aggienaut: (Default)

   Holy cannoli, that last entry, the one about rants, was NOT supposed to be posted here. It has been relocated and please pretend you never saw it. It was meant for my other blog, the one that dwarfs this one with 402 friends-of and many many many more comments per entry.

   Anyway, last week I was in Davis, Lake Tahoe, Davis, Berkeley, and Merced. I meant to post a more thorough reporting of my misadventures, but at the present moment I only have an hour to pack before I leave for Atlanta.

   Some highlights however:


   Sunday (the 9th) I had Sunday Brunch with Allan Rae & friends at the Capital Garage in Sacramento (unlimited mimosas!) it was awesome. Then we decided to go look for the underground tunnels in Sacramento ... but couldn't find them. )=

   Tuesday through Thursday was the beekeeping convention in Lake Tahoe. I learned enumerable interesting things. Hung out with the researchers mainly. Was really neat to be having dinner with the researchers you'd been reading about for more than a year.

   Friday I met with members of the new ASUCD Supreme Court. Looks like things fell apart and they're trying to stick it back together again d=
   The weather in Davis Friday night was absolutely wonderful. Nice and crisp but not too cold at all (was fine wearing a t-shirt). Then I headed down to Berkeley that night.

   Saturday I hung out with my friend Nidia in Berkeley. Trotted around Telegraph, ate at Top Dog. That evening we BBQed on her back porch (so I had hot dogs for two meals that day, SCORE!). Later we watched the movie Seeing Other People, which was pretty funny, and then while she and her boyfriend were studying I watched The Graduate (which I heretofor hadn't seen) and Bitter Harvest. When I get half a chance remind me to do my usual movie reviews for these films.

   Sunday I drove down to Merced and met with a member of the ASUC Merced Supreme Court and talked about the numerous issues facing them as a new court in a new government in a new school. Sounds like their ASUCM Senate is more hostile to their court than even the ASUCD Senate was!! O= Such sauce.
   So of course I taught him jedi tricks. Like Yoda putting Luke through the paces in Empire Strikes Back. Jk.

   Eventually I arrived home. The end.



Unrelated Technical Problem: Whenever I post the post form detects a date/time exactly eight hours later than what is correct. My computer is set to my correct timezone however, and when I access my account from a different computer it uses the correct time... so I can only imagine there's some kind of weird miscommunication between my comptuer and LJ?

aggienaut: (Default)
Hello fm bee conventn! No free internet access in hotel :'(

random fact: in the last yr 571 hives in cali were destroyed by bears.
aggienaut: (Bees!)

   I'm leaving today for Nor Cal. Tues-Thurs the California State Beekeepers Association convention is occuring at Lake Tahoe and I'll be officially attending as a professional beekeeper. (=
   The schedule of events can be found here. I think it looks like its going to be very interesting.

   Although the convention is only Tues through Thurs, I'm going up today (Sat) and planning on coming down Sunday. I don't have any idea what I'm going to be doing but I figure while I'm up there I may as well cause a ruckus across all of Nor Cal. Thinking of doing Davis this weekend and the Bay Area the following.

   And then, since I'm Living the Dream, for some four days the following week (ie two weeks from now) I'll be in Atlanta, GA, for an MUN conference (representing Pasadena City College!).


Picture of the Day


Moving bees in the wee hours.
(Specifically, lighting the smoker)
more

aggienaut: (Default)

   Our lobby looks across the elevator hallway to the lobby of another law firm, apparently a common arrangement. This other firm recently installed a fake christmas tree with fake snow and made it all bedazzled with ornaments and lights and such. Many people arriving on the floor have commented on it.

   Their tree is 6 feet, 7 inches tall. I know this, because one of our people surrepticiously measured it I guess. Today after work some of our people went to go get a REAL christmas tree. A real christmas tree that is very specifically taller than 6'7" to be proudly displayed in OUR lobby.
   Ah, the Christmas spirit.


*

aggienaut: (dictator kris)

   Yesterday I put over $11,000 of art on craigslist. At least thats the total we're asking for ... it was bought from real auctions for about $2,500 I think.

   This morning we already had an offer to buy one of the paintings for $1,500 --- we'd bought it at auction for $75.

