) at 510 642 5259.
90.7 FM (bay area) or you can stream it at kalx.berkeley.edu OR on iTunes under public radio. Listen in for five minutes or something.

Oh yeah, and I'm Miss Ziggy.

<3

imapinkfrosty @ 2007-05-31T16:02:00

2007-05-31T23:06:27Z

So now I have this radio show that I do sometimes between 3:30 and 6 in the morning. AND I NEED MUSICAL INSPIRATION. I know y'all pride yourselves on musical taste, so send me names of bands/songs/comedians/whatever that you think I should play on the radio. It can be literally anything from any genre, even if you think I'll hate it.

DO IT.

imapinkfrosty @ 2007-05-17T13:53:00

2007-05-17T20:58:35Z

jesus christ, I need a 'DJ name' in five hours. Any ideas?

In other news I enjoyed hanging with Art Institute kids last night. They were cool but ridiculously disillusioned and their stories make me glad I didn't go to snotty art school to become an art snot.
No disrespect to the Croton kids who went to art schools. If you're having fun it's because you all have better people skills than I ever will.

Much to do. Would rather sleep.

imapinkfrosty @ 2007-04-22T23:41:00

2007-04-23T22:00:30Z

So I don't sleep anymore but I do have a new job.

Bree is the best shift manager because she will take advantage of the store blender to make margaritas. When I'm shift manager (NO, NO, and NO) I will use the store blender to make bagel smoothies.
Porsha is the second best shift manager because I'm designing a cover up tattoo for her, and anyone who's THAT impressed with a drawing of a panther I scribbled on a piece of binder paper in fifteen minutes is okay by me.
The store manager (as in superboss) is kind of on my shitlist. Given his job is 300 times more important than mine, what I think of him is irrelevant. But he cares about his job 300 times more than I care about mine. So he doesn't scare me either.
Everyone else gets a thumbs up.

Had I written this yesterday, you would have gotten a twelve-page dissertation on how much it sucks to work for a corporation. Everything is protocol with very little leeway to the point where they threaten to fire us if we don't refer to the customer by name each time we address him or her (which I find creepy and annoying, and I would know, having been a customer at Noah's before I was an employee). But today was a good day, and there's nothing like an eight hour shift to make going home and getting some dinner with the crew seem like the best thing in the world.

In other news, Michael, Dale, and I are officially going to Warped Tour (Bad Religion, Tiger Army, Circa Survive, Throwdown, fuck everyone else). I've spent the last eight months doing shit I should have done years ago, so here's to Warped '01 and one more mission accomplished.

...No YOU grow up.

It's cool that I have nowhere to live this summer, because I'm sure something will pop up before May.
It's cool that I'm in art overproduction mode, because for every five pieces of shit I get something that comes out right.
It's cool that Babyland played the best show I've ever seen two Fridays ago, because they're still playing Gilman after seventeen years and I'll never have to go to San Francisco to see them in all their noisy pyro electric junk punk dance-tastic splendor.

Good friends are hard to find.

the trouble starts

2007-02-06T07:40:14Z

In short, Erica is:

1. A vegetarian (You saw it coming)
2. Working at KALX (90.7 FM Berkeley)
3. Applying for a job at an almond butter plant (this is tentative)
4. Doing art (hell yes, motherfuckers)
5. Not going home (while accompanying my roommate on a little trip to buy her cell phone back from a homeless guy on the corner of Dwight and Dana the other day, it occured to me that I'm as comfortable here as I ever was anywhere else so why leave?)

And I guess that's it.

so you think you're lonley

2006-12-26T20:34:08Z

Not trying to resurrect this journal or anything, but...

