The Agrinautica

The Journey Home
   I was up most of last night reading about people with names like Vercingetorix, Vortigern & Catigern. Then, since I've managed to accumulate some important tasks at the Courthouse I had to go into work. Finally I escaped from there, but had to AMPAC Governor-General Sameer for an hour on the phone about the conference we are in charge of putting together next April, which was all good and well but it was hellorz hot out and I really wanted to go home and take a nap. Then I got home only to find someone parked in my parking place. The office determined the offending vehicle belonged to the guy who should have the spot next to it. When maintenance man Modesto contacted him regarding this, the guy said with attitude "well someone was in MY spot," as if that justified it all (and I hope you all know that you are retarded if you think it solves anything by parking in the person's spot next to you when someone has parked in yours). Finally I made it into my apartment only to find two catsup smeared plates belonging to my flatmate Jason on the livingroom floor, where he seems to think they belong.
   This latter offense is in clear violation of the policy my roommates and I had agreed to unanimously, that dishes must remain in one's room if one cannot clean them immediately. I've decided my current policy for dealing with this is moving the dishes for him when he's not home ... onto his bed.
   Also the solution to the best way to confront him regarding the fact that he's in flagrant violation of something he just recently agreed to with minimum awkwardness came to me after some thought... next time he's home and I find him in a clear violation of policy, or if he asks me about my relocation of dishes to his room I think I'll ask him in an earnest manner if he thinks the policy is too draconian and needs to be changed. That way I will come across not as accusatory but compromising, while he'll be faced with either feeling like a complete flake by saying this simple policy is too difficult (which I really doubt he'll do), or reaffirming the policy in direct reference to his plate behaviour.
   Anyway, then I was finally able to take a nap, but in my delirium was unaware that I'd left my phone in my car so I missed a call I'd been waiting for regarding some stew. )=

30 in 30 III
   Anyway, the result of all this is that I'm not really feeling like a top-notch slinger of hilarity at the moment, so 30 in 30 III is off to an inconspicuous start for me this year.

   So far we have 30 in 30 posts by apoplecticfittz, otimus, pavel_lishin, roter_terror & shid. Best entry so far I think is roter_terror's: "Listen up, folks. 30 in 30 is here and I am not ready for it! THEREFORE YOU GET BABY ANIMALS... with a twist! Here are 16 of the best baby animals I could dig up at a moment's notice. Your job is to vote for the best."

   Anyway, you may all be relieved to to know that one of my goals for this 30 in 30 is to try to steamline my blogging by spending no less than 30 minutes per post (30 in 30.. IN 30?)

Meanwhile in the real world
   In other news, last friday we had the initiation party for the newest batch of Φ A Δ pledglings. On Sunday I went to recently-former Califorina Aggie Editor-in-Chief Matty Jojola's party. It was a very interesting mix of people, with four guys wearing Davis Players Society polos hanging out with Kalen Gallagher in one corner while from the opposite side of the political spectrum city council candidate Rob Roy campaigned in the kitchen wearing a suit & tie. I got a scandalous picture of him eating a watermelon rind with some girl, as well as another of him giving someone a classic politician handshake, I'll put them up when I get a chance. Also my fellow justice & reverend Tim Coady was there, marrying people at random and granting indulgences.

   On Tuesday most of the Court came to the Internal Affairs Commission to discuss their opinions on the Court. Also this day we were reinforced by an editorial in The Aggie advocating that our Court be strengthened rather than abrogated. IAC was unwilling to concede anything, but none of them would speak in support of any of their arguments (other than that ASUCD is a business), preferring rather to try repeatedly to end the whole conversation by saying there was no legislation regardnig the subject. Aside from the fact that the discussion the preceding week had ended with "we'll talk more about this next week," I've certainly been around long enough to know that there's always "no plans," until suddently there are, and the plans are never put forward until after the political maneouvering stage.
nbsp;  Also they made an obvious effort to put us off as long as possible, which I thought was kind of petty & desperate. Regarding ASUCD as a business, it went around a few times until Chairman Harms announced his revelation that "ASUCD is not a government OR a business, it is an association." To which I responded that that was great but "what we are specifically arguing about here is that Kai Savaree-Ruess said ASUCD is 'not a public institution ... but in fact a business,' and a Court has no place in a business. If you say we're not a business but an association, you're not backing Kai's argument that I am here to counter..." I believe 90% of arguments improperly lost are lost because one allowed the opponent to change what the argument was about.. never let them get away with this.

   Anyway, since then Paul Harms has ceased to be the Internal Affairs Commission Chairman...


Picture of the Day

Kristy and I at Rock It

Previously on Emosnail
   Three Years Ago Today: Jello Shot Night - What we all did before we had 30 in 30 to occupy ourselves: slosha's dorm-mates throw a party which shall live on in infamy as "jello shot night." ...Kristy is eventually determined to be missing and is then found wandering aimlessly three floors down outside... d=
   Two Years Ago Today: 30 in 30 I - Day 1 - mrkevincostner was actually first out of the blocks at 10:20am, followed by stephenl who at 12:56 posted the official call to action. apoplecticfittz began with a new version of his recent Frasky Awards; lerani started with an amusing story about a retarded lawyer that managed to exponentially exacerbate her own ethics violation; fragglerocker84 started out strong with a well composed entry apparently about people on her vollyball team (its very well done for its subject matter, but the subject isn't the most interesting to random bloggers); and feuders also vows for the course of 30 in 30 to drink no beer (except for a number of frequent exceptions), eat no fast food, and run five miles every day. Additionally, jdryznar declares he's going to make 30 posts in 30 days about politics, while incomple also just posts half baked ravings against conservatives (at least for the first five I checked today).
   Year Ago Today: 30 in 30 II - Day 1 - First day of the second annual 30 in 30. Best entry for this day has been identified as Professor David, with second place going to otimus (who has since deleted his all his 30 in 30 II entrie, because he does strange things like that)

   So.