   Dave wants to bring me to this auction in LA on August 7th. Says he's willing to invest up to $10,000 in auctioneering schemes. ...and he mumbled something about giving me a raise!


   Today the OC Register ran an editorial severely backpeddling their previous "all the bees are dying!!!" theme. I think iti would not be unrealistic for me to speculate that my press release on that subject could well have caused them to do so!
   Pwn!

aggienaut: (Wasp)

   This morning I spent some time taking pictures of the boss's boat, the go-cart, and other such things we have in the garage, and posting them on ebay. I think we already have a potential buyer for the boat for $22,000. I think the boss has discovered that I'm good at more varied activities than just killing things.

   While several of us (including the boss) were loafing about in the office for awhile surfing the internet and catching up on gossip, I found this article: Research Finds: US Workers Waste About 20 Percent of Their Workday. I read it to the lads. Only Jeremy picked up on the irony.
   Then Bob and I escaped to do some jobs.


   We ended up in Newport Beach again. When we got some time between calls we decided to go down to the beach ... and set up the umbrella we had confiscated yesterday! Too bad I'd left the hat I received yesterday at home.

   After spending maybe an hour lounging on the beach we got a call, which turned out to be no less than three hives on the roof of a commercial building. We pulled about 500 pounds of honey out of there (literally).


Picture of the Day


Yellowstone



   In other news, I reposted that popular entry I wrote all about bees / wasps / hornets / bumblebees. Several relatives, particularly my dear late grandmother, had asked me if I could remove the profanities I had flavoured it with so they could share it with others -- so I've done that for this version (though now the bumblebee section feels lacking).

aggienaut: (dictator kris)

The Journey Home
   I was up most of last night reading about people with names like Vercingetorix, Vortigern & Catigern. Then, since I've managed to accumulate some important tasks at the Courthouse I had to go into work. Finally I escaped from there, but had to AMPAC Governor-General Sameer for an hour on the phone about the conference we are in charge of putting together next April, which was all good and well but it was hellorz hot out and I really wanted to go home and take a nap. Then I got home only to find someone parked in my parking place. The office determined the offending vehicle belonged to the guy who should have the spot next to it. When maintenance man Modesto contacted him regarding this, the guy said with attitude "well someone was in MY spot," as if that justified it all (and I hope you all know that you are retarded if you think it solves anything by parking in the person's spot next to you when someone has parked in yours). Finally I made it into my apartment only to find two catsup smeared plates belonging to my flatmate Jason on the livingroom floor, where he seems to think they belong.
   This latter offense is in clear violation of the policy my roommates and I had agreed to unanimously, that dishes must remain in one's room if one cannot clean them immediately. I've decided my current policy for dealing with this is moving the dishes for him when he's not home ... onto his bed.
   Also the solution to the best way to confront him regarding the fact that he's in flagrant violation of something he just recently agreed to with minimum awkwardness came to me after some thought... next time he's home and I find him in a clear violation of policy, or if he asks me about my relocation of dishes to his room I think I'll ask him in an earnest manner if he thinks the policy is too draconian and needs to be changed. That way I will come across not as accusatory but compromising, while he'll be faced with either feeling like a complete flake by saying this simple policy is too difficult (which I really doubt he'll do), or reaffirming the policy in direct reference to his plate behaviour.
   Anyway, then I was finally able to take a nap, but in my delirium was unaware that I'd left my phone in my car so I missed a call I'd been waiting for regarding some stew. )=

30 in 30 III
   Anyway, the result of all this is that I'm not really feeling like a top-notch slinger of hilarity at the moment, so 30 in 30 III is off to an inconspicuous start for me this year.

   So far we have 30 in 30 posts by [livejournal.com profile] apoplecticfittz, [livejournal.com profile] otimus, [livejournal.com profile] pavel_lishin, [livejournal.com profile] roter_terror & [livejournal.com profile] shid. Best entry so far I think is roter_terror's: "Listen up, folks. 30 in 30 is here and I am not ready for it! THEREFORE YOU GET BABY ANIMALS... with a twist! Here are 16 of the best baby animals I could dig up at a moment's notice. Your job is to vote for the best."

   Anyway, you may all be relieved to to know that one of my goals for this 30 in 30 is to try to steamline my blogging by spending no less than 30 minutes per post (30 in 30.. IN 30?)

