aggienaut: (Rogue UN)

   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.

aggienaut: (nuke explosion clango)

   Today I turned in the OPEC topic synopsis I'd been working on. At about five pages, its the longest synopsis I've ever written.

...

   It took them NINE MINUTES from the time I sent them the synopsis to fire me.

...

   Nine minutes! Thats damn fast. But yeah, they called nine minutes later, the topic synopsis apparently wasn't long enough.


   Technically they didn't fire me though. It was more like "it needs to be longer" "well I'm definitely not making it longer" "well, we really need it to be longer" "well then you need to hire someone else." So technically I think I quit while politely telling them to shove it. It felt quite rewarding actually.
   Incidentally, I complained about how silly I think nine page topic synopsii about two weeks ago. The purpose of the papers is so give a brief overview of the topic, not do the delegates research for them. In this case, I could come up with five pages of overview, but if I wrote any more I'd cross the line into doing delegates research for them, and I'm just not going to drink that punch.


   Anyway, here is the offending synopsis, for you to judge yourself. Its still a next-to-final draft -- if they hadn't fired me I'd have inserted more citations (which I don't usually do until the end) and wrapped up the very end of it better, but neither of those things apparently contributed to their displeasure.


   Who needs AMWEST anyway?

AMPAC 2007

Apr. 16th, 2007 02:19 pm
aggienaut: (Rogue UN)

   This weekend we had Picnic Day up at Davis. It is the yearly open-house of the university and is generally a marathon day of revelry for most of the students. Previous to this year I've attended it every year for the past six years.

   However, this weekend also happened to be the weekend of the American-Pacific (AMPAC) Model United Nations conference, of which I was the Secretary-General. As such I unfortunately missed this year's picnic day.


   Anyway, as Secretary-General, I was, along with the Governor-General Sameer Kanal, in charge of running the conference, so it was a different experience than my usual chairing of committees. I definitely preferred chairing committees, and for next year's AMPAC, provided it is not the same day as Picnic Day, I will be back to chairing a committee.

   I had been in charge of putting together this year's staff, so, as I mentioned in an earlier entry, many of my favourite MUN personalities were with us this weekend. Swati "Swat Team" Srivistava and Matt "Papa Smurf" Wilkerson made me proud running Security Council, and I was very glad I took Matt's recommendation on Afshin "Afro-sheen" Haghgoo.
   On the subject of nicknames, we had two female Alex's that needed to be differentiated. Eventually, as they were from Ukraine and Guatamala, respectively, someone decided they should be referred to as "Ukraine-alex" and "Guatamala-alex." This of course quickly becomes Ukrainelex and Guatalex. Guatalex (pronounced Guata-lex) stuck well, but Ukrainelex sounded like a pharmaceutical company. Anyway, Ukrainelex mutated to Ukrinelex and then Ukrinex, and finally settled on Equinox.


How Sameer flustered Guatalex's Boyfriend
   One of the most memorable moments from the conference was a certain prank Gov-Gen Sameer and I played on Guatalex. As usual, when it came down to administer conference evaluations to her committee, Sameer and I took over the dias and Guatalex and her vice chair Julie were sent from the room. It so happened that Alex had had a computer she was keeping track of things on, and had an internet connection, and, it turns out, was signed in to a chat program.
   Shortly after we took over we got a messege from her boyfriend. Sameer and I looked at eachother and quickly knew what we absolutely had to do -- we had a moral obligation to pretend to be her and carry on a conversation with her boyfriend!!! And he certainly wasted no time bringing us hilarious results. The entire conversation went more or less like this:
Him: Hey
Alex(us): hey honey
Him: I'm so horny (!!)
Alex(us): Me too, being in committee all day makes me so flustered!
Him: When I visit you this evening do you think we can get one of the hotel rooms to ourselves for a little bit?
Alex(us): I'll see what I can do ;)
   As you can see, the lulz certainly were forthcoming! Anyway, we left the conversation on the screen when Guatalex resumed control of the committee, in order to alarm her properly. Apparently as soon as she noticed she very abruptly excused herself and hunted down Sameer and punched him several times in the arm. (= Anyway, her boyfriend showed up that evening and I teased her mercilessly. She claims she didn't despoil any of our rooms.



   Other than that, another highlight of the conference for me was guest-speaking. When a committee wants to get the perspective of a country or entity that is not represented in the committee, we either get someone representing said county from another committee to guest speak, or have a staff member to represent said entity.
   Both the Security Council, and our Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)committee had the subject of Somalia, and I have been following events there myself, so I guest spoke in both committees on the subject. In the Security Council I spoke as a representative of Ethiopia, regarding our continued support of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and military action against the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). About an hour later I spoke to the OIC as a representative of the ICU, regarding our resistance to the Ethiopian invaders and the puppet TFG government. It was quite fun and I got a very extensive amount of positive feedback from the committee about how much they appreciated my doing that.


Crisis!
   Friday night we had a middle-of-the-night Security Council crisis. For this our staff had to batten down and start preparing at 11pm, by 1:30am we were marauding the halls pounding on delegates doors, and shortly thereafter we got it going. A few delegates snuck off but most were there until it ended with a return to the status quo at around 5am I believe.
   As to the crisis itself, basically Israeli special forces conducted an operation in Iran and discovered evidence of an advanced nuclear weapons programme. However some of the force was discovered. So from the delegates perspective it started with Iran parading captured Mossad agents and protesting the incident, however this was quickly followed by news of Israeli airstrikes against the discovered weapons sites. There was then military build-ups on both sides and I believe nothing but negotiations for the next several hours. I don't know, I left at 3am.
   I know night SC crises are common, but I personally completely fail to see what is so exciting about being awake all night and doing committee while everyone else is either having fun or catching up on sleep. Maybe I'm just a scrooge. Anyway it left me running the conference the next morning with half my staff (and the Governor-General) still asleep until noon.