I want to get back to my city by the bay.

well, this piece is called "Lick My Love Pump"

2006-02-04T23:14:04Z

I think I averaged about 4 hours of sleep per night this week, so by Friday, I rolled out of bed about five minutes before I had to leave, and got about as far as putting on a shirt, debating changing out of my pajama pants, and considering brushing my hair. Those last two thoughts never really made it to actions. I left gym, took a spanish test by writing in english where I couldn't be bothered to think of the words, took a physics test largely by eeny-miney-moeing the multiple choice, and took a nap in economics because that class is a joke. On the way home, I stopped at Save Mor and quit my job. Sort of. I already quit but I needed folders and to reestablish with Julie that as of Wednesday, February 15th I will never have to go in there again. This is like the anticlimactic typical me version of "YOU CAN'T FIRE ME CUZ I QUIT."
So I came home, put some real clothes on, babysat, and went to band practice followed by eggplant parmesan and "This Is Spinal Tap." From 7:30 to about 1 AM, my day was great, thank you.
Monday, I will be a real person and do a high mantenance day. High mantenance by my standards means putting on eyeliner and pants.

I laugh until my head comes off

2005-12-04T23:27:27Z

Update !

I feel like I'm pretty much done surrendering my life to college. I feel like I should return to surrendering my life to that neglected six-stringed instrument in the corner over there. I feel like I have to surrender my life to art instead.
I hope college art is better than AP art.
Art and philosophy?
Yeaaahhh.
My future equals professional nutcase.

But for the next few months at least, I am done thinking about this.

I wish I had more to say to you, but I'm hoping you'll have the patience to wait until I come around. Let's not wander off speaking terms just because I am socially inept and a dumbass.

Oooo, cryptic.

I have an annoying habit of getting excommunicated on trains.

And an even more annoying habit of erratic and badly written livejournal entries.

And my brain is on hiatus so thanks.

out of all those kinds of people, you got a face with a view

2005-11-16T01:08:23Z

The MICA representative that reviewed my portfolio wasn't all that helpful. She was trying too hard to sell me the school and wasn't half as critical as she should have been.
When I explained my concentration idea to Ms. Berger and Ms. Moore, it took them a minute to figure out what the hell I was on about, but they got into it in the end. I can't say I value their opinions a whole lot but they're the only people portfolio-wise that can give me opinions at all so I hope they know what they're doing. If there are any brutally honest people out there with half an appreciation for art, I'd like one or two of them to look at my stuff and tell me what's good and what's shit and how to fix it, please.

If I had anything else to say for the past few weeks, I wrote it elsewhere, told Lana, or kept it to myself. I'm beginning to see why people choose myspace over livejournal.

imapinkfrosty @ 2005-10-29T00:46:00

2005-10-29T05:03:13Z

Right now, I'm really excited to go to sleep for as long as I want.
I'm so tired of thinking about college. I'm going to NYC, Philly, the San Francisco Bay Area, Portland, Seattle, Boston, or DC and I have no preference. USF disappointed me and I crossed it so far off my list that Jesus probably rolled over in his grave a few times. Berkeley, I liked but it was rainy and foggy on Monday and most of the students looked ...morose. Inconsolable, actually. And the art guy who was supposed to give the lecture wound up sharing his philosophies on life in general because the projection screen wasn't working. I liked him, though, if only for his remarks on how too many stupid kids get into the UC system because they have high SAT scores.
Come to think of it, I've never met a teacher who was pro-SAT.
I did enjoy wandering around Telegraph at the crack of dawn even though nothing was open so I couldn't spend my life savings at Amoeba.
Santa Cruz was cute and my dad wasn't there to make me look like a tourist so I caught a cab from the hotel to the University and rode around on the student buses for a while before the tour. The view of Monterey Bay is amazing. I wish I had brought a camera but I am a dumbass and thought I could commit enough of it to memory. I would love to study art there, especially since their art department just got subsidized ($$pimped$$). I had no intention of shelling out another twenty bucks for a taxi afterwards so I walked the forty minutes or so into downtown Santa Cruz, should have seen a movie, didn't, got pumpkin icecream, and ended up on the beach with my sketchbook and the last half hour of iPod battery life. Three days later, I still don't have the heart to dump the last of the sand out of my shoes.
Tonight made me doubt , if only just a little, that I'm as motivated to get out of here as I thought I was. There are still a lot of people to get to know, and there's still a lot of comedy that's bound to ensue. More people should give good, sincere hugs.
I'm all about disjointed journal entries but I'm giving up now because I forgot what I was talking about.

either love me or leave me alone

2005-10-16T15:34:38Z

Yom Kippur was pretty sweet. Not that I fasted, but we went to Aunt Judy's apartment for bagels and lox and you get the idea and ohmygod we're Jewish. Or they're jewish. Although there will always be a part of me that's slightly Jewish. In a New York way. Not in a God way.

