The Agrinautica

   Normally I don't do memes, but well, normally I'm not "tagged" specifically to do them. Even so, I'm not liable to do them, but I think I owed hereticxxii a blogfavour.

   Mercilessly tagged by hereticxxii.

Open the book closest to you, not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment, to page 56.

Write out the fifth sentence, as well as two to five sentences following there.

Then, you get to pass the Bookworm Award on to 5 people of your choice!

Vlahos says, "An ideology that challenges us may not take famliar form, like the old Nazis or Commies. It may not even engage us initially in ways that fit old threat markings." Ven Crevald concludes, "Armed conflict will be waged by men on earth, not robots in space. It will have more in common with the struggles of primitive tribes than with large-scale conventional war." [...]* re-primitized man: warrior societies operating at a time of unprecedented resource scarcity and planetary overcrowding.

* one boring sentence omitted

So there you have it. The challenges of the next century apparently consist of how we're going to launch a raid on the next neighbourhood over. Those bastards have it coming! ;D



And now, I'm NOT going to tag anyone further. I hate memes.

pseudomonas me scripsit anno 2005

   Yesterday we had the long-awaited hearing for Case # 28, to resolve the Unqualified Candidates Scandal. We should have had 6 out of five necessary justices present, but Justice Konz unexpectedly resigned the previous day, and then Justice Johnson didn't show up... I got ahold of him minutes before the Hearing was to start only to be informed that he had neglected to tell me he apparently no longer goes here. We therefore had four justices, whereas five are needed for quorum. This was the subject of yesterday's document, which most of you probably dismissed as TL;DR.
   Basically the solution I opted for is to have Senate evaluate the legitimacy of the hearing and take a vote to settle the matter BEFORE we will release the final opinion (the first draft of which is written and has been approved by three of the four justices). Two noteworthy things about this opinion (subopinion?): (1) I was very pleased to have an opportunity to take a knock at Chief Justice "the Judicial Hammer" Vest's solution; (2) interestingly we are basically giving ourselves a court order in the first of the two orders at the end of the document.
   Today ASUCD Advisor Michael Tucker thanked me for rescuing him from "Hanging Chad" van Shoelace. Then Mark Champagne congratulated me on the handling of the quorum problem.
   Prior to the hearing, we received an amicus brief from a fraternity, among other sources. I was very pleased to find entities other than ASUCD officials taking enough interest to file amicus briefs -- and will attempt to avoid finding out that its probably the fraternity of someoen involved and thus being disillusioned.
   The final opinion is of course set to be announced tomorrow during Senate. Unfortunately I am to have my wisdom teeth out tomorrow morning, so if I make it to senate at all I will likely look like a chipmunk. Vice Chief Coady may have to present our manila envelope of power.


   I was just about to trek down to Newsbeat today since its the nearest source of any beverage worth consuming (namely, Jones' Soda), when what should I see in the MU but a table where some mad scientists were having people taste test different energy drinks and give them feedback. So of course I immediately volunteerinated myself. I wonder if they were weirded out by the fact that I knew what each of the unlabelled cups contained. When they asked what my favourite energy drink was I couldn't remember what "Wired" was called, the pleasant lady mad scientist told me to drop by tomorrow if I remember. I'm thinking of bringing a copy of my own thorough review of energy drinks with me.

   I'd like to add that since then (my initial review) I've tried this "Kabbalah" energy drink which is starting to show up around here, and I give it pretty high marks.


Forgotten Minutia - Things I was going to put in LJ entries awhile ago but forgot
(1) During his farewell speech Senator Eric Fox thanked Sara Henry and I for getting him involved in ASUCD -- coverage of our epic battles in the paper apparently alerted him to ASUCD's need for some Foxiness.
(2) The day after shaving my mohawk, I was saddened to walk past some punks who were loitering in front of a coffee shop in Berkeley without so much as a glance from them -- normally they would have immediately invited me to sit and talk with them. )=
(3) Moreover, while in San Diego for New Years a Navy enlistee mistook me for another Navy enlistee!
(4) Kristy and I saw the movie The Patriot (AKA Braveheart II) when she visited, and man, it was terrible. I love the part where he kills all 22 members of a British platoon one by one (while the rest wait patiently just off screen for their turn) in close combat. Its seriously worse than those Rambo movies people make fun of.
(5) I was very panicked when I learned that for my wisdom tooth removal they would be putting me out via an IV (as I have an incredible fear of needles). Kristy took it upon herself to cure me of this fear through positive reenforcement -- by prodding me in the arm with an addi turbo steel needle and then kissing me. Eventually I'd get her attention, poke myself in the arm with the needle, and look at her expectently.