Picture of the Day


I just think this is an awesome picture. Thats the OIC Director and Chair in the background, with Somalia (TFG) front left

aggienaut: (gavel)

   Justice may be sweet, but the "scrambled eggs" at Orange County's Central Justice Centre taste absolutely terrible.


   The weekend before last was St Patricks Day. I hate St Patricks Day. Its a day the Irish are stereotyped in the most outlandish fashions, and people can frequently be foundn attempting terrible terrible Irish accents that grate upon my ears.
   Anynway, I was in San Diego with Kristy & co. We went to a bar called O'Hungrys that sells beer by the yard (50oz!) and half yard (25oz). There we were amazed to see an individual chug an entire half yard in one go.
   Shortly, the individual who did this looked over at us and exclaimed "Kris!!?"
   Turns out it was my RA* from freshman year!

   *I don't know how standard the terminology is but RA = Resident Advisors; the people who enfore the zero tolerance on drinking in the dorms policy.


   This past weekend I was down in San Diego again, this time for the PAXMUN San Diego High Schools Conference (SDHSMUNC). There I was chair of the League of Arab States, and when not in committee got to hang out with such illustrious individuals as Matt "Papa Smurf" Wilkerson, "Marky Mark" Edwards, Swati Srivistava, and the legendary Vern Gill. All of these people will also be at my own conference in mid-April, but Marky Mark only because there's a meeting of all the Governor-Generals (too crafty for me to trick him into staffing!).
   Additionally there were of course other staff that I approve of, but I can't roll-call everyone. I thought I'd note however that Nicholas "Luxurious Hair" Anduze, who was Iraq in my AMPAC committee last year was on staff (he's also famous for being on MTV's "Date My Mom")
   Anyway my committee had only 11 people in it, which kind of sucked, but it kept moving. Eventually, trade negotiations with Iran broke down and many members of the Arab League were incensed by the arrogant attitude the Iranian diplomat displayed to them (represented by Swati), so the Arab League declared war on Iran en bloc. But then Swati came in and gave them a thorough lecture on why they shouldn't do that (one delegate later recalled "we got served!") ... which in my opinion rather spoiled the fun. Another amusing quote towards the end of committee was "All we've done here is reject pleas of help from our brethren!"

   Anyway I feel like there was probably more I wanted to report but I don't recall it at the moment. Next up, AMPAC, April 12th-15th!! (Picnic day, unfortunately )= )

aggienaut: (trogdor)

   Last Week Monday I was at G Street Pub, and I ran into my former roommate Adrian.
   Later on I'd walked halfway back to my car (which was parked a few blocks away in front of the Foyerhouse) When Allan called me to report that he'd found Adrian looking none too lively on a parkbench. I hastily returned to G Street to retrieve him. As I walked back with him to the Foyerhouse again and we were passing Aggie Liquor, we saw Taylor & Matty (who had been lollygagging in front of G St when we left there) pull up and run in for more alcohol. Silly. Anyway, I reinstalled Adrian on the couch he always used to pass out on in our apartment.


   Last Wednesday I dropped my car off at the mechanic and then stopped by the police station to see what the status of the case was. The bad news is that they couldn't tell me anything because the DA is still deciding what to do with it, but the good news is the DA apparently is thinking about doing something about it. Also, the officer at the front desk came out from behind the bullet-proof glass to talk to me, which I thought was a nice touch.


   Last Thursday evening my internet was down and my car was at the mechanics, and my internet was down so I walked from campus to this party at I & 5th.
   As I was walking past Bistro 33 with a 40 of Steel Reserve (high gravity lager!) in a brown paper bag, I noticed that on of the two well-dressed gentlemen waiting in front of Bistro had handcuffs on his belt. Then I noticed the other had a police badge on his. Then that guy asked me how I was doing. wtf, DPD detectives?
   Anyway, since I had to be back in that quadrant in the morning to pick up my car anyway, and it would otherwise involve walking across town to get home, and then back again in the morning, the residents of the Foyerhouse were kind enough to let me slumber there (Thanks again guys, Team S unite! =D )


My little brother makes an appearance   Friday morning I drove down to So Cal without incident. Except I hit LA around rush hour so a normally 7-8 hour trip took 10 hours. Stopped by the hotel in Anaheim where the conference would be and then continued to Mission Viejo. Kristy had come up from San Diego right after work and was already chillaxing with my family when I got there. We went to local / most awesome ever Italian restaurant Salvatore's.

   Saturday I had to scamper asap back to Anaheim since the conference began at 8am. I chaired the International Law Commission again, this time discussing Reservations to Multinational Treaties. About 31 delegates in the committee, and they were suprisingly good especially considering it was the first time for most of them. I really wish the UC Davis team would return to CalMUN Anaheim, its a great way to start the year.
   My friend Nidia came by to help out on staff but we ended up not needing her. That evening more staff than usual had scampered off whence they came so the usual festivities were rather lacking. In particular, Saturday night activities just can't be the same without technical services director Vern.
   On the subject of Vern in particular, I thought it was pretty funny that when we were reading the conference evaluations afterwords, generally negative feedback was only met with laughter. "DPI [Dept of Public Information - Vern] wasn't very courtious" "everything was good but DPI could me more accomodating" "DPI was a jerk!" etc, we all look for the best ones to read aloud for our amusement.
   So the usual antics being somewhat lacking, I scampered off to Nidia's, which it turns out was within walking distance. There an impromptu party was quickly developing. Among others who showed up, I was particularly suprised to see some of Aaron's friends (since Aaron knows Nidia through me, a chain of acquantances is developing here).
   Anyway, it was irking me that Kristy was only about an hour away, and I missed her, so eventually I scampered off down to San Diego.

