The Agrinautica

   Yesterday, Saturday, Chad van Shoelace had convinced me to meet him at Starbucks at 1pm, so I walked the league or so from my apartment to there. I think Chad likes to patronize Starbucks as a philosophical counterstrike against the many who are biased against it due to (accurate!) perceptions of it being a massive impersonal corporate infection of the world. Mindless yuppies like the smarmy inoffensive appearance of Starbucks, persons who fear corporate sterilization of the world loathe starbucks, and Chad makes me meet him there because he is a jerk. (=

   Somehow it was eventually 4pm, and I decided to stop by Allan's because I had lost my sharpie there last night. The sharpie was not to be found, but evidence of it could still be found on Allan's two friends who had been passed out the night before. Arriving there I was immediately inducted into drinking mojitos and making dry ice bombs (and putting dry ice in mojitos!). We watched a really silly movie called Mean Guns (one of those movies where people regularly sneak up on eachother by hiding off-camera in an area that should be in plain sight of the characters on camera).
   I ended up hanging out there until we all went to this party off Duke in the evening. Then we went to a party off Colgate (AKA Toothpaste Street, just around the corner from Duke). Allan was shocked to find the armchair he'd put out on the curb three years ago was now happily residing in the livingroom of this house.
   Nikki and some others eventually caught up with us there. Later ten of us somehow piled into Allan's sedan (two in the trunk!) and conveyed ourselves to Nikki's apartment in Greystone (all you really need to know about these locations is they're all close together in East Davis. Well, you don't really need to know that even unless you're obsessive about visualizing the whole thing).
   People played poker there and otherwise goofed around. After an hour or so of that I decided I ought to visit Gabi in South Davis, so I said my goodbyes and left on foot. I think it was about two miles. En route I crossed this overcrossing over the 80.

   This Morning (Sunday) I was not looking forward to the two leagues I'd have to walk to get home. Fortunately, when I called Allan to find out how the rest of his night went he offered to give me a ride.
   This evening I went for pizza at Woodstocks with Davis Citycouncilman Lamar Heystek.

   Tomorrow I have to catch a 5:55am train to arrive in Irvine, Orange County, at 5:06pm. )= Though its always been an 11 hour trainride (for a distance thats 8 hours by car), it used to leave at the slightly less painful time of 7:30am. Fortunately at least I have a ride to the station - Jason just got back from some obscure geology-oriented adventure and has his car with him.


Picture of the Day

   So today I found myself testifying under oath in the Yolo County Superior Court as to what I believe my mohawk represents, and later bringing an entire courtroom to applause. Much later managed to get 52 persons into a room in Olson for an hour and then went to the City Council meeting as an encore. Altogether it was a very successful day.

   This morning I had jury duty in Woodland. This caused me to be a bit torn because I was from the start intrigued, curious and interested in participating, but at the same time I really didn't have time. So I wore my mohawk up and figured they'd surely dismiss me for it.
   I was one of the original 18 jurors selected for questioning and one of the last ones dismissed. Of probably around six jurors dismissed during the cause dismissals, three of them were because they knew the prosecuting lawyer. He's from Davis, chances are someone reading this knows him, seeing as apparently out of a random sampling of 18 people from Yolo county he knows 1/6th of them. Unfortunately his name escapes me at the moment. [Tim Wallace, see 02/18/06]
   One juror acted quite crazy, and quite determined not to be on the jury. I wouldn't be
suprised if he was faking the craziness. If he really was so crazy why would he be so determined to get off the jury? On the subject of being biased towards police officers, one lady who looked to be about forty and very frumpy casually mentioned she'd recently had relationships with "six sheriff-deputies from Yolo County" omgwtf. The judge casually responded that the officers involved in the case weren't
sheriff's-deputies.
   Most of the selection process proceeded without giving me reason to speak up to any of the questions. Finally towards the end the prosecutor asked "so.. Mr Fricke. You have very interesting hair. Could you explain what it means?" or something to that effect. I think he expected me to quickly incriminate myself as a crazy radical, but my answers portrayed me to have a rather healthy under-standing of the relevant principals (I like to think anyway), which led to even more questioning. One of his early questions for me was to the effect of "what do you think of the American legal system" (he no doubt suspected I'd clearly identify myself as a no-good anarchist), but my answer of "excellent" thoroughly flummoxed his hypothesis. In his probing he asked what I was studying and intended to do. When I said that I was IR and pre-law and thought maybe I'd go into diplomacy and negotiate treaties, he said "so.. you want to work for the Bush administration?" (somewhat humoristically) to which I responded "I want to work with for the United States government," and this interchange brought the whole courtroom to applause.
   After this I rather expected the defense was more likely to dismiss me since I had generally expressed a strong belief in the rule of law, however (once four people in a row had been dismissed from "seat 11" - when someone in seats 1-12 was dismissed someone from 13-18 was shuffled into the lower 12) it was the prosecutor who said "Mr Fricke, I like you, but I'm not gonna take a chance with that hair."
   In conclusion, you want to get out of jury duty, mohawk your hair beforehand.