In Other News
   I just realized that I'd resized all the pictures from The Grad in bicubic mode by accident -- thats why they look kinda shitty. )=
   I went to turn in the Aggie's "Best Of Davis" survey at the MU information desk, and the person working there, having just been alerted to the existence of the survey, responded with "oh, its like Daviswiki." So yeah, now when the Aggie does something particularly clever its lucky to be compared to Daviswiki, the tides have turned!


Article of the Day: Zombies - "There is also the theoretical possibility of an entity that wanders the net but has no blog, which may be called a zombie. Nobody but n00bs actually believe in them. The only evidence is anonymous comments, but it's common knowledge that anonymous comments are made by people (with blogs) too scared to identify themselves, and not some preposterous fantasy creature from n00b folklore."

Picture of the Day

From the trip up from So. Cal.

   We all know that livejournal is positively rife with "memes." I'm not sure any of us know how to pronounce that however. Nor do very many people probably know that the term "meme" was coined in 1976 by professor Richard Dawkins. I certainly didn't know that when I met Professor Dawkins last April. If I'd known that he was the inventor of the meme I'd HELLA have had my picture taken with him. But I didn't know so all I have are some pictures I took OF him (and other people who apparently knew he'd invented the meme!).

   Anyway, a meme is apparently "a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation." And so, using the term a little differently than the usual simple quiz/program that periodically sweeps through the blogosphere, I'd like to use this opportunity to go as far back as this blog is competent to go -- the oldest memory which has been passed down through our protagonist's family.
   Like one's own earliest memory likely is, its not the most important thing that ever happened, but more of a random snippet of an all but forgotten time. The first thing I can remember is a random clip of being in the jungles in Brazil, but this takes place about a century before that. Its not the earliest fact that could be found either -- we have pictures of people and records that predate this; on my mother's side of the family we can trace back past intercontinental covered wagon trips to arrival in the United States in 1627.

   Konigsberg was founded by the Teutonic Knights in 1255. Northeast of Poland, Konigsberg would become more or less synonymous with Prussia and be variously independant or part of a German empire, until the Soviet Union absorbed it after WWII, renamed it Kaliningrad, and closed it off from the world.

   But this snippet of memory comes before the Soviets or any of the saucy developments of the 20th Century. It was the late 1800s I'd imagine, and Konigsberg was a crazy place. Not really but they apparently had this thing with their bridges. You'll see a nice map of old Konigsberg on that page, only the bridges appear irradiated or some crap. I looked all over the internet for a version of that map without the bridges all fucked up like that, but I couldn't find it. But then I got home, and the best version of the map was in our living room. It looks even better when the camera flash isn't glaring off it, but it was in an ill lit location.
   So it was the late 1800s, and my great great great grandmother lived in Konigsberg. Her last name was Von Magnitsky and we don't even know the first. But what we do know is that once she was travelling through the countryside in a sleigh being chased by wolves.
   Thats the memory. Seems rather anticlimatic after writing so much to set it up, but hey its been told to me a million times so it must be good. Anyway, both my parents tell me about it as if its their own memory, and I'll probably do the same to my children and my children's children, only by then she'll be being chased by those rolling destroyer droids from Star Wars or something, and will have just invented the meme.

Previously on Emosnail
   Two Years Ago Thursday: Marination - little brother gets taken away by the marines
   Two Years Ago Yesterday: http://emosnail.livejournal.com/2003/06/24/">GODLITE - God speaks to me through scrabble...
   Two Years Ago Today: Violations - I get the first two parking tickets of my life, within 24 hours of eachother (about 22 hours apart). Also, Suburban Legends beach party
   Year Ago Thursday: 13 of 30 - Go D3!! - Forget this Division I crap, we need to move to Division III Athletics!
   Year Ago Yesterday: 14 of 30 - Underblog Adventures With Allie - Yeah I just talk about hanging out with Allie. We need to do that again.
   Year Ago Today: 15 and 16 of 30 -- Time for 15 in 5!!! - In "Crime & Punishment" I talk shit on Officer Chang some more. And then we interview Kris Fricke.

   Theres a "meme" floating around that tells one what lj "cliques" they're in; basically which groups on their friends list all have eachother listed as friends. The idea is interesting, but its written rather badly in certain ways.
   Most suprisingly, instead of using the familiar [lj user=emosnail] type coding, it uses the much longer route of linking to the images livejournal uses for the same purpose and linking to the info page and livejournal.

   The most critical problem in the function of the meme is that if in a large group of people two happen not to link to eachother as friends, it creates two completely seperate "cliques." For example here is what it tells me:

I am a member of 3 cliques of size 7

• emosnail, basicallyasap, slosha, nessabfly, badbree, ilivewith8boobs, colleeniebeenie


• emosnail, basicallyasap, nessabfly, badbree, ilivewith8boobs, colleeniebeenie, pavelthegeek


• emosnail, citizene, simplistic_me, suziej, jegskaltisse, sandwiches, soccermomxcore

Find the largest clique containing:

(Enter your livejournal username here).

