The Agrinautica

   So one fine day on Daviswiki, contention erupted over the shadiness factor of Campus Crusade for Christ. To help solve this controversy, Emosnail staff benevolently volunteered to do some polling on the subject, but in response noted local Republican George Andrews stated "having Fricke do a poll on Campus Crusade in EMOSNAIL is like having me do a poll on Nathan Thomas/Black Caesar/Dan Beeman Approval ratings among DCR members."
   We then posted polls both here and on the UC Davis community (ucdaivs). Ostensibly this was to ascertain the shadiness factor of CCC, but really we're just using jedi mind tricks to make you think thats our motive -- the true motive was to show that CCC would get a higher shadiness rating from the UC Davis lj community than from the readers of this livejournal (the postings were exactly identical).
   At this point, more than 18 hours after the polls began, and with 60 responses: the ucdavis community has rated Campus Crusade for Christ at a shadiness factor of 7.14, while the emosnail readership has rated it at 6.33. Clearly Emosnail does not foster antireligious mentalities.


Resistentialism
   The other day my browser (mozilla) inexplicably crashed and when it came back up, all my bookmarks had been lost. I find this very aggravating because I had quite a few things that I regularly used bookmarked. I miss the most-recent-pictures-updated-to-livejournal webpage that I haven't been able to find again. )=
   Last night apartment-mate wdsguy came home from LA, where he spends the week steeped in the adult entertainment industry (you think I'm kidding), and promptly unplugged my internet and went to bed -- presumably without actually realizing I needed it (we don't have a router because I live in a cave so only one of us can be connected at a time). So I spent the rest of the night in the computer lounge working on my paper. When I returned in the morning I was plugged in again but our internet was down, appeared to be a problem with our service-provider. When it finally came up trillian (my AIM client) crashed and burned horribly. When I was finally able to get it up again all my friends groups had been eliminated, so I now have 435 people all in one big group. I promptly created the missing groups and garnered a small amount of satisfaction sending some people to the gulag (my friends-list category of that name anyway). I believe resistentialism is taking root in my computer. Either that or its developing bovine spongeform encephalitis ("mad cow disease").


The Order of Trogdor
   EMOSNAIL is proud to present Daviswiki creator Philip Neustrom with our highest honour, the Order of Trogdor:

   Neustrom is seen here receiving the prestigious medal in the traditional ceremony. (with the medal on)
   Neustrom has exemplified the most admirable interests in promoting community understanding, combined with illustrious competence in creating the Daviswiki and making the wonder that it is today.
   Truly, if there is anyone who deserves to be on Davis Mount Rushmore, it is Phil (incidently I've never heard of four of the five people listed there).*

Weekly ASUCD Shadiness Rating
   We're overdue for the weekly ASUCD shadiness rating. Since last polling, ASUCD went ahead and passed unanimously the legislation preventing members of the ASUCD judiciary from authoring legislation, and Kalen Gallagher was replaced as President by Caliph Assagai and Darnell Holloway (but not before Gallagher characterized choice voting as a disease he would squash). Here's an Aggie article on the recent adventures of ASUCD.
[Poll #457889]

Daviswiki Entry of the Day: Magic Items of Davis


Shady Quote of the Day:
PrzemekP: true, but if it's possible, have him hold off, like I said, the worst possible for her would be her nominating herself
PrzemekP: haha, or better yet, if Fricke does it!
amazonjedimaster: you have enough pull with fricke
amazonjedimaster: have him do it
amazonjedimaster: have fricke nominate her first
PrzemekP: I'll see what I can do
PrzemekP: but there is a part of me that thinks Fricke might vote for Veronica
amazonjedimaster: because if you want the worst person to nominate .... fricke is that person
PrzemekP: true
amazonjedimaster: janet and i made it clear to centian people that we hate kris
amazonjedimaster: with a passion
amazonjedimaster: some of them are peons at berkely
PrzemekP: yeah, but like I said, a part of me feels Fricke might vote Veronica
amazonjedimaster: you think nomiating gena will change how he votes?