Meanwhile in the real world
   In other news, last friday we had the initiation party for the newest batch of Φ A Δ pledglings. On Sunday I went to recently-former Califorina Aggie Editor-in-Chief Matty Jojola's party. It was a very interesting mix of people, with four guys wearing Davis Players Society polos hanging out with Kalen Gallagher in one corner while from the opposite side of the political spectrum city council candidate Rob Roy campaigned in the kitchen wearing a suit & tie. I got a scandalous picture of him eating a watermelon rind with some girl, as well as another of him giving someone a classic politician handshake, I'll put them up when I get a chance. Also my fellow justice & reverend Tim Coady was there, marrying people at random and granting indulgences.

   On Tuesday most of the Court came to the Internal Affairs Commission to discuss their opinions on the Court. Also this day we were reinforced by an editorial in The Aggie advocating that our Court be strengthened rather than abrogated. IAC was unwilling to concede anything, but none of them would speak in support of any of their arguments (other than that ASUCD is a business), preferring rather to try repeatedly to end the whole conversation by saying there was no legislation regardnig the subject. Aside from the fact that the discussion the preceding week had ended with "we'll talk more about this next week," I've certainly been around long enough to know that there's always "no plans," until suddently there are, and the plans are never put forward until after the political maneouvering stage.
nbsp;  Also they made an obvious effort to put us off as long as possible, which I thought was kind of petty & desperate. Regarding ASUCD as a business, it went around a few times until Chairman Harms announced his revelation that "ASUCD is not a government OR a business, it is an association." To which I responded that that was great but "what we are specifically arguing about here is that Kai Savaree-Ruess said ASUCD is 'not a public institution ... but in fact a business,' and a Court has no place in a business. If you say we're not a business but an association, you're not backing Kai's argument that I am here to counter..." I believe 90% of arguments improperly lost are lost because one allowed the opponent to change what the argument was about.. never let them get away with this.

   Anyway, since then Paul Harms has ceased to be the Internal Affairs Commission Chairman...


Picture of the Day


Kristy and I at Rock It




Previously on Emosnail
   Three Years Ago Today:
Jello Shot Night - What we all did before we had 30 in 30 to occupy ourselves: [livejournal.com profile] slosha's dorm-mates throw a party which shall live on in infamy as "jello shot night." ...Kristy is eventually determined to be missing and is then found wandering aimlessly three floors down outside... d=
   Two Years Ago Today: 30 in 30 I - Day 1 - [livejournal.com profile] mrkevincostner was actually first out of the blocks at 10:20am, followed by [livejournal.com profile] stephenl who at 12:56 posted the official call to action. [livejournal.com profile] apoplecticfittz began with a new version of his recent Frasky Awards; [livejournal.com profile] lerani started with an amusing story about a retarded lawyer that managed to exponentially exacerbate her own ethics violation; [livejournal.com profile] fragglerocker84 started out strong with a well composed entry apparently about people on her vollyball team (its very well done for its subject matter, but the subject isn't the most interesting to random bloggers); and [livejournal.com profile] feuders also vows for the course of 30 in 30 to drink no beer (except for a number of frequent exceptions), eat no fast food, and run five miles every day. Additionally, [livejournal.com profile] jdryznar declares he's going to make 30 posts in 30 days about politics, while [livejournal.com profile] incomple also just posts half baked ravings against conservatives (at least for the first five I checked today).
   Year Ago Today: 30 in 30 II - Day 1 - First day of the second annual 30 in 30. Best entry for this day has been identified as Professor David, with second place going to [livejournal.com profile] otimus (who has since deleted his all his 30 in 30 II entrie, because he does strange things like that)

aggienaut: (soldiers)

   Today there was a ruckus at the Courthouse again. The verdict was due out for the so-called "Halloween Murders" of 2002, wherein five suspected gang members shot to death two victims and injured two others. The courthouse was abuzz this morning with discussion about the case. The courtroom was filled to capacity leaving many would-be attendees locked out. In the office of the court reporters there was discussion that they could have set up the recording equipment to hear it live down there if they'd thought of it beforehand. A small crowd of employees gathered around at the security station to watch the proceedings from the security camera view. There wasn't sound but it being an emotional event for those involved one could get a pretty good idea of what was going on based on body movements. Eventually I believe the defendants were found guilty of all fifteen charges.

