Monday, Dec 31, 2007 :: Houses, houses, and more houses

Holly and I were looking around Newport News this afternoon after we went to the gym to workout and found it: closed. Sad, as we went to a mexican, all-you-can-eat buffet with with the single proviso that we were to exercise...today. With all the issues of selling my house, I found this neighborhood, called "Port Warwick," with it's never-ending rows of cookie-cutter houses. They seemed to stretch forever into the distance. This photo does not do justice to the nightmarish feeling that we were standing on the corner of Lucifer St and Beelsabub Lane. You be the judge.

Here's a satillite view so you know I'm not photoshop'ing this view. This neighborhood exists, I promise:


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Nevertheless, Happy New Year!

December 17, 2007 :: Titanic-DNA Watch | Uncrate

Titanic-DNA Watch | Uncrate: "titanic-dna-watch.jpg"

Thankfully, this is one Titanic that doesn't involve Celine Dion. The Titanic-DNA Watch ($TBA) is a limited-edition timepiece made using materials recovered from the sunken oceanliner. Available in several different versions, our favorite is the "extreme rusted steel," with its bezel forged with authentic Titanic parts, titanium and blackened steel casing, black dial integrating recovered coal from the ship, and La Joux-Perret movement.

I don't know if there's such a thing as bad karma, but I would imagine this would bring it to you. What's next, Hindenburg watches and World Trade Center necklaces?

October 21, 2007 :: Snow in Denver

 

It's snowing. I looked out the window and thought that the moonlight was awful bright to make the ground glow so much at 7am, but then, i looked again... it's snowing...

"Hey baby, guess what?"

"groan... what?"

"it's snowing..."

"that's crazy"

"i know. i'm going to take a picture :)"

Four hours later...

October 20, 2007 :: Metroblogging DC: Reassuring

I liked this metroblogging dc article:

Metroblogging DC: Reassuring: posted by Don Whiteside at 11:00 AM on October 19, 2007

It's easy to be cynical about people in this city, whether because they have a wide stance, like to chat up the wrong people online, or just in general seem selfish in their behavior. I'm finding that taking mass transit is instead exposing me to people's little courtesies and kindnesses, and they put my day off to a good start. Maybe they'll improve yours.
...
Comment 3 of 3:
Plus, once you move to denver, co, and see that people are strangely MORE detached than the masses of DC, and more oblivious to others, but with an air of pretentiously, and topically feel 'small town' country but 'big city' character, a person realizes just how great the people of DC are, after all...
Posted by: mark at October 20, 2007 07:17 AM

rusty Casket in a pick up truck...don't see that every day

October 6, 2007 :: Climbing Castlewood Canyon

 

good couples' climbing photo, huh? a successful (but short) trad lead climb, and two other medium routes for three people and a warm, sunny, windy afternoon.

I knew i'd need the .4 c4 camalot! it perfectly fits a "normal" fingercrack... i knew it :)

September 12, 2007 :: Law School is exciting

Law school is exciting if you like reading and drinking mass amounts of coffee.

September 12, 2007 :: International Law class

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Talking about middle east issues and refugees.

Studying for my evidence final on wednesday. Moving to denver, and now they build a star-bucks next to my "old" law school. Funny. FRE is all i case about now though.

July 11, 2007 :: Town of Limon, Colorado

MAP

Town of Limon, Colorado - Home: "Welcome To Limon, Colorado"

My Email to the Town of Limon this morning:

I have driven through your town three times, and stayed in a hotel there on two occasions. As a contributor to at least some taxes to your town, I feel I have earned a modicum of right to email you to answer a quick question on Limon to settle a disagreement between a friend and I.

When spoken, does Limon sound like "lee-mon" "lye-mon" and which syllable is the emphasis on, the first or second (LEE-mon or lee-MON)?

If you can provide any words that sound like the way most Limon-ians pronounce the town's name, that would also be helpful. For example, Toano, VA is pronounced TOE-ANN-oh (First two syllables stressed), but no words I can think of rhyme with it.

Thanks.

-Mark

And their quick response:

It is pronounced like LYE-mon

I was right!