Year Ago Today: Ice Cream Sandwich Cravings - & rooommate Jill asks us sausage themed questions for her lover.

*if someone wants to use the above picture to make it look like Phil (& Amie) are on the real Mount Rushmore I think that would be ridiculously funny, and um, I'll buy you a twinkie.

Weekly ASUCD Report
   A bill was passed unanimously by the ASUCD Senate two weeks ago which would allow Court members to write legislation. Currently the judicial codes forbid Court members from writing legislation, making them the only nine members of ASUCD who cannot write legislation (Aggie employees can't either but thats their rule, not an ASUCD one).
   I'm told by Senator Thomas Lloyd, though independant confirmation hasn't been successful yet, that President Gallagher vetoed the legislation. Lloyd claims that I tricked everyone (all of IAC, all of the Senate) because it didn't explicitly say that Court members could only write legislation on the Judicial Codes and Article VII of the Constitution (the judicial article). I think this is preposterous considering the legislation is only like five lines. If they interpreted it to be wildly different than it actually was, its certainly not my fault they failed to read and interpret FIVE FREAKING LINES.
   Consequently, Lloyd has authored a bill which went through Internal Affairs Commission on Monday which very explicitly removes the rights of Court members to write legislation on things other than the Judicial Codes or Article VII. Incidently there is no precedent anywhere in the world outside ASUCD for abridging our ability to write legislation, nor is there any reason that holds any water. The one that continually comes up is "whats to stop them then from abusing their power and writing legislation giving them more power," to which the obvious answer is that it has to go through the entire process of IAC, Senate and President. Additionally, wouldn't that same argument make for a much more realistic reason to ban the president from writing legislation? And what about the Senate??
   If the previous legislation was really vetoed, I say the Senate should override the veto this Thursday. If one really wants to push the argument that the Court is going to go mad with power with the ability to write legislation, I urge that one at least be consistent and similarly ban the executive office from writing legislation other than for the Government Codes and Article III of the ASUCD Constitution.

   Otherwise, the new Senators were sworn in last Thursday, ushering in an era of unprecedented diversity of affiliation on the Senate. Previously dominated by the two parties, Lead and Focus, the Senate now consists of four Leadite senators, three Focite senators, three independant senators (two republicans and the president of the davis college democrats), and two Urger senators. Also IAC Chairperson Kahliah Laney has become the most recent in a string of resignations.

[Poll #451234]

Rating Elections
   Polling here has indicated that Emosnail readers consider the ASUCD Election to have had a Shadyness Rating of 9.42, with 83% of the respondants indicating a 10.0. Incidently, once the issue could no longer be appealed to us (after the Senators were sworn in), we discussed the topic on the ASUCD Supreme Court. Fortunately most of them knew little about the case, so I gave them the relevant facts while avoiding leading them to any particular conclusion. The members of the ASUCD Supreme Court all found that Roy's actions did not constitute falsification, and furthermore, finding so after having verified the information oneself sounds suspiciously like one is "gunning for him." I would concur: what is listed are possible examples of falsification, but that does not mean they are in all occurances falsification. Clearly, the information was not falsified. Also if they found on the high end of their discretion in this case, what the crap would constitute less severe falsification??

   The MUN election occurred today. In lieu of rumours that there had been intended elections fraud, Dana Davies-Shaw, former ASUCD Senate candidate, Campus Judicial Board member, and Canadian, was brought in to observe the ballot counting.
However, former Secretary-General Catherine Myung (who appears to still be planning everything two weeks after resigning) instructed those wishing to cast their ballots via email to email them to her. I pointed out to her that they ought to be instructed to at least cc these to Davies-Shaw as well. Her response as "I was just planning on printing out all the email ballots, and have them mixed into with the regular ballots. But if Dana is okay having ballot's cc'ed to him, I will send out another email about it. Or I could forward all the ballots to him as well." She never sent out another email. We are therefore depending entirely on Myung's word alone that she faithfully forwarded all the emailed ballots and didn't make any up. I don't mean to say that she did use the opportunity to conduct elections fraud, but its just a huge blow to the legitimacy of the election.