   On Sunday then, my drive back to Davis was even longer because I was coming from San Diego.

aggienaut: (Default)

   So The Aggie told me that they were just waiting for me to explain the case at Senate before they covered it. I explained the case at Senate last Thursday. Today the Aggie article on that Senate meeting ran (which I can't link to at the moment because the Aggie webpage won't load). The article talks at length about recent unusual expenditures of $1,500+ for speakers and seperate graduation ceremonies for various ethnic groups, but only at the very end mentions "also they discussed the constitutional amendment and some resolutions." Clumping the resolutions together as "some resolutions" may be forgivable, but I would think a constitutional amendment is worth at least reporting the general subject.
   And of course, there was no mention at all of the Court case. I'm not sure this Court case has gotten a single mention in the Aggie ever. Justice dies in silence. Darth Lloyd surely loves the Aggie.


   Man I hate Mondays, I'm on campus from 8am to 11pm, with two two hour breaks.


   I'm trying desperately to figure out how to play movies on my computer so I can review them at ease while writing my papers for The Dark Ages in Film class (HIS121A). I've tried downloading several different things on various people's suggestion but no luck. Any recommendations?

Picture of the Day


Kristy chillaxes with Daisy, my grandparents-in-law (aunt's parents)'s dog



   My birthday is coming up on the 14th of May. I hadn't really even been thinking about it at all until Kristy reminded me today.


The PAXMUN Gossip Column
   At the AMPAC conference, there was a delegate who arrived while the rest of her school bailed, thus leaving her without a place to stay. Her name was Alezandra, and some of the staff took her in. This led to others among the staff to claim this was a violation of the "no fraternization rule." Others pointed out that the only thing the No Fraternization rule actually said was "keep the snake in the cage" (literally, thats how it reads). The anti-Alezandra faction went so far as to put a note up on the door to our HQ room in the executive suite that read "if you weren't on staff at the beginning of this conference stay the fuck out!!" Harsh. I was further irritated by the hypocracy inherent in the fact that another "staffer" was a "mole" -- but really he was just a delegate in a committee, termed a "mole" to bolster the claim he was on staff and could hang out with us. As a "mole" he never gave us any inside information on what the delegates were up to, and furthermore the "mole" position is not even hinted at in the rules, so I don't see how it can be an exception to the "no fraternization" rule (not that anyone was trying to snake him).
   Anyway then Mark Edwards, Secretary-General of the PAXMUN series of smaller conferences called CalMUN, and of our San Diego HS conference, showed up. He proceeded to act very interested in hanging out with Alezandra, further alarming the antifraternizationalists. Alezandra was taken on as actual staff under Mark for the SDHS conference though.
   I bring this all up now by way of prologue, to introduce the fact that Mark & Alezandra continued to "fraternize" at SDHSMUN, where it was all on the up and up since they were both staff. They have now been dating for two weeks.

AMPAC 2006

Apr. 8th, 2006 07:24 pm
aggienaut: (star destroyer)

AMPAC 2006 (finally)
   Returning from Vegas about a week and a half ago, I worked for a day, then there was the first day of school, and then I flew down to LA for the AMPAC 2006 Model UN conference.
   So much spam had built up in my email inbox that I didn't notice I had emails notifying me two classes were cancelled that Wednesday (since the second day of class for most people wasn't for four more days so not even half the teachers could be bothered to be present for Wednesday), so I waisted at least three hours altogether waiting around for classes that weren't going to happen.
   Kristy & I had dinner at Fuzios (see picture below).

   Took a 9:30pm flight on Southwest from Sacramento airport, arriving in LAX at around 10:30. There I met up with my co-chair Mara Stringfield, & Security Council chair Sameer Kanal & we proceeded to the Biltmore Hotel. There we caught up with the rest of the staff where they were playing poker in the massive executive suite on the 11th floor. Mara & I were persuaded to join the poker game, & though Mara claimed she'd never played before and had no idea what she was doing, she totally fleeced the lot of us.

ExpandThursday: Secret Passages, the 13th Floor, & Helipads )


ExpandFriday: All Night Security Council Session Leaves Chair W/ Hickey )
ExpandSat/Sunday: Building Forts & Storming Staff )

