I'm way overdue for an update here. I'll try to get on that. In the mean time, however, my friend the delightful miss Sally Lorenz and her roommate made a silly little commercial you should check out:
And vote for it, since its apparently for some kind of contest.
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
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
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
Today I went off up Lake Forest Blvd up to this area I swear I had no idea existed only ten miles from here. It was craziness.. like the road led to a place that magically doesn't physically exist on the map where it should have been.
Shyea.. see Anna Umfleet (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
beatlebake) had to get her car serviced up in that crazy place there called Foothill Ranch so I was accompanying her. She got caught in traffic though so first I wasted some time at Diedrichs at Muirlands and Lake Forest... then I fell asleep under a palm tree at the car lot.
While we waited for her car to get looked at we went hiking on this trail in the random wilderness out there... we saw two deers. It was pretty cool.
Then this evening I hung out with Mara and Sally at Diedrichs off Muirlands and Lake Forest (AKA "the OTHER diedrichs," yes I was there twice today).
Speaking of coffee shops, so this local coffee shop called Natale's which was like the ONLY place around here open till 2am closed down. In retrospect I'm not reeallly suprised because the employees there always acted genuinely bothered that people would make orders.. it musta been family owned or something.. there were a couple of persian girls in their twenties that worked there (and maybe an equivalent male version) who were always all pissy and busy talking to their friends and would act all passive aggressive and bothered if they had to actually make a drink.... Its too bad it went out though because it was a for excellent location and wonderful to have someplace open till 2am. Well I just found out it is being replace by... a starbucks! This place seriously had "friends don't let friends go to starbucks" stickers for sale in it before... oh the irony.
Alright well once again I shall be updating for like.. the previous week. Hopefully henceforth updates will once again proceed in a more or less daily manner.
WEDNESDAY (02/26/03)
School, work 5pm to like 2am. Good times. Got a ride home with Jennifer the Server.
THURSDAY
School, work 5pm to like 2am. Good times. Don and Jennifer the Server and I got our drink on at Don's after work...
FRIDAY
...woke up at 10am on my livingroom floor. I was supposed to catch a 7am bus into San Fransisco for the UC Berkeley Model United Nations (MUN) Conference (UCBMUNC). Presumably I was trying to get to my room when I passed out five feet from my door the night before. Reflecting on these things I declared myself straight edge (sXe) and drew Xs on my hands with sharpie.
Took the 14:15 intercampus shuttle to Berkeley, and the BART into San Fransisco. Total trip cost me like $7 and three hours tops.
Committee is kinda bogus; everyone is already in final stages of working out resolutions on the topic of small arms trade in the Caucasuses (I'm representing the United States on Disarmament and Internat'l Security Committee (DISC)).
Hung out with Sally (whom I met at the CALMUN conference last quarter) and her friend Mara (Kuwait in my committee) from Saddleback College in the evening ("you've only been here two hours and you ALREADY have women???" - Janet). Saddleback College being of course the JC that 56% of my High School went to after graduation, two members of their delegation (Shab and (Sn)Ackbar) had been in MUN with me in HS. We wandered from room-party to room-party as the various parties got broken up by hotel security and new ones formed up. Being the dedicated sXe boy that I'd newly become I shocked myself by being sober all night, though admittedly a succumbed to the temptation of a small amount of wine while at my Chair's party. Sally, Mara, the rest of the UC Davis delegation and I ate at a cafe before retiring for the night; and by acclamation we all declared that Paul Amnaypayout is henceforth forbidden from drinking.
In true MUN style there were eight people in a room and four people in a bed. Admittedly usually we keep it at three per bed, but these four people were all skinny enough..
SATURDAY
MUN all day pretty much. MUN is so wonderful. No really.
During lunch, while marauding for food with the Saddleback crew I ran into Alberto. Alberto the ONE person I know who lives in San Fransisco. Alberto the guy that was my best friend from 2nd grade to 12th. Completely uncoordinated, I hadn told him I was coming to town and didn't have any idea where in the town he habitually lurked. Crazy.
As the end of committee grew near of course things became less serious. I declared myself to be the "Imperial States of America" with the motto "Sovreignty is just a matter of manifest destiny." When it came time to nominate people for "superlative" or "joke" awards at the end of committee, I think I was nominated for every single one of them; "most likely to be under the table at saturday night activities," ("if they only knew why you missed half of committee" -Israel (In MUN one tends to refer to the other delegates as the countries they represent)) I almost won "Most Evil" but Iraq and I both lost out to Australia...
Saturday night activities took place at this place called Sinbad's down by the warf. Once again I proved my awesome dedication to being sXe by succumbing to a madori sour that Mara was drinking. Can you blame me, it was a madori sour, I mean come on! Even Sally was drinking which was crazy cause she like.. NEVER drinks. Hung out with the Saddleback kids again that night.
SUNDAY
Closing ceremonies at UCBMUNC in the morning. Proceeded home via automobile. Was home for half an hour before I had to leave for work. Discovered via email that I'd been selected to moderate the
Ran into my uncle Mike (who lives about a hundred yards from me) as I walked to work. He was riding his bike to the UC Davis Airport to help Uncle Ben unload parts of an airplane he'd just gone on a roadtrip to pick up from somewhere else. My family is so weird.
So after an hour walk arrived at work. Rather than the usual tremendous understaffedness, we were somewhat OVERstaffed, on account of a large number of personnel having been transferred from the Vacaville IHOP. I made sandwiches, it was good times.
Though I had been quite clear in both talking to the manager Paul, and in what I wrote on my availablity sheet -that I could only work two days a week and not before 5pm- Paul scheduled me five days the upcoming week, all 3-11. I therefore quit at 11pm. He never ever gave us breaks either.. I didn really care cause I'd eat enough while working to remain content, but its all part of a larger pattern of a you-can-go-screw-yourself attitude toward employees on the part of management.
MONDAY
School, worked on paper for CRD1 (Community and Regional Developement) "The Community." My paper was about the underground music scene in Davis. Good times. Interviewed Stan Oklobdzija, Amy, and Annie for the paper, as it required at least one interview.
TUESDAY
finished paper just in time for class. Was actually late for class on account of the line in the computer lab. Psha on that.
Five of us arrived at the ASUCD Supreme Court meeting, I guess a sixth was in the building elsewhere, I ran into him right after the meeting dispersed, so we were only really missing two people. One of those two was the interim chair however, and the rest of the Court couldn decide whether we were even able to meet without the interim chair. Yes, the other justices are shining beacons of decisiveness and initiative. Returning home much later I found an email from the interim chair that read "Hey, ya'll! Because Jade has failed to get me any of the information necessary to hold a productive meeting, tonight's meeting is cancelled. I expect to have everything for next week's meeting. Thanks, Sarita."
Proceeded from the Court meeting to the IRSA meeting to be briefed on the North Korea forum.
Kristy from CRD Discussion decided we were going to become good friends today. Officially. Silly Kristy.
Now I am totally going to sleep.
*A "Belshaw Gun" is used to make pancakes.
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