   I've never really understood people who boycott elections, like the Shiites in the recent Iraqi election. Aren't you mainly just screwing yourself over? However, I found myself not voting in the MUN election. It wasn't a boycott in the same way -- I didn't publicize my abstention to any of the relevant parties as a political statement. Rather, it was more for myself. I couldn't in good conscience participate in this election -- any candidate that the current leadership didn't like had been intimidated out of running (I myself would have considered running I think if I didn't feel it would just result in a concerted slander campaign against me and being the victim of completely unfair and fraudulent tactics just like last time). I couldn't grant it the credence of legitimacy without making myself feel sick, so I abstained from participating.

   The amendment to the MUN bylaws I wrote last week to eliminate the Secretariat's ability to expel people from the club without consulting the membership was not voted on today because it was placed sixth our of seven agenda items, and by that point in the meeting we had lost quorum. I have written another amendment that will require amendments to the bylaws to be considered first on the agenda, because otherwise they could be put off indefinitely, as regularly a good third of the members present at the beginning of a meeting are gone by the end.


Shady Quote of the Day
amazonjedimaster: you have no morals of any sort to hold you back
amazonjedimaster: ^_^
PrzemekP: ha! I do
PrzemekP: I have morals, they're just weird and skewed

Previously on Emosnail
   Two Years Ago Today: Another Party on Loyola - and one next door, to which I believe Shemek showed up.
   Year Ago Today: Dancing in the Kitchen - Four months for Kristy and I. Today it has been 16 months of the strongest sauce and heartred.

   So its been like two weeks since I've had time to make a livejournal entry, this is surely some kind of terrible terrible record. And even now I don't have much time at all. So just a quick update here.

   MUNgate: recent developements on the MUN front: Under-Secretary-General Rinaldi resigned upon the discovery that former Secretary-General Myung and others were maliciously spreading rumours about her with intent to bring about her utter character assassination. Character assassination like the bombing of the UN HQ in baghdad -- if it had been done by the unfortunate mission director's best friends. While doing so Myung notes* that she must appear uninvolved so she can count the MUN ballots and congradulates co-conspirator Shemek on similarly avoiding suspicion while gaining the other ballot counting position. Go team!

   But to be fair, two current law students, former members of MUN, have come out in support of the current MUN administration. Read their perspective here. In addition to these weighty counter-arguments, Myung herself commented, and, possibly doing more damage to their cause than help, member and former SG Janet Rossi made an amusing comment. Rossi argues that the fact that $20 dinners have only about a fifth of the turnout of lower cost dinners may be not because the rest can't afford it, but because only those who are friends with the others on Secretariat go to the expensive dinners. Yes Janet, you might be right, that might have something to do with it, but I think that portrays it a lot worse than the simple "only those who can afford it" theory.


In Other News
   Yesterday the BBC called me to ask about a US Supreme Court case. True story. It was because I'm listed as a contact for the AGnostic & Atheist Student Assn (AGASA), and it was the 10 Commandments case.

   Currently one of my papers about Chechnya is being discussed at an international relations conference in Texas. I feel special.

Previously on Emosnail
   Two Years Ago Today: UCBMUNC '03 - and IHOP adventures. Missed the first day of Berkeley because I had work. Learned today actually that some people thought I forgot about UCBMUNC the first day. Yeah not so much, I'm the only one who actually spends the whole time in committee. Who was the only one of our 37 people to win an award this time? Yeah that would be me, and I don't forget about MUN conferences.