Picture of the Day

Kristy is excited to receive her Fuziotini at Fuzios


Previously on Emosnail
   A Week & Three Years Ago Yesterday:
Back in Davis - Returned from Spring Break. Disappointed to find The Dominion of Blehtahepdakorum no longer classified as a "psychotic dictatorship," rather its rated "Iron Fist Consumerist"
   A Week & Three Years Ago Today: First Day of Spring Qtr 2003 - Taking RUS3, COM6 (Myths & Legends), ENL5F (writing fiction, waitlisted) & HIS131C (Ancien Regime). I'd end up dropping the History class, but getting into the English class (and many lulz would ensue from people's crappy ass writing). I think I added another class later to replace the HIS... Mum is visiting, showed her around campus ... Blehahepdakorum now a "Corporate Police State."
   Three Years Ago Last Sunday: I Get A Girlfriend - Not really, that announcement was actually an April Fools joke, because the thought of me ever having a girlfriend was widely seen as pretty preposterous. This year April Fools Day came and went and I didn't notice -- I wish I had, I'd have totally fucked with my committee. Back in Davis this April (2006) Daviswiki apparently instituted a hilarious prank, becoming MyDaviswikiSpace. For serious luls scroll down to the conversation just below the pictures of cars and see how butthurt MatthewKeys got over the issue.
   Three Years Ago Last Monday: AFI Show - I get paid $20/hr to see AFI. Place was swarming with posers. Vanessa Kritlow & Sachi make a documentary outside called "Poser Disposer." I think I eventually saw it and it was pretty funny. Also Davis police storm the campus dorms in "groups of ten" to apprehend a freshman accused of counterfitting IDs ... Blehtahepdakorum once again "Iron Fist Consumerist"
   Three Years Ago Last Tuesday: You Can Never Have Too Much Rain - More on Blehtahepdakorum. Eric Talevich of local band The List creates a nation "modeled as much after our garage as possible" "Beef-Based Agriculture is big there, too."
   Three Years Ago Last Wednesday: Bowling For Michael Moore - There once was a time when most people didn't realize that Michael Moore is a less scrupulous propagandist than Joseph Goebbels. I stumbled upon this article which very effectively exposed Bowling For Columbine for the insult to truth that it is, at first some stuck to their guns and rallied to Moore's defence, but I think three years later its pretty much accepted that the words "truth," "honesty," or "documentary" should probably not be said in the same sentence as his name. ...but he's filthy rich now so he could care less.
   Three Years Ago Last Thursday: Show at the Loyola House III - Ate at Fuzios. The List & other bands play at the Loyola House.
   Three Years Ago Yesterday: Rush Spermcat!! - Amended some commercial flyers which had been (illegally) posted on campus bulletin boards to start the "Rush Spermcat" campaign. I think later I get my hands on some pictures of them. ...Blehtahepdakorum now a "Moralistic Democracy?!"

aggienaut: (asucd)

   This weekend my friend Mara & I discovered a series of secret passageways, which led us to a helipad on the 13th floor of a building in downtown Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter, however, we were cornered by secret service.

   the AMPAC 2006 Model UN conference was held in the historic hoity toity Biltmore Hotel, where simulteniously a conference on "The War on Gangs" was taking place. In fact, this was taking place in the room immediately next to one in which Mara & I were presiding over the Economic Committee for Western Asia, & was attended by the mayor of LA, & the California Attorney-General. Consequently, the hotel was swarming with guys that looked exactly like the president's secret service: big guys in suits with earpeices. I'm not sure if they were the Mayor's or the A-G's. Having almost joined the Secretary of State's secret service, I knew that such agents can be differentiated from private security by little pins on their left lapels, so I checked & sure enough these agents had them, but I couldn't make out the emblem on the little pins.
   There was also a Governor's Ball one of the nights, and there are some reports that Laura Bush was sighted (amid more swarms of actual secret service).


   I have been appointed the Secretary-General for AMPAC 2007. I'd sworn I'd never do MUN secretariat again after being a Davis MUN Under-SecGen in 2003, but this position will encompass most of the areas of experience that I think the diplomatic security division was concerned I lacked, so I think it may be an invaluable addition to my resume.


   Once again this is only a cursory update in lieu of a lack of the time necessary to effectively report recent shenaniganry. I have yet to process most of my pictures from Vegas, or write an entry about those adventures, and there's more to say about this weekend.

Picture of the Day


"cats go here"
from the belated St Patrick's Day Party I missed this weekend

aggienaut: (star destroyer)

Executive Summary
   This weekend I travelled down to Los Angeles to attend the UCLA Model UN Conference. There I represented the Minister of Justice for the People's Republic of China (PRC)-- making it my personal mission to ensure that as conference staff served up imaginary political developments Chinese policy didn't include the misconception that their people had any civil rights.
   As the conference progressed Thursday evening and all day Friday, I became increasingly alarmed at the shoddy quality of the conference. On Saturday morning I defected to the CalMUN Long Beach Conference that was to occur that day in Long Beach, some twenty miles south. There I was the Chairman of the UN Commission on Human Rights.
   After that concluded, I had dinner with my parents, and then returned to the UCLA conference. On Sunday we returned to Davis.


ExpandPart I: UCLAMUNC 2006 )


ExpandPart II: CalMUN Longbeach 2006 )
ExpandPart III: Return to UCLAMUN )


Previously on Emosnail
   Three Years Ago Yesterday:
UCBMUNC 2003 - I miss the first day because I have to work at IHOP. The next morning I was going to catch an 8am bus but I woke up flat on my back on my floor at 10am, so I couldn't catch a bus until a few hours later. ...also this girl Kristy Heidenberger from my CRD class informs me she's decided we're going to be friends (see last line of entry). I think thats the first reference to her in this livejournal.
   Two Years Ago Tomorrow: UCBMUNC 2004 - Origami landmines, what more can I say.
   Year Ago Today: UCBMUNC 2005 - "Djibouti considers Djibouti to encompass the airspace above it as well, and Djibouti does not appreciate things being inserted into Djibouti..."

aggienaut: (Default)

   Sally and I had just gotten in line to board our flight out of Vegas when the stewardess at the gate kiosk beckoned me over. "Are you on this flight too?" she asked me. She knew Sally was on it because she'd just bumped her in from standby. Anyway I say "yes," and joke with Sally that the stewardess is adding more frownie faces to our permanent records (since we keep being late for flight and things we'd joked already that they must have records on both of us with a bunch of frowning faces on them). Stewardess asks us for our boarding passes, does some typing, and then rips up our boarding passes right in front of us.
   At this point I was sure United hated us. Probably had a permanent record that our names brought up with explicit instructions to be mean to us, including a diagram.
   Stewardess then printed out two new boarding passes for us, and this time we actually had seats that were next to eachother (on the way in we had just inhabited two empty seats that were next to eachother, presumably earning more frownie faces from the airline).