   What this actually means is that I'm part of a group consisting of emosnail, basicallyasap, nessabfly, badbree, ilivewith8boobs, and colleeniebeenie, with pavelthegeek, and slosha as slightly less connected members (they're only not connected to eachother actually)(this is basically the group of people I've met through Kristy). I am also apparently a part of a group of UC Davis hardcore kids consisting of emosnail, citizene, simplistic_me, suziej, jegskaltisse, sandwiches, and soccermomxcore.
   I'd imagine I'm part of other smaller interconnected groups, but the thing only displays these three. If anyone knows of a similar meme that does all this better I'd be interested in hearing about it.


Picture of the Day

View down Preciados towards El Cortijo (my street)
Mission Viejo, CA
© Kris Fricke 2004


Related
   Year Ago Today: Taco Loco, Buchadolores, & Christy

   The following are the twenty livejournal entities which are not on my list but I have the most friends in common with. At 14 friends in common, I think Matty (blueliquid13) beats most of the people that ARE on my list.
   I don't think this trustmetric is nearly as mathmatically crafty as that other trustmetric that went around a few months ago.
   And I believe quite possibly every result listed here is someone from Davis.

• ucdavis (17) (community)


• blueliquid13 (14)


• timxdrama (13)


• shellac (11)


• archradish (11)


• chichicherrie (11)


• jacksonpritt (11)


• hermaphrogreg (10)


• sonofkyuss (10)


• magnumcore (9)


• dancdruff (9)


• royalt (9)


• jackee (8)


• pirate_radio (8)


• kameleen (8)


• davismusicscene (8) (community)


• weenie_wang (8)


• exknowswhy (7)


• 1pointoe (7)


• ggsharpie (7)

   Today was an insurance audit at work.. not to be confused with the lameass state audit last week. I made a really minor rescue while a staged rescue for the audit was going on in the same wavepool.. I didn't think anything of it but later the auditor and Nikki hunted me down and asked me probing questions about it.. I thought I was hella in trouble but then it turned out the auditor was very impressed because it was exactly simultenious with the audit rescue and usually all the guards are totally distracted by the audit rescue I guess.


   Yesterday I had the day off and didna do anything really. Over dinner though we established that when me dad was exactly my age, the summer HE was 21, he was working on a farm in Norway and three months away from meeting me mum. Scary. I wish I were working on a farm in Norway.
   Also they mentioned that my mom's most significant ex-boyfriend is now a doctor and climbed mount everest last may. Crazy.


   Tonight there were hella people at Diedrichs. It was pretty cool, even though we didn't go anywhere else like we usually do. One guy who isn't usually there was like "why are there like 800 people here??" hehe. And Briana and Carissa totally showed up, which was for awesome cause I haven't seen Carissa in more than a year. Too bad they were both like stoned out of their minds. And a certain someone whom I won't name on account of the extreme illegality of their actions had recently knocked off a pharmecy apparently and had every perscription drug anyone could ever want. What a crazy kid.


   What a suprise:

Russia -
Once a worldwide superpower, its days of power are
now gone. Barely able to sustain itself, it
was once feared, lauded and powerful.


Positives:
Powerful History.
Nuclear-Capable (Barely).
Militaristic.

Negatives:
Poor.
Alcoholic.
Stereotyped and Badly Represented.



Which Country of the World are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

   First of all, I discovered Donovan had a livejournal, and updated that compatability quiz and... I fuckin AM Donovan: 110%. Shiit.

   Otherwise.. its finals week. So fortunately that means that a whole lot of nothing noteworthy is going on. So I guess I'll make a sappy goodbye end of the year post like so many other people.
SAPPY GOODBYE END OF THE YEAR POST
   Ummm school sucks. I'm looking forward to summer. And a change of scenery hellyes. And omg having a car again!!
   Aand then there's all my friends I haven't seen in forever. I haven't been back at all this quarter. In fact this whole year I think I was back three times. Psha on that. This summer is going to be hella fun.

   Oh and yea I guess I'll miss some people - certain people - specific people. Shyea.

   And everyone is doing the highlights of the year so I guess I'll take a shot at that as well, I wouldn want to be like... a social outcast or anything.
~running for senate again - good times - as the only independant, the 13th candidate
~a lot of shit I don't remember
~having my pea coat stolen, along with my pocketwatch
~working at the Coffee House
~getting fired from the Coffee House
~working at IHOP
~quitting IHOP
~not getting the internship my heart was set on for this summer
~getting my heart broken repeatedly, probably ::shakes fist at specific girls::
~my party <3!!
~getting jumped and hospitalized
~the end.

You will be sucked dry by a leech. I'd stay away
from swimming holes, and stick to good old
cement. Even if it does hurt like hell when
your toe scrapes the bottom.