The Agrinautica

   This past weekend (Saturday to Tuesday morning) was the Amwest Model UN conference in Las Vegas. This year I went as a delegate .. with the Northern Arizona University (NAU) delegation.
   I knew it was going to be a good conference when by the first morning I had to search three different rooms and STILL couldn't for the life a me find my pants.


   But starting at the beginning, I did in fact end up driving up there Friday Evening. I'd barely been there probably half an hour before the whole NAU delegation was dancing on tables at the Octoberfest themed Hofbrau House restaurant (their leader was even wearing lederhosen). It was good times.
   While I knew a lot of the NAU delegation already, one might expect it might be awkward to be thrown in as an outsider with a group of people who all go to school together and such ... not so at all! I felt totally at home in the group as if they really were my own delegation, they're great.

   Anyway, later that evening we all ended up hanging out in the hot tub for awhile. And so, the reason I couldnt' find my pants the next (Monday) morning was because I had changed into my swim trunks at some point you see. Still it was mysterious and I didn't find them until the devious miss Kerri White thought to call the my phone, which was in the pants' pocket.

   Also I gotta mention right off that I totally am in love with the breakfast the Embassy Suites always has ... their made-to-order omelettes never disappoint! and is definitely the only conference where I'm without fail out of bed an hour before committee starts (though I might still be late if I'm savouring my omelette).

   Anyway, I was Finland in Human Rights. Committee was pretty good. A lot of good people but no one really dominating, which made it a healthy competition for everyone else. Actually Indonesia looked like a shoe-in for an award early on but shot himself in the foot by vehemently calling another delegate retarded (in fact, you could say he blew his foot right off).
   Our chairs was pretty decent. They just took a ridiculouly long time to review resolutions and get them back to us, thus causing the entire committee to have nothing to do for about two hours one of the evenings. The "problems" they identified in resolutions and required us to change were frequently rather ridiculous.
   For example, with ten minutes left of committee on that last day they told us we HAD to change "Noting that in addition to being clear and direct, discrimination can be the indirect, unintended consequence of language or other policies," to "Noting that in addition to being clear and direct, discrimination can be the unintended and indirect consequence of language or other policies," so that the two clauses would be parallel. Thats a great thing to worry about if you're writing a poem or some crap, but its not even an actual grammer RULE, its just a concept of literary aesthetics!! And personally, I prefer it the original way since "unintended consequence" is an established phrase (and "clear and direct" sounds better than "direct and clear").

   Most evenings much of NAU (including myself) could be found in the hot tub after committee, and then people would go maraud the strip. Now I actually have a pretty good record of not going to the strip at all for the last several Amwests, but Miss White and an army interrogator managed to get me down there one evening. Also I accompanied a friend from Saddleback to the Hard Rock Cafe Casino which was across the street from our hotel, and literally after being tehre for five minutes and putting $20 in the slot machine, she won $1,140!!! That was pretty awesome. (Knowing she wasn't going to beat THAT we both immediately left the casino)


   Amwest is put on by an organization called PAXMUN. PAXMUN puts on a number of other conferences. The staff for the other conferences largely have a high level of overlap, which I think is extremely healthy in terms of the staff having a sense of community and being very experienced at how things are done in PAXMUN. AMWEST however, has nearly zero overlap with any of the other PAXMUN conference staffs. In particular, a weirdly high proportion of their staff seems to come from Chico. Many regular PAXMUN staffers were already rather suspicious of this prior to this conference's awards.
   Chico State got 12 of 17 research awards (and they added ten more research awards than are normally given out, which my sources tell me was an attempt to hide the fact that Chico got so many awards) and BOTH the "Delegation" Awards (which go to the country that had the best delegates representing it. Effectively and usually seen as a school-wide award, two of Chico's countries were awarded which is totally fubar). After awards everyone was talking about how ridiculous they were, and some people were vowing their school would never return to this joke of a Chico-love-fest.
   The only upshot in that is I'm hoping that this fiasco will cause the Board to mandate that they involve more of the regular PAXMUN staff in the conference.

   Anyway, it was great to see everyone again. Vern, I don't know what I would have done without you. (=
   I won an award for NAU, which I feel justified my existence a little bit. (=

   Driving back I ran into Pasedena City College at a random gas station in the middle of nowhere near Baker ("hey, this is NOT the way to NAU" -Professor Harris "I'm um, lost." -Me), and then again while I was eatign at the Mad Greek Restaurant in Baker they came in. Also communicated with the UCI group a bit about traffic since they were sixty miles ahead of me on the same route (Saddleback presumably was on the same route as well).


Back in the Law Mines
   Wednesday I started my first day at this new law firm. They put me in a huge corner office! ...only because its occupent was gone for the weekend already and they wanted somewhere they could close the door and not disturb people to train me. Anyway, it was a half day because of the impending holiday, and half the office was gone for the weekend already, so it was super chill there, which made it an excellent time to ease into the new job.


   And today is Thanksgiving. I think I'm going to have dinner with Bob from Beebusters, and tomorrow I'll catch up with my family at the cabin in Tweedy. Happy Tryptophane Day everyone.

   As mentioned, the weekend before last I went on an epic expedition down to Las Vegas. This shall be that story, or at least, what I remember of it a week later.

   Kristy Sashie, C-Bunch and I left Davis on Friday morning and drove down the Five to the remote village of Fireball (167 miles, 3 hours).
   Now the town of Fireball, it has two stop-lights, a "Latino Market," a grocery store / police station, lions, and our friend Lyrakeet's house (turn right at the glowing pile of radioactive sand). There we transfered our stuffage into Lyrakeet's car, as it was bigger, & continued on our journey with her.
   From Fireball to Vegas is a distance of appx 436 miles (8.5 hours). We made a pit stop in Bakersfield, which is shockingly ghetto, watched in wonderment as the strange sights of the Mojave Spaceport passed by, and stopped at some gas station town that probably doesn't have a name, but does have a restaurant called The Mad Greek (or something) which is advertised for more than a 100 miles in either direction. There was also a Subway Sandwiches there at which we ate, which had telephones at every table.

   Arriving in Vegas we occupied our hotelrooms and commenced the merrymaking forthwith. We then went out to the strip with the people from the other car and marauded.
   At one point early on, apparently, Brittawater Segerstrom & Julie Parker went to get coffee, saying they'd be right back (as people always do in horror movies). Someone else told them we'd wait for them right there. Then the whole group moved on and left them (I was not aware of this). Later, when we got to the other end of the Strip, Olivia informed Colleen that she "didn't like [her]." The personnel from our car, + Colleen, then headed back towards the hotel.
   Back at the hotel several of us got in the hot tub, despite our lack of towels. C-Bunch & I had to resort to more innovative ways of getting warm afterwords. Eventually Brittawater & Julie returned.

   During the ensuing days we set off for adventure regularly and without such dramatic results. We visited the cultural sites, admired the art, observed the flora & fauna, picked up some souviniers, and found more lions.

   On Monday morning we embarked upon the epic drive back. We stopped to eat at the Mad Greek restaurant -- and the employees there couldn't even pronounce "gyro" correctly!! wtf. Exchanged cars in Fireball, took a detour to Pleasanton to pick up Bailey, & returned to Davis. (Worked the next day, & the day after that school resumed & I flew to Los Angeles for my next adventures)

Picture of the Day

In the spirit of Spring Break