   I went a week without updating. Gotta keep it all up in your face!

   Last Wednesday there was finally an Aggie Article about Case 31. I'm trying to resist the urge pick it apart, but I don't know where these references to "Student Court" came from. There hasn't been any references to a "student court" in more than an ASUCD-generation.

   I spent most of the week in hermit-like seclusion working on a paper about the decline of the Roman Empire.

   Then Friday was Cinco de Mayo. I celebrated by drinking by myself in my room.

   By Saturday I desperately needed a change of scenery. So I headed down to San Francisco, to visit Mara (blueashes).
   Now the thing with San Francisco, is driving around there is always a hellish experience. They have these street signs you find nowhere else in the world. Some lanes are reserved for trollies, or something ... taxis seem to obey their own rules entirely. Streets are set up like a grid, but somehow through the use of one-way streets and unholy magick, the entire thing is a labyrinth.
   In addition to getting directions from Mara , I pulled up googlemaps and examined the area in both the map mode and with satellite overlay so as to get maximum familiarity with the cursed roads of SF I'd have to navigate.
   As soon as I came off the Bay Bridge onto the SF penninsula it was out of control though. Almost immediately the freeway unexpectedly split in two with no indication which side was which. I chose the right side but it soon became apparent that I had chosen the wrong one as I ended up too far south without passing the exit. I had to exit, travel parallel to the freeway a few blocks to find an onramp in the other direction.. get new directions from Mara. Then key streets definitely didn't have signs identifying them.. anyway, I survived.
   Anyway, she lives in the Mission District. We walked down Haight Street, visited "Hippie Hill" at a park at the end of the street (golden gate park?). Then as we returned we came upon Mara's flatmate with her dog at another park and hung out there for awhile (where Megan --who came to Davis with Mara that one time and on picnic day-- caught up with us). Sasha is a pretty awesome doggie. Her repetoire of tricks include licking sleeping people's faces on command and giving people hugs.
   Then we returned to Mara's place and played Settler's of Catan, because we're awesome like that.
   That evening we went to some of the bars in The Mission and caused a ruckus. Most noteworthy of all though, is my estranged former best friend Alberto, who hasn't answered or returned any of my calls in four years, actually textmesseged me in response to the messege I left him saying I'd be in town. It read "stop calling me asap" -- no not really! he actually told me where he was working, implying I should stop by, but I didn't realize I had messeges until the very end of the evening.

   Kritsy was also in SF on Saturday, hanging out with her sister.

   On Sunday Kristy went to "Rock It" at The Grad, and totally rocked out.

   Monday marked two and a half years since Kristy and I began dating. When I met her she had a boyfriend of three years -- it seemed like they'd been together for ever. Then they broke up ... and eventually we started dating, and I still felt like I'd never rival her previous relationship .. but now, holy crap I'm catching up. Who would have foreseen such epic lovered?

   Tuesday (today) I worked at the courthouse. It looks like I might get moved up to working on case management conferences directly under a judge. Also there was a bit of a ruckus today.. some guy was being arraigned on bomb threat charges or something and the place was crawling with reporters. They kept trying to sneak recording equipment in, much to the angst of the guards.
   I happened to be coming out of the Courthouse when I see a reporter interviewing people, a reporter who is none other than Stan Obklodzija!
   Not quite sure what was going on but presumably it'll be in the paper tomorrow.

Picture of the Day

Megan & one of Mara's neighbours

   After some delays, I finally began working at the Superior Courthouse in Woodland yesterday. I lurk amid bookshelves of records that move back and forth on tracks. When these aren't sufficient, one must get records from either "the bunker," or "the vault." I think there's a third location as well. The courthouse is primarily peopled by two types of people -- bureaucrats who also spend their day wrangling records, and sheriffs deputies. The sheriffs deputies wear all black uniforms, and seem to without exception be about as friendly as an imperial stormtrooper. Occasionally, one will also see prisoners being escorted about in striped pajamas like in cartoons (seriously!).

   During lunch I went across the street to the Fat Cat Cafe. There I encountered none other than the prosecutor from my jury-duty experience last Spring, one Tim Wallace. When I mentioned that I thought he dismissed me because he thought I was an anarchist, he responded with "hah, ME?" and made this face as if to say I should be well aware that he himself is practically an anarchist. He also mentioned having written a letter-to-the-editor the other day strongly criticizing the Chancellor vis-a-vis the Celestial Rose Scandal (I'm guessing in the Davis Enterprise?). After he left someone else approached the defense attorney he'd been chatting with and tried to convince him to have a particular witness testify. I felt like I was in a movie or something.


In Other News: Interned Japanese-Americans are no longer banned from Davis.

Picture of the Day

I think this has got to be the coolest picture ever taken