Holly

May 20, 2007 :: Climbing at Great Falls, VA - Romeo's Ladder

MAP

Loved a decent couple hours here climbing Romeo's Ladder and doing some good crack climbing. Romeo's Ladder is at 38.99090°N / 77.2486°W (See sat photo on google maps)

SummitPost - Romeo's Ladder -- Climbing, Hiking & Mountaineering

The Romeo’s Ladder crag is adjacent to Seclusion and separated only by an interesting crack and a short wall, but the two crags are quite different in character. Seclusion, which rises directly from the Potomac River and towers above it, offers a bit of Great Falls at its wildest and most spectacular. Romeo’s Ladder, though it is home to some of Great Falls’ most popular and most challenging climbs, is set back a few yards from the river and seems somehow quieter and tamer, and the cliffs are a little lower, reaching about 40 feet in height. But don’t let that keep you away from the nice climbing opportunities there.

As is the case elsewhere in the park, toproping is the predominant climbing style here, but leads are feasibly on routes such as Delivery Room and Romeo's Ladder.

As a look at the next section’s list of routes can tell you, there isn’t much here for beginners and scramblers. There are, though, a few options, which will be detailed after the routes list."

Sometimes we let bella drive.
Holly

May 12, 2007 :: 1L Life, The Summer, and Resting

This is day two after life as a 1L has come to an end with successful (I hope) completion of second semester finals. Of paramount importance, I don't think I failed anything. I have never been able to peg quality of law school grade from feel. In retrospect, it seems the british saying "slap-dash" would work, or in american geek: indiscriminant. We'll know when we know.

The photo is climbing on April 29th, but I hope to get some good climbing trips on this summer's weekends!

I'm still tired, and on the 11pm to 5am sleep schedule. Yesterday, I organized and cleaned the house for a couple hours, giving the shower it's due scrubbing (and it needs more this weekend). I did a couple errands and watched tv. It was a nice first eight hours of the day, topped when I was starting to doze in front of "Deadliest Catch: Best of Season 1, Part 1," Holly came home after eight days of being with her family. That was a nice treat, as she got home 30 minutes earlier than she planned...tailwinds, I suppose.



Then our day got even better! We got a quick snack together and fountain drinks at a convenience store. Then we enjoyed coffee in the nice warm afternoon shade before trekking (accross the parking lot) to a couple g-stores for misc sundries. Then we got to REI and spent too dang much money, again. Penzey's Spices in Rockville was well worth a lightning $30 spree of spices. Then a none too romantic, but wonderful dinner where neither of us left stuffed.

In summary, it was a really nice day yesterday, despite the heat/humidity, but I'm still tired, and will either visit M&D today or tomorrow, but I think today would be better, for the buffet traffic tomorrow is going to be hellish for all who attend, and I just want to give my parents a hug for all their support (no small amount, by a damn sight!) this first year of law school being now officially completed. Sigh.

climbing

Climbing with holly at Carderock, MD, April 29, 2007.

Concealed carry permit reviews show loopholes

It seems to me that this is how rights are taken away, little by little. Reminds me of the "frog in hot water" analogy where the frog tossed into boiling water would jump out, but the one placed in cool water and the temperature is slowly raised gets cooked.

Concealed carry permit reviews show loopholes

"Dann highlighted one example in Summit County. A 76-year-old Akron man was issued a permit in 2004. Recently, that man's family applied for guardianship to the courts because he suffered from dementia. A judge then declared the elderly man mentally incompetent.

'He wasn't deemed incompetent until four weeks ago,' said Christine Croce, general counsel for the Summit County Sheriff's Office. 'That's 3 years later. His license was still going to be valid for another year and a half. So we have no way of knowing....the courts don't notify us.'

Dann's office notified the Summit County sheriff's office of the mistake Friday morning.

'That led us to revoke his license today and notify his guardians that he's no longer permitted to carry a concealed weapon,' said Croce.

The state's review of all permits is considered a step in the right direction by many.

'It's an improvement,' said Tim Dimoff, a national security expert based in Akron. 'But it's not the bulk of where we need to go if we want to make a bigger impact with carried concealed weapons and making sure the wrong people don't have those permits.'

