The Agrinautica

   So one fine day on Daviswiki, contention erupted over the shadiness factor of Campus Crusade for Christ. To help solve this controversy, Emosnail staff benevolently volunteered to do some polling on the subject, but in response noted local Republican George Andrews stated "having Fricke do a poll on Campus Crusade in EMOSNAIL is like having me do a poll on Nathan Thomas/Black Caesar/Dan Beeman Approval ratings among DCR members."
   We then posted polls both here and on the UC Davis community (ucdaivs). Ostensibly this was to ascertain the shadiness factor of CCC, but really we're just using jedi mind tricks to make you think thats our motive -- the true motive was to show that CCC would get a higher shadiness rating from the UC Davis lj community than from the readers of this livejournal (the postings were exactly identical).
   At this point, more than 18 hours after the polls began, and with 60 responses: the ucdavis community has rated Campus Crusade for Christ at a shadiness factor of 7.14, while the emosnail readership has rated it at 6.33. Clearly Emosnail does not foster antireligious mentalities.


Resistentialism
   The other day my browser (mozilla) inexplicably crashed and when it came back up, all my bookmarks had been lost. I find this very aggravating because I had quite a few things that I regularly used bookmarked. I miss the most-recent-pictures-updated-to-livejournal webpage that I haven't been able to find again. )=
   Last night apartment-mate wdsguy came home from LA, where he spends the week steeped in the adult entertainment industry (you think I'm kidding), and promptly unplugged my internet and went to bed -- presumably without actually realizing I needed it (we don't have a router because I live in a cave so only one of us can be connected at a time). So I spent the rest of the night in the computer lounge working on my paper. When I returned in the morning I was plugged in again but our internet was down, appeared to be a problem with our service-provider. When it finally came up trillian (my AIM client) crashed and burned horribly. When I was finally able to get it up again all my friends groups had been eliminated, so I now have 435 people all in one big group. I promptly created the missing groups and garnered a small amount of satisfaction sending some people to the gulag (my friends-list category of that name anyway). I believe resistentialism is taking root in my computer. Either that or its developing bovine spongeform encephalitis ("mad cow disease").


The Order of Trogdor
   EMOSNAIL is proud to present Daviswiki creator Philip Neustrom with our highest honour, the Order of Trogdor:

   Neustrom is seen here receiving the prestigious medal in the traditional ceremony. (with the medal on)
   Neustrom has exemplified the most admirable interests in promoting community understanding, combined with illustrious competence in creating the Daviswiki and making the wonder that it is today.
   Truly, if there is anyone who deserves to be on Davis Mount Rushmore, it is Phil (incidently I've never heard of four of the five people listed there).*

Weekly ASUCD Shadiness Rating
   We're overdue for the weekly ASUCD shadiness rating. Since last polling, ASUCD went ahead and passed unanimously the legislation preventing members of the ASUCD judiciary from authoring legislation, and Kalen Gallagher was replaced as President by Caliph Assagai and Darnell Holloway (but not before Gallagher characterized choice voting as a disease he would squash). Here's an Aggie article on the recent adventures of ASUCD.
[Poll #457889]

Daviswiki Entry of the Day: Magic Items of Davis


Shady Quote of the Day:
PrzemekP: true, but if it's possible, have him hold off, like I said, the worst possible for her would be her nominating herself
PrzemekP: haha, or better yet, if Fricke does it!
amazonjedimaster: you have enough pull with fricke
amazonjedimaster: have him do it
amazonjedimaster: have fricke nominate her first
PrzemekP: I'll see what I can do
PrzemekP: but there is a part of me that thinks Fricke might vote for Veronica
amazonjedimaster: because if you want the worst person to nominate .... fricke is that person
PrzemekP: true
amazonjedimaster: janet and i made it clear to centian people that we hate kris
amazonjedimaster: with a passion
amazonjedimaster: some of them are peons at berkely
PrzemekP: yeah, but like I said, a part of me feels Fricke might vote Veronica
amazonjedimaster: you think nomiating gena will change how he votes?