   Anyway, I was in Vegas from Friday until Tuesday afternoon. In the mean time I tried to survive the combination of (1) the actual conference which usually keeps me thoroughly busy without the other factors; (2) having several papers due on Monday and Tuesday. Though the conference is always on school days Monday and Tuesday, for some reason this is the first year I've had anything due. I found time to write them and emailed them to Kristy and she turned them into me, because she's my favourite superhero; (3) I had to fill out some paperwork for the Department of Diplomatic Security and get it faxed to them; (4) Happy-hour: free drinks from 5:30-7:30 -- it would be criminal to abstain from that!
   The first two nights I was in bed by 10pm for the well being of my health, probably setting an AMWEST record for earliest anyone other than Catherine Myung has EVER gone to bed. The last two nights I was working on papers and got probably two hours of sleep between them. Thus I went like three days with negligible amounts of sleep. I don't know how I survived, except perhaps for the official horde of red bull in one of the staff hotel rooms.
   I once went on an epic quest to get to that red bull cache. It involved kidnapping the AU chair and trying both of her keys in the door, neither of which worked, eventually finding the Governor- and Secretary-Generals, SG left and GG right) and dragging them up there. The Gov-Gen tried two keys neither of which worked, but finally the Sec-Gen's key worked and I was able to acquire sweet sweet red bull.


   We had this one delegate (Uganda) that was psychotic. Like, literally. He always had this cold expressionless expression that just looked like he had no soul. His speeches hinted at intelligence behind bad delivery (delivered like one giant run-on sentence), but he would straight up tell other delegates they were stupid (never when I was in earshot though). I took him outside to talk to him and he said "well some of these people really need to be told how dumb they're being." Me: "well the art of diplomacy is telling someone they're a blistering idiot in such a manner that they think its a compliment." Him: "well thats not how we do it in Forensics (debate club)" "well thats how we do it in MUN." "I think I'll stick to Forensics." Like, most any other delegate would at least be a little humble and have some respect if their chairperson is yelling at them. This guy, not a bit.
   He claimed that Ugandan policy placed no value on human rights and that Uganda had no interest in fighting terrorism. I finally went and looked up Ugandan policy and the first two sentence were basically that "Ugandan president Museveni has won international praise for substantially improving human rights, but constant conflict on the borders continue to threaten the nation," ie the delegate was probably representing almost exactly the opposite of Ugandan policy. In terms of supporting terrorism and having a cold outlook on human rights I think he was getting Uganda confused with its northern neighbour Sudan. Eventually he'd get kicked out of my committee for informing another delegate he was a "fucking idiot," which is what we call a diplomatic faux pas. Certainly doesn't make me want to go sign up for debate club.


Quote of the Day
"'Sally' apparently means 'a witty or sarcastic remark,' could my parents have come up with a more appropriate name for me??" -Sally Lorenz, a very saucy girl.
"My name is just a reference to some obscure-ass religion about some guy who accidently gets himself stapled to a post or something" -me.


Picture of the Day


Rivers run red when I visit San Francisco
I feel like I should post a picture from the actual conference, but this one is too awesome to pass up.
Taken from the airplane on approach to the SF airport.


More Pictures: on flickr - including more of SF from the air.


Previously on Emosnail
   Two Years Ago Monday:
This Livejournal Discussed by the ASUCD Senate - So my second removal hearing came and went. I am suprised to learn the case against me is entirely based on this livejournal. I think President Henry called the hearing the moment she discovered I had a livejournal, because despite the the immense number of anecdotal references to ASUCD here, she could not find a single one in which I expressed bias or partiality about a member or aspect of ASUCD. This is because I am and have always been aware of the contraints of my position as Chief Justice, and furthermore I don't think I'd write in a biased manner even if I weren't in my position, because I like to adhere to a higher standard of journalism here. One of my favourite parts of the second removal hearing was where I said "First of all, like the first removal hearing against me, there were once again procedural errors in bringing this up against me. Last time I waived my objection to the erronious process that the codes say would make this invalid. At that time I informed you of the correct manner to bring about a removal hearing, I am sorry but I cannot waive your errors again." Now that is quality patronization. I would go on to outlast those senators, and their successors, and their successors successors.

aggienaut: (trogdor)

   So I'm in Vegas now. It took nine hours by plane to get here, somehow.

   I was supposed to catch an airplane out of Sacremento at 7:36am. Unfortunately I arrived there around 7:00 which was too late to catch that plane. They put me on a 10:02 flight to San Fransisco instead. I arrived there in time to catch the 11:15 flight I was originally supposed to catch from there, but for some reason when they rescheduled me from Sac they bounced me out of it. Who else do I find waiting for the plane but my friend Sally Lorenz. She was on standby there (presumably to take MY vacated seat!), because she had missed HER scheduled flight earlier that morning as well (she blames too much drinking the night before). We ended up on the same 12:45 flight to Vegas.
   Arriving there around 2:30, I think it took us like an hour to figure out where to go from there and and like an hour to actually get tehre since we were the last stop the shuttle bus made (turns out the driver didn't know where the Embassy Suites were), so we finally got to the hotel at 4:30.


   Sally brought up a good question about airline security: what do they do with all the confiscated materials?! They confiscated two lighters from her when she boarded her plane. They must have a massive horde of lighters and other "contriband."