By law, gun licensers are prohibited from checking mental health records in any medical facility. Dimoff suggests that hospitals, clinics and doctors should be required to enter names of people"

Star Trek: Generations (1994) - Memorable quotes

Love this quote:

Star Trek: Generations (1994) - Memorable quotes
Dr. Soran: "We're all going to die sometime. It's only a question of how and when. You will too, Captian. Don't you feel time gaining on you?

It's like a predator; it's stalking you. Oh,you can try and outrun it with doctors, medicines, new technologies but in the end, time is going to hunt you down... and make the kill."

April 19, 2007 :: Metroblogging DC: Virginia Tech finger pointing

After the Virginia Tech shooting spree, this article commented that many are using it to prove their point that gun control is good (need more), gun control is bad (look what it prevented, self-defense), video games are bad (not sure on this one), etc. Bottom line, if one is trying to prove a point, or score political points (who isn't these days?), then events like these are opportunities like soapboxes, on which one can stand to prove a point.

This quote was too good, I had to post it.

Metroblogging DC: Virginia Tech finger pointing: "The old saying is that when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I think there's a corollary - when you have an axe to grind, every event looks like a whetstone."

Seems like progress should be done proactively, but I suppose most people are hard to convince unless it would affect them, personally. Reminds me of another quote, this one by Gene Hackman from Runaway Jury:

You think your average juror is King Solomon? No, he's a roofer with a mortgage. He wants to go home and sit in his Barcalounger and let the cable TV wash over him. And this man doesn't give a single, solitary droplet of shit about truth, justice or your American way.

April 7, 2007 :: Snow...in April?

Well, this was an interesting and surprising view to awake to this morning at 7am. My thought as I looked out was, "you've got to be kidding me!"



Bella seemed surprised, too.


It was everywhere, as snow tends to be.

March 25 , 2007 :: Sickness

Well, i'm feeling better, but not good, yet.

March 24, 2007 :: Sickness

The height of my fever and the determinant factor of why i went to the er last night. who loves a good coma or convulsion? not me.

now i take anti-biotics, a good tussin, and have less money for the er bill sure to come soon. but at least i feel a little better.

She knows where you went and tried to find you.
Holly

March 23 , 2007 :: Sickness, eyelids, and exams

So, it's friday afternoon, I have some nasty chest cold, with a 101+ fever. I took my contract mid-term exam this morning. Last night's "sleep" was a mass of aches, pains, fever, pheghm, and "discomfort." I'm trying to rest now.



Bella's eyelid is swollen and has to take meds and wear a collar.

Where's Holly?!? I miss her today, as she's at her parents house until tomorrow night on a totally worthwhile trip to be with a good friend and visit her extremely supportive parents. I just miss her. She left a half dozen, really sweet notes around the house before she left.

After a quick two hour drive from DC to Dover, De, this was the result of the frigid temperature, snowing precipitation, and wet/icy roads. Cool, huh?

February 25, 2007 :: Second Good Snow of the Year

 

My house on Feb 25, 2007 after the second good snow of the year in DC.

February 17, 2007 :: The Recriminations are starting

When the US does what it wants, disregarding any semblance of international law, diplomacy, or international legal procedures, other countries look to the US's behaviour which sets a global scene as a precedent for their own behavior.

So, when the US holds international prisoners from their own country on "charges" that no one can know, contest, or have legal counsel, other countries know that they can do the same.

For example here's a case in Italy where
CIA agents face abduction trial where,

A Milan judge has ordered 26 US citizens, most of them believed to be CIA agents to stand trial on charges of the 2003 abduction of an Egyptian imam... It is expected to be the first criminal trial over "renditions", one of the most controversial aspects of the Bush administration's "war on terror" The trial will be the biggest ever of US intelligence agents in an allied country, although they will almost certainly be tried in absentia.

Not good.

February 15, 2007 :: Lawsuit by EU News against Google

This article on the European Union lawsuit against Google makes some very important points.

Generally, websites are made of web pages or articles, and articles are meant to be read. To be able to read a website or article, a web user must be able to somehow find the page or article. This is where a user either browses a web site for its articles (such as a listing of articles like a chronological list or a collection of articles like a newspaper's "front page"), searches for articles (using a word or date searching function on the website that houses the articles -- "search articles"), or uses an indexing website like a news index or search engine. Google is such an indexing search engine.