Year Ago Today: Ice Cream Sandwich Cravings - & rooommate Jill asks us sausage themed questions for her lover.

*if someone wants to use the above picture to make it look like Phil (& Amie) are on the real Mount Rushmore I think that would be ridiculously funny, and um, I'll buy you a twinkie.

Weekly ASUCD Report
   A bill was passed unanimously by the ASUCD Senate two weeks ago which would allow Court members to write legislation. Currently the judicial codes forbid Court members from writing legislation, making them the only nine members of ASUCD who cannot write legislation (Aggie employees can't either but thats their rule, not an ASUCD one).
   I'm told by Senator Thomas Lloyd, though independant confirmation hasn't been successful yet, that President Gallagher vetoed the legislation. Lloyd claims that I tricked everyone (all of IAC, all of the Senate) because it didn't explicitly say that Court members could only write legislation on the Judicial Codes and Article VII of the Constitution (the judicial article). I think this is preposterous considering the legislation is only like five lines. If they interpreted it to be wildly different than it actually was, its certainly not my fault they failed to read and interpret FIVE FREAKING LINES.
   Consequently, Lloyd has authored a bill which went through Internal Affairs Commission on Monday which very explicitly removes the rights of Court members to write legislation on things other than the Judicial Codes or Article VII. Incidently there is no precedent anywhere in the world outside ASUCD for abridging our ability to write legislation, nor is there any reason that holds any water. The one that continually comes up is "whats to stop them then from abusing their power and writing legislation giving them more power," to which the obvious answer is that it has to go through the entire process of IAC, Senate and President. Additionally, wouldn't that same argument make for a much more realistic reason to ban the president from writing legislation? And what about the Senate??
   If the previous legislation was really vetoed, I say the Senate should override the veto this Thursday. If one really wants to push the argument that the Court is going to go mad with power with the ability to write legislation, I urge that one at least be consistent and similarly ban the executive office from writing legislation other than for the Government Codes and Article III of the ASUCD Constitution.

   Otherwise, the new Senators were sworn in last Thursday, ushering in an era of unprecedented diversity of affiliation on the Senate. Previously dominated by the two parties, Lead and Focus, the Senate now consists of four Leadite senators, three Focite senators, three independant senators (two republicans and the president of the davis college democrats), and two Urger senators. Also IAC Chairperson Kahliah Laney has become the most recent in a string of resignations.

[Poll #451234]

Rating Elections
   Polling here has indicated that Emosnail readers consider the ASUCD Election to have had a Shadyness Rating of 9.42, with 83% of the respondants indicating a 10.0. Incidently, once the issue could no longer be appealed to us (after the Senators were sworn in), we discussed the topic on the ASUCD Supreme Court. Fortunately most of them knew little about the case, so I gave them the relevant facts while avoiding leading them to any particular conclusion. The members of the ASUCD Supreme Court all found that Roy's actions did not constitute falsification, and furthermore, finding so after having verified the information oneself sounds suspiciously like one is "gunning for him." I would concur: what is listed are possible examples of falsification, but that does not mean they are in all occurances falsification. Clearly, the information was not falsified. Also if they found on the high end of their discretion in this case, what the crap would constitute less severe falsification??

   The MUN election occurred today. In lieu of rumours that there had been intended elections fraud, Dana Davies-Shaw, former ASUCD Senate candidate, Campus Judicial Board member, and Canadian, was brought in to observe the ballot counting.
However, former Secretary-General Catherine Myung (who appears to still be planning everything two weeks after resigning) instructed those wishing to cast their ballots via email to email them to her. I pointed out to her that they ought to be instructed to at least cc these to Davies-Shaw as well. Her response as "I was just planning on printing out all the email ballots, and have them mixed into with the regular ballots. But if Dana is okay having ballot's cc'ed to him, I will send out another email about it. Or I could forward all the ballots to him as well." She never sent out another email. We are therefore depending entirely on Myung's word alone that she faithfully forwarded all the emailed ballots and didn't make any up. I don't mean to say that she did use the opportunity to conduct elections fraud, but its just a huge blow to the legitimacy of the election.