   Upon returning from Woodland, I had to hit the ground running because Michael Newdow was coming at 7:30 to speak for Phi Alpha Delta and I was organizating it. I nearly died from stress over the event, but it all worked out and we had good attendance (51) and I think everyone enjoyed it.
   From there I went to the Davis City Council meeting where they were discussing
implimenting choice voting. I found this meeting positively brimming with tension between mayor pro tem Sue Greenwald and the other four councilmembers, including such comments as "I won the election, the rest of you need to be mature and accept that" (having gotten teh highest number of votes last election, Greenwald will be the next mayor), accusations that other members were "thwarting democracy," and councilmembers attempting to speak at the same time (repeatedly). It was definitely such sauce.

   This previous weekend was the MUN conference we host here at Davis for HS students. As soon as the high school students started arriving saturday morning one of them came up to me and was like "You're emosnail aren't you! Its like meeting a celebrity!"
   Also, as I was leaving at around 12:30 Saturday night, I was walking past Sproul when I noticed only a single window was lit on the building, on the second floor. Glancing up I noticed familiarly pointy hair and glasses. "Lamar?" says I, causing Lamar Heystek to stand up and look around like a meerkat. Turns out he was working on his weekly column, about which he said "this time its going to be good I swear."


In Other News: Yesterday when I went into MyUCDavis, there was a notice asking us to take a survey for the UCD student polling unit, with this incentive: "As a small token of our appreciation, we are giving the first 1500 students who answer the survey a debossed BREATHE wristband (similar to thehe Livestrong band)"
   In addition of course such bands with things like "princess" written on them can be found at various retail locations. I think its very very sad that something that started out as a symbol of support for a certain charity is now being copied into completely frivolous forms because its become fashionable.
   I don't expect such knavery not to appear in retail stores, but for university unit to participate is increasingly deplorable.

   So yesterday Kristy and I were going to go see the prescreening of Troy on campus. It was sold out (well tickets were free but a finite number were available), but I happened to have 11 tickets in my possession.
   We get there right after they opened the doors, and there is no line to speak of. Just a giant mob of people, and two cop cars. Apparently as soon as they opened the doors everyone just bumrushed the door. So in the end people that had waited there for for four hours (!) didn't get in but random people who got lucky in the bum rush did.
   As soon as the place (Chem 194) reached capacity, four more cop cars (bringing the total to six) arrived for crowd dispersal.

   Deep thought of the day: pleading with the officers "but I've been here two hours!!" is NOT going to get you in when there's more than a hundred other people that also want in, and whining ineffectually to the officer like that is just moronic.


   Then Kristy and I went to Safeway to get some supplies. While there I asked if Lamar Heystek (everyone's favourite aggie columnist / former City Council candidate) was working and she paged him on the intercom. So I'm like 'muahaha what a good way to embaress someone.. having them paged like that" so Lamar arrives and I invite him to eat dinner at Thai Bistro with some of us today (Friday) since its my birthday, and what does he do? He immediately announces to the whole store over the intercom that its my birthday. ::Shakes fist:: Anything Kristy says about me turning red is As Much Preposterous Lies As Possible (AMPLAP)! \=<

   Then we watched some of the Godfather.


   In conclusion, today (Friday, May 14th) is my birthday. I am turning 22. More importantly however, it is the one year anniversery of turning 21. Now THAT is something to commemorate.