   The State Department wants me to fax them a confirmation form this weekend for the diplomatic security job interview. The only other time I've ever had to fax something was to the State Department when I applied for a foreign service internship a few years ago. I think the State Department are the only people who fax things anymore. I bet thats why the rest of the world doesn't like us anymore. Like, Jacques Chirac was probably saying to his minister of state "you know, I was thinking about supporting that US invastion of Iraq thing," when a french state department intern came running in saying "Condoleeze's on the phone, she wants us to fax them some TPS reports." Chirac: "That does it, they can take their Operation Iraq Americanism and suck it!"


   When I ran into the PAXMUN tech staff yesterday, they informed me that my livejournal was the first blog to link to the PAXMUN webpage. I always forget that sites can tell who's linking to them. Thats kinda weird and creepy. Anyway, the PAXMUN technical team also informed me that "Kristy is very cute."
   Also, I was worried that they might have a problem with my mohawk since AMWEST takes itself very seriously. Apparently they've gotten used to it though; the most frequent comment I've gotten from high level staff here is "I miss the green." and "Why isn't it green."
   And I won eight dollars this morning when we all placed wagers on how many delegates would attend the optional session where we went over rules. My bet of "7" beat out competing bets 2, 5, 12 and 15.

Picture of the Day


Real men sleep in pink beds with kittens.



Previously on Emosnail
   Two Years Ago Today:
Removal II - The Sequal - And highlights of the first removal hearing (vis-a-vis the transcripts I wasn't supposed to be given), such as "[Fricke] seems to be not the best communicator..."
   Year Ago Yesterday: Crossing the Rubicon - I lead the call to end the rampant corruption of the previous Elections Committee, with a guest opinion in the Aggie. It would be followed by an Aggie article on the subject the following day and eventually the Elections Committee would be completely shamed and replaced by Orwellians.
      Also Iacta Alea Est - The War on Wrong Begins! - Simulteniously the critically acclaimed War on Wrong begins with opposition to the chronic malfeasance of the Myung administration of MUN at UCD.
   Year Ago Today: Legio XIII is on the March - I leave for AMWEST 2004. Also quotes from a conversation with famous Slovak radio host Branislav "Bruno" Ciberij of Funradio.


Recommended Reading: Eric Installs FREIGHT TRAIN HORNS on His Truck - (OMGWTF) - and makes an lj entry about it.

aggienaut: (Default)

   This weekend I chaired the International Law Commission (ILC) at the CalMUN Anaheim model united nations conference. This involved spending about 16 hours driving altogether and $156.97 being spent on diesel gas.
   Arriving at the hotel I found that my friend Sally not only was also on staff, she was the director of my committee. It was fun working together and she decided she wanted to chair with me on ILC at the AmWest conference in Vegas. The director is theoretically the higher ranking chair person, so I was under her at this conference but she'll be under me at AmWest.
   Considering all the potential staffers and positions, its really a pretty crazy coincidence that we ended up chairing together this weekend. When I met Sally we were both delegates at this same conference in 2002. We talked and it turned out she was planning on going to the same show/party that evening (Bullets N Octane CD release party). Also she went to the JC where all my friends from HS went (Saddleback College). Then, the next quarter, I met this girl Mara at the UC Berkeley conference, whose best friend happened to be Sally. And I think there was another coincidence in there too, the point is there are a lot of them.
   Friday night was just staff preparation stuff, the conference began on Saterday morning. Friday evening in the hotel lobby some random girl and guy said they liked my mohawk. Then the next day we ran into eachother at the conference, which was funny because we both assumed the other(s) weren't in MUN for some reason. Then after the conference ended that evening I was changing up in the presidential suite and I walk out into the main room of the suite to find these same people (the girl, Janae, guy Nathanial, and their friend Jeff) standing in the room (wtf?). Apparently, PAXMUN (organization that puts on CalMUN & AmWest, among many other conferences) CEO Stephen Lunich randomly found them and invited them up to partake of the wine and cheese we had left over from the advisor meeting. Then I went with the other staff members for dinner, leaving the other people with Lunich. I thought that was the last I'd see them.
   About five hours later (circa 1am) I was in the process of evacuating things out of the presidential suite* with other staff when we see Janee and Jeff coming down the hall. Apparently they'd gone to dinner with Lunich and he'd bought two bottles of wine and in the aftermath they'd lost Nathaniel. Shortly they continued their search for Nathaniel.
   About half an hour later Nathaniel came down the hallway. I figured for sure it was the last I'd see any of them. Nathanial prophesized we'd see eachother again somehow.
   Sunday morning I want out to breakfast with my parents since I was in the area. They transferred to me my computer mouse and camera recharger (the lack thereof explains why there are no pictures documenting these adventures), among other things. I gave them two bottles of the awesome wine Coleman made. Then as I was driving out of the hotel parking lot who do I run into again but Janee, Nathaniel, and Jeff. Keep in mind I hadn't seen any other delegates since the conference ended (they all fled immediately). Crazy sauce.

   Anyway, I'm glad I had a chance to run through ILC before AmWest and see how I'm going to have to steer them at AmWest to keep them on track. ILC basically writes international law (well proposals for the same, its not Law just because they write it) in areas currently lacking in international law, such as unlawful combatants. At this conference people really seemed to be off track, proposing to create committees to handle things and other such silliness which is not what ILC does.


Picture of the Day


Here are the two Swedes that visited, Tony (L) & Tobias (R).
They are on the Memorial Union patio on campus



Unrelated: I really want to utilize entry tagging on livejournal, but its only available on the S2 style scheme. I think my current style is ideal however (winner of a golden snailie in fact!). They say S2 is more customizable, so theoretically it could be made to look just like this S1 format? Someone who is full of computering wisdom should write me up the coding to make S2 look just like this. I will award them with... the medal of the Sacred and Frasky Order of the Golden Snail (with majesty!).