   I've never really understood people who boycott elections, like the Shiites in the recent Iraqi election. Aren't you mainly just screwing yourself over? However, I found myself not voting in the MUN election. It wasn't a boycott in the same way -- I didn't publicize my abstention to any of the relevant parties as a political statement. Rather, it was more for myself. I couldn't in good conscience participate in this election -- any candidate that the current leadership didn't like had been intimidated out of running (I myself would have considered running I think if I didn't feel it would just result in a concerted slander campaign against me and being the victim of completely unfair and fraudulent tactics just like last time). I couldn't grant it the credence of legitimacy without making myself feel sick, so I abstained from participating.

   The amendment to the MUN bylaws I wrote last week to eliminate the Secretariat's ability to expel people from the club without consulting the membership was not voted on today because it was placed sixth our of seven agenda items, and by that point in the meeting we had lost quorum. I have written another amendment that will require amendments to the bylaws to be considered first on the agenda, because otherwise they could be put off indefinitely, as regularly a good third of the members present at the beginning of a meeting are gone by the end.


Shady Quote of the Day
amazonjedimaster: you have no morals of any sort to hold you back
amazonjedimaster: ^_^
PrzemekP: ha! I do
PrzemekP: I have morals, they're just weird and skewed

Previously on Emosnail
   Two Years Ago Today: Another Party on Loyola - and one next door, to which I believe Shemek showed up.
   Year Ago Today: Dancing in the Kitchen - Four months for Kristy and I. Today it has been 16 months of the strongest sauce and heartred.

   In sarcastic reference to the several ongoing controversies I'd started last week (notably Ms Johnson and the MUN thing, and specifically the anonymous comments), I declared The War on Wrong ("we'll need some of your civil liberties for this"). The war has escalated significantly since then.

   CFC / SPAC found in my favour, the $740 team dinner was changed to an unsubsidized dinner at Chevy's, and Secretary-General Myung was obliged to resign.
   The War on Wrong had been far more successful than I had anticipated. But they say our rightious repression will only beget more obstinance. It came to my attention today that following the CFC debacle, a move to have me expelled from the club by vote of the Secretariat (the officers) narrowly failed (the Secretariat may by unanimous vote expel a member from the club).

   Today Secretariat member Gena Rinaldi, who lives with most of the rest of the Secretariat, was using a computer they all use (it has an MUN printer on it) and discovered an AIM dialogue box had been left open.
   It included an amazingly extensive conversation between (former) Secretary-General Catherine Myung and Secretariat member Shemek Pawlik (famous for stealing $10,000 from Unitrans, incidently) about how every single member of UCD could be compelled to vote against Rinaldi in the upcoming MUN election, to such detail that they even decided to get Secretariat member Kevin Gong to be the one to nominate Rinaldi for the Secretary-General position, because "everyone knows that Kevin is a parrot," and they calculated that a nomination from him would do the most damage to Rinaldi's chances. Otherwise, they have or plan to talk to every single member of the club on an individual basis and convince them that Rinaldi is a fundamentally flawed human.
   More alarming however, is their discussion about potentially defrauding the election. Myung mentions she has to appear unbiased so she can count the ballots, and congradulates Shemek in gaining the other ballot counting position without Rinaldi objecting (incidently Rinaldi thought he was her friend).

   Incidently, after hearing about these ruthless campaign tactics I noted "so thats why Kevin got elected over me to Secretariat last year" ("kevin is universally unliked"), to which Rinaldi responded, "Akila counted the ballots then, what do you THINK happened?" (Akila has fewer scruples than either Myung or Shemek). She also noted that much as I have suspected, despite her resignation, Myung still runs everything.


   Under-Secretary-General Rinaldi will be resigning today. She was planning the major Model UN conference we host in Spring, but now someone else needs to pick up on that. In all likelihood, without her dissenting vote, the Secretariat will expel me.

   To counteract this, I will introduce an amendment to the bylaws today that eliminates the ability of the Secretariat to expel members without consulting the body (it can still be done via 2/3rds of Secretariat and a majority of the membership). This amendment will hopefully be voted on next week during the Secretariat election. In all likelihood it will be too late to prevent my expulsion.