   The clicheness of "Halloween Murders" unfortunately makes it very difficult to search google for information on the case. )=

Picture of the Day


Mystery Location!
Sepiatone = love



Previously on Emosnail
   Year & a Week Ago Last Saturday:
Thomas Lloyd Explains How He Hates Justice - Or at least why he thinks there should be no checks on the legislature. Incidently, while running for office one of his platforms was strengthening the judiciary.
   Year & a Week Ago Last Monday: Unless & KYD Show - a picture of Zane's head and juggling classes.
   Year Ago Last Friday: Kickin It With Important People - Former Director-General of the US Foreign Service introduces me to the former US Ambassador to the UN ... then I assassinate someone.
   Year Ago Last Sunday: Roxie's B-day - and a picture of me with the green mohawk.

aggienaut: (Default)

This Week in ASUCD
   Every Monday the Aggie runs a story on the latest happenings at ASUCD Senate. It took me about four years to realize this, because the article is always written with maximum confusion. I think it suffers from a misguided quest for "objectivity," where they have misconstrued "fair and balanced" as "completely lacking in substance." Its like, more bland than C-SPAN.
   Consequently, I decided I'm going to try to write an update every Friday on the general happenings of ASUCD within the last week.1

   The ASUCD headlines this week of course were the Winter Elections. Fourteen candidates (Six Leadites, two Focites, two "Ignites," four independants) ran for six positions. Several weeks of campaigning culminated this week in online voting Wednesday through Thursday. Reportedly turnout was rather low for a winter election. Some have speculated that this is because the F.U.C.K. party convinced everyone to trust in ASUCD candidates again last winter, and then dashed their hopes when their elected candidates "defected" from the party -- thus leaving everyone bitter and cynical this election.
   While Michael Molner was projected to win by expert analysts, as one conservative candidate invariably gets elected, few would have expected his first place finish. Molnar also prefaced the official results announcement by declaring all over the wiki in the hour before announcements that he had been the subject of "negative campaigning" and "bullying tactics" by Lead inner party member James Schwab. These claims were subsequently deleted from the wiki by others by some sort of black magic such that now I can't link to these earlier versions. Schwab notes that Molnar was referring to Schwab's bringing up the Molnar quote referenced here. This may be a foreshadowing of a very tense Senate term. See also: a webpage dedicated to "Molnarisms"
   Lead took four seats, Ignite one (Molnar), and Focus one. Lead now controls the presidency and two thirds of the senate, meaning that Lead can do literally anything they want.
   Schwab further notes "I think this election may be scandal free."

   Earlier in the week the ASUCD Supreme Court issued their verdict on Case 29, Laabs v. The California Aggie. They basically found that (1) The California Aggie DOES need to follow at least "reasonable regulations with respect to the time, the place, and the manner2" in which ASUCD says their paper is to be published; (2) The California Aggie DOES need to obey the decisions of the Media Board, which has been delegated oversight over them and tasked to deliberate on any significant operational changes; (3) to quote the United States Supreme Court in Joyner v. Whiting3 "A college newspaper's freedom from censorship does not necessarily imply that its facilities are the editor's private domain;" (4) Basically the United States Supreme Court pwned Daniel Stone and the ASUCD Court merely provided choice excerpts.
   The California Aggie allegedly does not intend to cover this case in the paper.

   On Thursday morning the California Aggie ran an editorial accusing Mayor Ruth Asmundson of delaying the bill to allow the return of interned Japanese in order to pass it at a time politically beneficial to her, and that such political use of such a bill was in poor taste. The editorial was notably harsh, likely because former Editor-in-Chief Stone (& Opinions Editor before that) was for once not watering opinions down in hopes of getting letters of recommendation. By Thursday evening Ruth Asmundson was at the ASUCD Senate meeting explaining to them how she wasn't evil and has supported students. In response, Schwab commented "[former ASUCD President] Kalen Gallagher did more for students!"
   Mayor Asmundson also mentioned created a position in the city of Omsbudsman. Omsbudsman, Asmundson ... they're very similar. A coincidence? You decide.