Related
   Year Ago Tomorrow: Birthday Dinner Last Year
   Last Year's Birthday Party there won't be one this year )=
      Other People's entries about the party
      My entry about the party
      Pictures from the party


PS: A paid lj account would make a great $5 gift.... (=

Controversy
   With more than one girl of otherwise credible intellegince and undeniable girlishness I have found I've had a disagreement over regarding what consitutes a "pigtail" and what constitutes a "ponytail." Now at the time though what the girl was telling me went against everything I've ever known about the subject, I didn't pursue the subject, because after all girls should know better. But this week I randomly thought to look it up at dictionary.com and found that indeed I am correct and the definitions logged there do not allow for the opposing argument.
   The girl's argument was thus: if there is one of it, it is a ponytail, and if there are two it is pigtails, regardless of braiding.
   My argument was thus: if it is braided it is a pigtail, if it resembles a pony's tail it is a ponytail.

Courtesy of dictionary.com:
   Pigtail: A plait of braided hair.
   Ponytail: A hairstyle in which the hair is held back so as to hang down like a pony's tail.
   I bring this up here because I know at least one of the girls reads this, and if these girls could get through life not knowing the difference, I'd imagine others are thus confused as well.
   Also pigtails are hawt and ponytails notsomuch. But nothing's hotter than kristy with her hair in two buns atop her head.


Saturday
   So a city council candidate, a chief justice, and a senator are walking down the street... no its not a joke. Today I went precinct walking for city council candidate Lamar Heystek with a certain ASUCD senator. In order not to cause anyone fear that the experience made me biased towards this individual, we'll call him Senator X.
   So in talking to one resident, Senator X was asked "hey you seem like a politician too, are you?" to which he responded "well yes, vote for Senator X for President in 2020" "well we won't be around in 2020" "if you vote for Heystek you will be!" "no, the Lord will take us all away by then."

   At the farmer's market this morning a group of several of the other city council candidates recognized me, but got my position wrong, joking "look out, its the internal affairs guy!"

   After precinct walking we ate at Hunan's, a local chinese restaurant. It was my first time there. My fortune cookie said "you can choose to forgive anything." what ev.


Picture of the Day

Audi A6 - The Ride!
© Kris Fricke 1999

   After travelling 180-220 km/hr for about six hours through mountainious roads across Slovakia in an Audi A6 with a professional driver, we finally spun out of control and ended up sideways in a ditch only a half hour from our destination in Trebisov.
   If you look at a mirror image of the picture you can read the writing you can faintly see on the other side of the page... if you can read swedish.


Related
   A Year Ago Today: Woke up from drunken unconsciousness on my livingroom floor, declared self straight-edge, met Mara (blueashes)
   Vote in the city council elections this Tuesday.

Thursday
   Stopped by The Table in the MU, where five people were at the time sitting. The two I didn't know turned out to be blueliquid13 and sivart13, two of the others were blushbystander and pavelthegeek, the remaining person was my friend Yadira. Though I'd never had the slightest incling that she may have an lj, seeing her present company I asked, and indeed she is porcelain999.

   Then I went to the barbershop in the basement to get the sides of my head shaved.


Friday
   It was my Uncle Ben's birthday so we had dinner at their place on J Street. And by "we" I mean Kristy and I. Kristy was terrified at first, but she survived. The food was sooooooo goooood omg. It was like.. the second best food I've had all week. It was like.. this thai food. With tofu.. yes I even liked the tofu it was that good.
   Pictures were taken of the Kristy and I. I haven't seen them as of yet but they should be available very soon.


Saturday - Valentine's Day
   So Kristy and I went to the Farmer's Market in the morning. This of course prompted me to retell my favorite Lame Story, about waking up in a frat house and going outside to find a farmers market raging outside. While there we ran into Kristy's italian teacher, and city council candidate Lamar Heystek. We also bought a half gallon of delicious apple cider before moving on to Baker's Square for breakfast.

   That evening we had a candle-lit dinner at Kristy's place. The dinner was a surprise for me, and it turned out to be "fire-cracker pork fusilli" Kristy had gotten from Fuzios. This is my all-time most ultimate food ever omg just thinking about it mmmmm... Kwisty also made garlic-bruschetta appetizers and tiramisu. It was all so so so so good omg. Sensory overload.
   Unfortunately last time Kristy had wine, slosha got her trashed on tiquela, and Kristy subsequently developed an aversion to wine. After unsuccessfully trying to enjoy the wine at dinner she made light of this. I offered to make her a drink with vodka or peppermint snapps or something. She thought for a minute and asked for steel reserve. I was soo proud. (=

   And then Courtbutt came pounding on the door and a ringing the door-bell. No romantic valentines day dinner is complete without that.