Previously on Emosnail
   Two Years Ago on Last Monday:
Scheduling Woes - The usual struggle to get a class schedule that makes sense. Also my computer is broken as usual. Also some funny quotes.
   Two Years Ago Last Thursday: Sashiepalooza 2003 - another awesome party hosted by Sashie. My friend Kristy is out of town. )=
   Two Years Ago Friday: OMGWTF Tiger Army! - I find out Tiger Army, Necromantix, and Rancid are coming to town soon. This being only the first of a number of amazing shows that year (Shins, Pixies, etc), Entertainment Council is clearly an excellent institution that should be supported...
   Two Years Ago Saturday: Case # 21 - Vicki Swett's teaches her pet, Paloma Perez, some tricks. Aww how cute.

aggienaut: (phone)

Year Ago - This Livejournal Discussed by ASUCD Senate!!
   A year ago last Saturday this very livejournal was discussed by the ASUCD Senate in my second impeachment hearing in as many weeks. The next day I made a groundbreaking livejournal entry intended for the officers of ASUCD.
   Some highlights from that entry:
      "...in testimony against me it was said that I "run a website...," implying I operate some unique news source named incriminatingthings.com or something. I think by any legitimate definition of "run," I do not "run" livejournal.com nor this particular journal. This is one of millions of journals on livejournal.com, one of 1,464,791 in fact."
      "And finally, you recall hearing read a comment by one "shid" who said "I suggest death." He has an official response for you: "Miss Henry, that quote refers to [my] inability to get laid, and has nothing to do with court proceedings. If any cute girls want to visit [me] at LMU in Los Angeles, see [Kris] after this trial." I must say, I never thought Sean's sex life would be discussed in ASUCD Senate.
   Other livejournalists also were pulled into the situation, with livejournal's [livejournal.com profile] pavelthegeek quoted during the senate meeting as calling then ASUCD president Sara Henry "probably a bitch." In what may have been my first interaction with current roommate [livejournal.com profile] wdsguy, he commented to a relevant entry stating that Sara Henry was a "hottie."

   As Sara Henry has long since ceased to be an officer of ASUCD (I swore in her successor just as I did her, and very likely I'll swear in her successor's successor...), I can now safely speculate on her and other relevant former officials.
   I don't think Miss Henry was evil per se, I honestly believe she just couldn't handle the concept of separation of powers and that she was not my boss.
   Also I'd like to mention Senator Gina Lee (whom [livejournal.com profile] wdsguy still fondly remembers as being in his opinion "extremely hot" btw). If it weren't for her absense at the first hearing I would have been removed. I'm still not sure whether she intentionally left before my hearing or it was an "unfortunate" coincidence for them. She'd always struck me as a particularly independant senator for a member of one of the parties. Anyway I think they got her to completely obey the party lines by the second hearing, but by then the majority of the party thought it was a pile of crap and voted against my removal.


AMWEST Las Vegas
   From Friday morning to Tuesday evening I was engaged in the Model UN adventure known as AMWEST. Well, about 20 hours of that was in driving there and back.
   The Honourable Under-Secretary-General/Director Mr. Nishan Bhaumik and I were originally going to set out at 8am on Friday, but we ended up leaving just after noon. About twenty minutes later we were being pulled over in Elk Grove.
   But Nishan used his special Nishan skills and the officer left, feeling satisfied. I thereupon took control of the vehicle. Three hours later Nishan was feeling zesty again so he took over once more, but two hours went by and he started seeing things so I was back at the wheel until just before we arrived at Vegas sometime after 9pm.
   So I was in Vegas then. First off let me say I hate vegas. Now gambling, I think gambling should be maintained legally, at least in certain places, as it is a great way to tax the foolish. Needless to say, I like to retain my money and not subject it to aleatory risks.
   And on the money note, Davis MUN recommended to their delegates to expect to spend a ridiculous amount of money, totalling $180 for the weekend (just for food, shopping, alcohol). I myself think I spent maybe $20 TOTAL this weekend on food.
   Anyway, from the start I vowed not to leave the hotel except for food. And I'm proud to report that I was successful in that.

   And best of all was the free breakfast every morning - omelettes, eggs, etc, made to order! Only at AMWEST of all MUN conferences to I spring out of bed eagerly in the morning with ample time for foraging.
   Also the hotel had "happy hour" with free drinks from 5:30 to 7:30 every day. Dinner break started at 5:30 every day. And people wondered why there was a problem with intoxicated delegates every evening.

Quotes
   Chairman Fricke: "The dias would like to announce that any delegates who are intoxicated to the point that they cannot maintain decorum will be kicked out and will bring shame upon their descendants for generations to come"
   Delegate of Equitorial-Guinnea: "Point of information - how many generations?"
   Chairman Fricke: "Six"

   Chairperson Janet Rossi: "if you kiss a banana slug it starts secreting stuff"
   Governor-General Josh Collins: "You kissed a banana slug?"
   Chairperson Rossi: "hey it was in sixth grade!"
   Chairman Fricke: "was it your first kiss?"

   Unknown Chairperson: "I'm not on a power trip!"
   Unknown Director (from same committee as above): "You've got the gavel in your pocket!" (at Baja Fresh)
   USG/Director Bhaumik: "or IS that a gavel in his pocket?"