"I only know three words in Spanish: Sí, and fuck you." - Grandpa

I should have done "flag desecration" for my public policy paper. The fact that people consider it an issue worthy of law is hilarious.

Croton parties are great because there's no one to impress. For once I feel like I'm above that effort rather than below it. I'm a dick. Or just jaded.

This time next week I'll be Californiafying.

how will we know when there's nowhere to grow

2005-09-26T01:45:43Z

Against Me! played such a good set I almost died. Then I really did almost die trying to hold my eyes open long enough to drive home. We didn't get destroyed by the bloods but we did almost hit a deer and a guy with a hook for an arm.
Jk.
Jay-Z's mom lives across the street from my aunt in New Jersey. There was a block party. My three-year-old cousin chilled with Beyonce. Pictures were taken. Hilarious.
So I was talking to Juan's mom por telefono and I managed to get by without sounding like way too much of an idiot, except when she wished me success with school and college and stuff and I responded with "gracias"-- España style.
Grathias.
*facepalm*
I hate Sunday night more than anything.

imapinkfrosty @ 2005-09-19T00:22:00

2005-09-19T04:23:45Z

I meant to do a lot of neglected school crapshit today, but I had cramps and wicked PMS and so I slept for most of the day and now I'm fucked, hurrah. I could ramble on for a few more pages about freedom versus order in society but in the interest of going to sleep some time before tomorrow night (and because Ms. Schoenleber can't read anyway) I'm going to end it right about here.
I just updated my livejournal interests to include "the itunes visualizer" and "myspace is retarded", because Friday night was the second time I've been in a social situation where we amused ourselves by staring at the aforementioned visualizer and commenting on how trippy it was. And mypace is retarded.

current hates (other than myspace and moldy peanut butter):
- menstruation
- Barbara Kingsolver
- Loira Ortiz

current loves (other than the itunes visualizer and peanut butter):
- this Friday
- this Saturday
- this October

imapinkfrosty @ 2005-09-12T22:07:00

2005-09-13T02:15:16Z

Saturday night, I picked up some hookers on the corner by Forno's and we all went bowling.
Sunday, Choking Victim was silly. I almost fell in puke. My day was pretty kickass overall, though.
Going back to work could've been worse.
There's a lot of stuff I'm supposed to accomplish tomorrow. With any luck, I won't be a lazy crap about it.
I have nothing to say.

imapinkfrosty @ 2005-09-06T22:26:00

2005-09-07T02:45:44Z

The next ten months shouldn't be bad at all.
Really.
And if they are, this is the last time I have to do it anyway.

I feel like an asshole taking bobo english, but I'm lazy and apathetic at heart and I know it.
I forgot 120% of everything I ever learned in math.
I sit next to Juan in Spanish so I'd say that situation is under control.

Most importantly, I can feel myself starting to outgrow thousand-year-old habits that I figured I'd never be able to shake. It kinda rules.

imapinkfrosty @ 2005-09-03T00:33:00

2005-09-03T04:39:13Z

Three days left to enjoy not running on a schedule. Although life can still get pretty repetitive with or without obnoxious B flat bells buzzing every fifty minutes so I can go from math to spanish to chemistry to lunch to economics on time as if sleeping until 2 pm, walking the dog, and then going to the Cow at 4 or 5 everyday were really that much more exciting. As of now, I still think sitting in town with whoever and then going to the clubhouse for manhunt and pool is a pretty good time, but in another couple of weeks it'd predictably start to get old.
Listening to people talk about myspace makes me feel highly intelligent in a really condescending way, kinda like a nine or ten year old kid might start to mature mentally while all his friends still think poop is funny.
Bad example. I wholeheartedly agree that ELEPHANTITIS NUTS!! is funny.

And for those of you who were wondering why Sri Lanka can take a ridiculously massive apocolyptic flood without raping and killing people and going berzerk and the United States can't, I don't share your surprise. Rich and civilized are two totally unrelated things. We're just rich.

I can't afford gas but I'm also not stranded on my roof watching bodies float down the street so my sob story sucks.