   Also at Senate, the Tapsy Ticksy director made a report. Interestingly, she reports that there are ongoing taxi wars between Tipsy Taxi and local taxi services, with commercial cabs regularly trying to ram Tipsy Taxi busses(!!). Senators Kalfayan & Higgens questioned the director at length regarding their goals of lowering the Tipsy Taxi charge back down to $1. The director noted that among other things, changing the price again will likely just confuse riders, as "drunk people and confusion go hand in hand."
   Sen. Avi Singh humorously proposed we levee a $1 fee on all undergraduates and offer it to the City with "Hey City of Davis, I hear you have a budget problem ... here's 20 Gs!" to which Director of the Office of External Affairs Greg Russel immediately responded "Avi do not treat the City like a whore!!" Much lulz were had by all.

   Meanwhile elsewhere in the MU, the ASUCD Entertainment Council was putting on a free show.

1Persons are encouraged to bring our attention to ASUCD events which take place of which they suspect an EMOSNAIL correspondant is not aware, such that it may be included in future issues of This Week in ASUCD.
2Healy v. James, 408 U.S. 169, at 192-193
3Joyner v. Whiting 477 F.2d 456, 462 (4th Cir. 1973)


Today in Woodland
   I ran into former ASUCD President Sara Henry at the Fat Cat Cafe. Enactment of the "Student Bill of Rights" is her only accomplishment to be recorded in history (via Daviswiki at least). Incidently apparent complete absense of this Bill of Rights two years later is the subject of ASUCD Court Case # 32, which will be heard next Tuesday. She was also known for trying to remove me twice (the fact that Focus controlled 2/3rds of the Senate & thus could remove people all on its own probably made this particularly tempting to her). Two years later she is working in a family law clinic, and I'm working in the civil division of the local courthouse (ie the division dealing with family law, among other things), and so it seems I'm still handling Henry's cases.

   Later, it was noticed that a girl in the Courthouse lobby reeked of marijuana. She was subsequently arrested, and confessed to having smoked out about half an hour previous, and then driven to the Courthouse. I believe some marijuana was found on her as well. In addition to possession, and being under the influence, she may be charged with driving under the influence of controlled substances, and having controlled substances within a courthouse is a felony in of itself. I remand to the honourable blogocratic Judge [livejournal.com profile] roter_terror for further speculation on what she ought to be charged with. Presumably the girl in question was not Sara Henry.

   Today I got to venture down to "the Bunker," where older cases are archived. Its under the sheriffs station that adjacent to the Courthouse. The hallways under it have manila coloured floors, walls, ceilings & furniture -- its like seeing everything in sepiatone.
   Also I put this case back in the vault today. Its more than a foot thick.


This Week in International Politics
   Rumour has it there was a coup in the Phillipenes, but every news article I've found about it mentions the coup in passing and then goes on about the government response for several pages. While the government may have responded shadily, I am always rather suspicious that the underreported side of the story has more value than given credit for.

aggienaut: (Default)

   So today was my first actual day of work at Wild Rivers for the summer. I worked 11-7.
   When I got there Nikki informed me that since I'm not area trained in anythign yet this year I can't work anything but three places, two of which are the most unpleasant places in the park (the kiddie pools argh!). I'm like... I am practically qualified to GIVE the area training.. I'm the most senior lifeguard there and have seniority over several supervisors (Yes thats right; I get passed over in favor of people like Hethr, who with half as many years as I and a number of no shows already that season was promoted to supervisor, why? So Ryan Carter can date her. I'm serious).
   So the first half of the day I'm working these sucky places and thinking about going postal or something. I felt like "the funnyman" from Boondock Saints, like everyone knows I'm never getting promoted and is laughing at me. But then the second half I got to spotbreak shallows and basically things went a lot better.
   The highlight of my day was DEFINITELY seeing SHASTA who happened to be in the park, randomly. Yay. Seriously made my day.
   And I met this girl Hannah who seriously is for awesome. I worked with her at the bottem of "patriot," where there's always two employees. Of course supervisor Jeff Whetstone (::caugh::manwhore::caugh::) was flirting with her when I got there. We were only working together for like five minutes but it was long enough that now we're LIKE THIS. Good times.

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