   Delegate: "Zambia withdrawls the motion"
   Chairman Fricke: "The dias extends its condolences"

   And best of all, I'm in the little store in the hotel, purchasing a red bull, when a delegate comes in and asks the cashier under his breath "do you sell condoms?" (they don't). Maybe I'm judgemental but he didn't look like the kind of individual who normally would expect a lot of action so it was even funnier. I guess committee was going well for him.

   Also, Canada and Burma were on our roll call sheet even though we were the African Union.

   Nishan and I chaired African Union, with around 35 delegates in it. Conference evaluations in the end indicated that we were "two of the most wonderful people on the planet" and also "sexy beasts."
   I got a ride home on Tuesday from Secretary-General Josha Crabtree. At one point earlier in the weekend it appeared all passes into northern california may be snowed in, and I might for the first time in my life miss classes on account of being snowed in, but by the time Tuesday came about I was fortunate enough to get home without incident.
   The End.


Related
   AMWEST 2003

SDHSMUNC

Apr. 26th, 2004 11:58 am
aggienaut: (asucd)

   I'm back from my weekend in San Diego at the PAXMUN SDHSMUN Conference.
   Though originally I was to be a co-director of OAS with [livejournal.com profile] blueashes, as more than half the original staff didn't show up, at least one committee was eliminated, the remaining ones had one chairperson each, and I was the director (President actually) of Security Council.
   But first I had to get there...


ExpandGetting Shafted by Airport Security )




   The following I wrote during the conference itself:
ExpandReports From the Field )


   Had a delicious lunch with the parentals at a mexican restaurant in old town San Diego, and then I headed back up to Davis. The end.


Related
   Airplanes & Racists: A previous adventure w/ the Sacremento Airport security checkpoint.
   Year Ago Last Wednesday: Two Stories
      ENL5F-071: Monologue of a Liar
     ENL5F-082: The Legend of Boot -- Actually its only the begining of the story that are linked to that lj entry. On any account, I demand that everyone immediately read the full version.
   Year Ago Thursday: Hotel Kris
   Year Ago Friday: My Day as a Poem
   Year Ago Saturday: God Damn Half Japanese Girls
   Year Ago Sunday: Chauffering Kristy, & the Brown Act
   Year Ago Today: Ramen Trove II

aggienaut: (Default)

Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?
   So I was planning on going to the AMPAC MUN conference Thursday through Saturday or Sunday, and then returning to Davis.
   I call the Secretary-General, Nishan, today to find out whats going on, and find out EVERYONE backed out from the conference, and if we go it would just be him and I (from our school anyway). And I got the strong impression he'd only be going because he felt obligated to go with me...
   AAAnnd if I don't go, since I only have class on Tuesdays and Thursday and can't possibly make it up for class tomorrow, I'd have FIVE extra days of break. Well I mean I'd have them anyway but I'd have five extra days just to bollocks about. That increases my spring break by 71%!

   As of right now I really don't know what I'm going to do. /=


Rats
   Kristy got us two rats the other day. We're trying to decide on names now. I'm favouring Delilah and Lorelei (sp?), from songs by Flogging Molly & the Pogues, respectively. Kristy also likes Clemintine, from the recent movie A Spotless Mind. Then there's always The Sneak (compare of course to "The Cheat" from homestarrunner.com).
   Other names on "the list" are "Lolita," "Rilo" and "Kiley," "Keeley," "Melee," "Francesca," "Angelina," "Jolie," "Jolene," "Leela," "Leia..."
   Any other recommendations are of course welcome.

aggienaut: (Default)

   Alright now I'm about a week behind in the livejournal. Hopefully now that I finally have a functional computer everything will go much more smoothly. There are currently two MIT students, one South African, my brother ([livejournal.com profile] nibot), and his girlfriend ([livejournal.com profile] roxymartini) on my livingroom floor. But I'll get to that eventually.


I. AMWEST - Las Vegas
   From Saturday till Tuesday afternoon I was in Vegas representing the international power-house of Guinea-Bissau in the Organization of Islamic Conference (an organization not actually affiliated with the UN). Qur'an and briefcase in hand, I headed out with low expectations and apparently shockingly little luggage.
ExpandFear and MUNing in Las Vegas )




II. Back in the ASUCD
   Returning home I immediately had to start getting ready to preside over the first hearing for ASUCD Court Case # 22. Some confusion arose over evidence and further action on the case was postponed until a hearing next wednesday (the 3rd). The aforementioned information is public knowledge and of no partiality to any real or potential plaintiff or defendant, so please leave me alone about it.

Newspaper Articles About the Court and Removal Attempts:
First Removal Attempt Against Me - Back page with reference on front page.
About the Court in General - Front Page, upper right side
Second Removal Attempt - Front Page, upper right side
Editorial Condemning Removal Attempts - Opinion Section

ExpandI eat judicial review for breakfast )


III. Thanksgiving
   Having two aunt/uncles living in the city of Davis, plus various other relatives, we decided to have thanksgiving in Davis this year. Yes I have relatives that went to UC Davis and never left. Frankly I'm terrified - NOT gonna happen to me.
   Wednesday night we got internet operating in this apartment, then about an hour later my parents arrived in town. Today (Thursday, Thanksgiving) we had a huge dinner at Auntie Bev and Uncle Ben's place. Both my grandmother and the other grandmother (Auntie Bev's mother) thought my mohawk was very nice. There was also discussion of "that incredibly beautiful girl Kris has been escorting around town." Such sauce.

   My brother Tobin, as mentioned, brought two MIT students, a South African, and his true love Diane (yes, [livejournal.com profile] pocketbookannie's cousin), and they are now gesleeping on my living room floor. I informed them that cuddling is strictly forbidden in my apartment however.


ExpandADDENDUM )

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