*source: an accidently intercepted AIM conversation. Seriously if you are planning on backstabbing someone, don't leave the conversation up on a computer they use. Excerpt about the fraudulent election aspirations:
amazonjedimaster: no
amazonjedimaster: then i might be tainted
amazonjedimaster: for the election-ness
PrzemekP: yeah, well, I worked on her and Priya on the way over
amazonjedimaster: so far there is not a peep from gena about getting you on the elections -vote counting-ness

So this weekend I went on the ASUCD Leadership retreat to Tahoe. Then I came back and wrote this entry. Then after it was nearly done I tried to click back to it from an aol dialogue box, accidentally hitting "livejournal FAQ," which opened a new page, and the whole entry was lost. I am now in a very very bad mood. You will now get the I-already-wrote-this-once version. )=Nadia and Shemek (a third unitrans manager was with us as well).
   "We should seperate the driver from the rest of us so we're all technically in the trunk and can drink!" - Elections Committee Chair Mary Ball. Needless to say, we drank anyway.*
   There were 16 people on the bus up. The politicians and government officers chatted happily, while the commercial unit managers sat in awkward silence.
   Up at tahoe we had three condoes, declared the main one, the quiet one, and the late night one. I of course immediately declared sovreignty over the loft of the latter.
   That first night we all partied like whoa. It was pretty cool. Chief of Staff Behzad (last name?) is a party animal. Then we went to the hot-tub. Security chased us out but told us we should go to the more secluded one at the other end of the complex. Yea. "what happens in the hot-tub STAYS in the hot-tub" Unfortunately some keys stayed in the hot tub as well...
   After walking back, Public Opinion Polls Committee chair Russ Fagely realized he had lost his wallet. Simulteniously I realized I had lost a key. So we retraced our steps.. eventually found a key in the hot-tub. It was for building 483 though and I was definitely in 484. Psha on that. Russ eventually tracked down his wallet.. and eventually I discovered that I had in fact originally been given a 483 key. So it all fit together.

   The next day we did various team-building excercises most of the day. A large flow chart of the ASUCD heirarchy was unveiled ("now you can see how we're all connected... OTHER than on friendster.com!" -ASUCD President Sara Henry).. and it was prominently missing the Supreme Court!! I immediately got another peice of butcher paper, wrote "STUDENT COURT" really big with sharpie, and put it in the approprate position (level with "senate" and "president" on the top level).
   I was very very disappointed to learn that "ASUCD Refridgeration Services" does NOT operate vast room-sized industrial walk-in refridgerators at some secret location on campus. Vice President Kalen Gallagher agreed with me that they SHOULD do this, stating "I sense a senate bill coming up!"
   We also had a workshop on "diversity training." "how many of you have been professionally objectified for money."

   That night the prevailing opinion was that we should go to the casinos to eat, and then come back and proceed with the getting drizunk. That turned into gamble until we're seated at the restaurant in harrahs, eat, and eventually gamble the rest of the night. I don't gamble, so this wasn't my preferred turn of events.
   A few of us managed to pass the time beforehand by searching for alcohol. The casino of course had some.. at an exorbitant price. Finally we found a gas station two blocks down that was fully stocked (As opposed to the closer one with none), and Jenna in her frenzy for alcohol didn't even see the large "alcohol liscense suspended!" signs. No alcohol there for us. Finally we found some at a grocery store a little further on.
   After we ate I managed to escape the casinos before too long. But not before the somewhat drunk manager of Special Transportation Services (STS) and Tipsy Taxi asked me: "I'm sorry if I'm a bit blunt right now but... you dress different from everyone else, don't you." I don't know I thought that was funny.
   So yea. KDVS Director Teresa, executive staff Event Coordinator Jenna Zelman and I caught a shuttle back to central control. Teresa went to bed immediately and Jenna and I watched TV till ASUCD Controller Jon Avidor returned at like 2am. Then I went back to my place and went to sleep. At 4am everyone else got back, and unitrans Planning and Marketing Manager Shemek Pawlik came up to tell me everyone was drinking. I actually considered joining them briefly before rolling over and going to sleep.

   Events Sunday were cancelled because too many people had left. Of probably 40+ people at the workshops on Saturday, only around 18 survived till Sunday morning. We never did find out what happened to the mysterious Mark Champaign, secret overlord of ASUCD. We slept in a bit, then Russ Fagely and I watched the end of Red October on TV, we all packed up and fled. The End.




   *Please see the disclaimer in my info. Anything that appears to be illegal is without exception completely fictional.