For a website to make money, there are two main models that most sites follow: advertising and subscription. Advertising models usually involve showing the user commercial links which feeds money back to the listing website. Subscription modles usually involve either charging for access or as is typical in the news websites, charging for archived articles published some time ago, often over a week or so. Both models require web users to visit the site. The more web users to visit the site, the more money the web site will make. [ Having run several of these sites myself, I can assure you of the next fact's accuracy, even on a small scale ] From a marketing, planning, and budgeting standpoint, it is almost a mathmatical certainty that a certain percentage of web users will contribute to the revenue of the site in some way. This is almost a mathmatical certainty.

The central claim in this lawsuit against google was that it violated the news sites' copyrights by showing the news articles' title and first sentence when directing web users to the news sites' articles. The news sites, as plaintiffs, alleged that they desired (and currently desire) absolutely NO web traffic from google.

This makes no sense at all, as the more traffic they get from google, the more money they make. The article above makes the allegation that the only explanation for this lawsuit is that the european equivalent of google (as though it could possibly be anywhere as ubiquitous as google) is attempting to fill a void that can be created by a legally decreed absence of google in europe. Apparently, that may now be a possibility, as the news agencies succeeded in winning the lawsuit forcing google to cease listing their websites' articles in google's search results.

My personal favorite quote from the above article is this:

But since most news organizations actually request (or beg) that Google include them in the news-search function, [a string of similar lawsuits against Google] seems unlikely to happen -- and odd that this lawsuit took place in the first place. . . . If I was a shareholder in any of these publications, I would be asking the executives exactly why they want fewer readers and no links from Google. Is it some new business model?

These news sites are not secret sites espousing radical, terrorist plots or distributing illegal copies of software. These sites are in the business of selling news. Why don't they want people to find their product? This is extremely unusal.

February 14, 2007 :: Holly's and My first Valentine's Day Together

Holly bought me a model:


I and sketched it:

February 10, 2007 :: The Perception of Reality in Our World

Here's a good one: the comedy channel, trying to market one of their cartoons, placed "live" versions of their cartoon characters around boston -- large, led lit characters hanging from bridges, poles, signs, etc. Citizens thought they were bombs. Holy moly! They claimed that the lit faces looked "angry"



The ensuing panic from some citizens claiming that they must be bombs drew the police to an immediate, emergency response and blew up at least one of them to see if they were, in fact, terrorist bombs. Turns out to have only snared traffic for a few hours.

Attack of the Mooninites!

Crazy world we live in, huh? Even crazier is that the guy who thought this up or approved it or something quit over this. Reminds me of the assistant/deputy director of some federal department (or was it a top city official somewhere?) who was asked to resign over his correct usage of the word "niggardly" when referring to their apportioning of funds in the budget. Ah-ha! It was an aide for mayor of D.C. (Mayer was Anothony Williams and aide/speaker was David Howard). Turns out, a black member of the mayor's staff, incorrectly thinking that the word "niggardly" was a racial slur, lodged a formal complaint causing howard to resign.

Wikipedia: David Howard incident

niggardly - adj.
1 : grudgingly mean about spending or granting
2 : provided in meanly limited supply

January 24, 2007 :: Snow, Cold Weather, and Grades

Bella going for a walk in the snow covered roads of D.C.

It finally winter here in D.C. and the snow is still on the ground from Sunday night's 1-2 inches of snow. It was very pretty out.

I've gotten all but one of my grades from law school, and when complete, I'll post a summary (maybe). If you know me, you probably already know that I've done pretty well.

One change this semester: I've had two of my casebooks bound by section to allow me to carry less tonnage in my pack. My criminal procedure book was 1600 pages and now is in 300-600 page sections which are, clearly, around one third of the weight of the book as a whole. Turns out that the binding alone is 6 ounces or so. My torts casebook before binding was 5 pounds 2 ounces. Now, each section is a little over one pound, or two pounds max for the largest section. So, for a day that I have either of those classes, or any day I'm reading those subjects, I have at least three to four pounds less to carry. Imaging carrying your books for a semester then finding that not only can you put down the equivalent weight of one half-gallon of milk, but also reading gets easier with a spiral binding that can be folded back on itself, suitable for "easy-chair" reading instead of "table-only" reading. Nice. :)