One Year Ago Friday
KriLynnHeidi (11:21:54 PM): hey! !
Snail of DEATH (11:22:02 PM): s hey
Snail of DEATH (11:22:12 PM): hows it goin! Krilynheidi?
Snail of DEATH (11:22:13 PM): (=
KriLynnHeidi (11:23:16 PM): LoL...im in your CRD disc. my name is Kristy, i felt like being friendly tonite!
Snail of DEATH (11:23:36 PM): ah
...
Snail of DEATH (12:04:56 AM): happy vday btw
Snail of DEATH (12:04:58 AM): (=
KriLynnHeidi (12:05:07 AM): hey tanks! you 2!
Snail of DEATH (12:05:17 AM): :-D
KriLynnHeidi (12:05:58 AM): so what are your big Vday plans?
Snail of DEATH (12:06:55 AM): my! friend is having an antivday party
...
   Yes, that is the first conversation Kristy and I ever had. Apparently I had recently forgotten I didn't know her and waved to her in the MU.

   Kristy's entry on the same
   My entry from a year ago
         It just occured to me that in keeping with v-day tradition, I did in fact wear all-black THIS time as well. Black dickies, black docs, black braces (suspenders), black collared shirt, black tie...


No picture today, I'm in a hurry.

   On Friday night, while on an alcohol run at Safeway, Kristy and I ran into City Council candidate Lamar Heystek, who happens to work there. He asked me if I'd distribute voter registration packets to the apartments of my complex and I of course agreed. Everyone get yourselves registered to vote here and vote for Lamar, we urgently need a student on the city council.


   Also I introduced Kristy to the wonder that is a brass monkey (steel reserve and orange juice). She was highly skeptical about the combination until she tried it, and then declared it her new favorite drink. This is what she said about the experience:
   This weekend I discovered the beautiful drink that is the Brass Monkey. Kris had been going on about how strongsauce it was fordays, however, I was quite skeptical. Beer and orange juice? Ewww. But not just any beer, Steel Reserve, you know, the high gravity lager, it tastes different than normal beer. So I finally tried a sip of Kris' last night and HOLYGOODNESS it tastes like carbonated orange juice punch, not the least hint of alcoholee taste. Plus, steel reserve is cheap like whoa and has more alcohol in it than normal beer. Next weekend, it is going to be me and a 40 of steel reserve with orange juice in it, you dig? Kris and I were even debating if one could add vodka TO the brass monkey because there is no alcohol taste. I think an experiment will have to be done.


   Saturday our kitchen flooded. I think the filtered water exploded.


Picture of the Day

Kristy & Myself
At Tahoe over New Years
© Soshie? 2004

   Yesterday was the quarterly State of the Court address at ASUCD Senate.
   I'm told that while I was reading our verdict from recent case # 23, President Sara Henry was grimacing hatefully. A number of the City Council candidates happened to be at the meeting, including former ASUCD Senator (from 1997), current UCD grad student & Aggie humor columnist Lamar Heystek. He told me that in his seven years of involvement in ASUCD he has never seen a Court that "could write Opinions like that."
   Most disturbing of all though, Heystek informed me that he had filed a case in the fall of 2002, which never went anywhere. Apparently the then Chief Justice (Katarina something) never returned any emails or phone calls... no response from the Court could be gotten at all. This is what I'm talking about when I say that the Court did NOT exist as a functioning entity previous to this. I wonder if his case is still pending.


   Also I just learned from a former Elections Committee member that last election they were considering compelling evidence that if accepted could disqualify the "Student Focus" candidates from the election, & ASUCD Advisor Vicki Swett told them not to accept the evidence because it would "create drama and controversy." This former committee member said they felt that what occured was very wrong but were unable to do anything about it because the hearing was confidential and they were thus forbade from talking to the Aggie or writing a case. Now that they're not on the Elections Committee they'd like to do something about it, but all evidence is still confidential and most witnesses are still on the committee. I am going to investigate legal recourses.


   Real update will come soon.


NOTE TO SELF: check one more time to make sure this is friends only