Three Months
   So today (the eighth) was our three month anniversery. It being a Sunday night, Kristy and I went out for dinner last night instead (Saturday), to Thai2k.
   We set out on a quest for food tonight as well however, craving specifically Subway. We arrived at the Subway at the U-Mall just as they were locking the door however.
   After much deliberation (it being 10pm, most places were closed) we decided just to stop by Wendys. Despite the establishment's claim to be "open late" every light, this apparently was the one night they decided to close at 10pm for remodelling. Weak Sauce. We ended up getting food at Jack n the Box.
   Then we went to Starbucks, because we were craving the CAC (Caramel Apple Cider). We arrived there right at 10:30, right as THEY were closing. Forunately we managed to get some free coffee off them though. I still crave the CAC though and plan on going on an expedition tomorrow evening.


Saturday Parties
   Saturday my next-door neighbors had a party. Now see, the apartment next door to me is one of I believe four ten-bedroom (10!) apartments in Davis. Among the people living there this year is Yael, who lived below me freshman year, and Beta ("Bee-ta"), a girl I had actually become friends with after meeting in 11th grade at an MUN conference.

   After a somewhat short appearance there Kristy and I proceeded to her complex, Sterling, where Amie Gutierrez was having a raging party. And indeed it was raging. I have heard nothing but raving reviews of it. Everyone was rocking out. Pavel and Codetoad were quite abundant.
   It eventually got broken up, and as I was going past the cop I heard him say "...this guys hair." I missed the first part but by the way he was saying it I don't think it was all bad.


Steel Reserve
   No less than three people this weekend have informed me that they drank steel reserve recently because I am always raving about it. This makes me quite proud. One of the people (codetoad) described it as "the shitiest beer I've ever tasted," but all three reported having become quite wasted by it, and even Codetoad seemed to have had considered it a pleasant experience. He was pretty drunk when I talked to him though. (=


Sunday, MUN
   Today we had a mock conference. Unlike the last one, which was suprisingly serious, this one was completely silly. I was in Security Council. I hear World Health Organization actually stayed more serious.
   It started out with the women in committee dominating debate by discussion a eugenics program whereupon such British male specimins as Jude Law, Ewan McSomething, and someotherfamouspeople would be bred foraciously. Eventually we managed to get off this topic, and in an effort to feel more serious, discussed drug trafficking. "Illegal trafficking of drugs is a problem which has plagued humanity ever since mankind learned how to traffick things, and developed the technological innovation of making things 'illegal'" -me. Then somehow we erupted into WWIII.
   Initially I was representing Rome(eania). At the start of WWIII however, I also began representing the Sovreign Republic of California. We seceded from the US and pledged our support to North Korea (who had started the war). The US retaliated by sending all the mormons into California.

   There was some debate over whether double-commenting to speeches was allowed. The main partisan of double-comment prohibition, Catherine Myung argued that it must be forbidden because it never happens. I argued that there clearly is no rule against it, and "because something never happens by no means means that it is not possible..." I found the whole debate to be remarkably suited to my essay of last entry on the subject of policy.


Unrelated - Security
   Apparently my little brother's Marine Corps squad was called on to provide security at Linkin Park concerts. The second concert was cancelled, so security was actually increased.


Picture of the Day

A Castle
Central Slovakia
© Kris Fricke 1999

Related
   Amie's Party:
         Terra's Report (ensuing comment conversations)
         xjefex - Mad Photos From the Party
         Kristy: Same Events
         (feel free to bring other entries about the party to my attention anyone)
   A Year Ago Saturday: WWIII
   A Year Ago Sunday: Random Adventures and The Scarf Party
   The parallels between events a year ago and currently are suprising. In the three days above, I mention one of the girls who at the time lived next-door, WWIII, a night of random adventures (a quest for food actually, as was the random adventure this evening), and a party in which many of the people present at Amie's most recent party were also present (though not named here, some are listed in Terra's entry).