on christmas day i took my parents to the airport for their flight to the netherlands then charles and i went over to see my grandma and other family. the next day charlie and i drove up i-5 to portland so we ride the oregon coast. the weather started looking pretty dodgy (see the picture) and various girlfriends ended up talking us out of it.
instead he and i did a little driving trip down 1/3 of the coast. on our way back to portland we picked up krista at her parent's house then went and got some sushi at saburo's. it was alarmingly good but by the end the leftovers looked amazingly disgusting. one piece of eel looked like a slug had crawled up on top of the rice, yuck.
this morning charlie headed back to reno. it was really good to get to see him again. i think we're going to try to do the ride in the summer when the weather is a bit more pleasant.
bush sent out one million holiday greeting cards as part of what would look like a pay back for a campaign contribution from hallmark.
a bit of good news, the israli's have pulled out of bethlehem for christmas. they're still surrounding the city but it's still something of a good will gesture. hopefully it'll stay quiet.
looks like the gingold brothers have left cuba. i'm sure dan will have something to say about it soon.
coming through the new tsa's security at pdx i this morning (well yesterday morning actually) thought i had a rather annoying time. this fellow's got a story about getting arrested after yelling at the tsa officials after they made his pregnate wife cry. i can't say he was in the right but the tsa could have done a lot better job handleing it.
i flew down to reno today. i'm going to hang out with the family 'til xmas day then go with my brother to visit my grandmother. after that we're going to head up to oregon and ride the pacific coast. it's going to be good, cold, wet bike riding fun.
i got mod_php fixed so the gallery is back up again. posted some new zoobomb photos from last month when joe lane was in town. i'll be putting some other portland pictures in the next few days.
danny o'brien posted an entry on his blog detailling his efforts to become a permanent resident in the states. after finishing it he's convinced me to join the aclu
But most of all, right now, I'm lucky because I'm not from an Arab country. Because the simple form-filling errors that I've made in the past - me, English-speaking, college-educated, was-studying-to-be-a-lawyer-at-school - would have got me handcuffed, arrested and thrown in jail this week.
...
Anyway, I'm buying myself a Christmas present. I'm joining the ACLU. It only costs $20, which is certainly less than the $600 or so my immigration application costs. There's only one form to fill in - and I can do it online. And nobody is going to round me up and throw me in jail because I decided to come forward and hand in this paperwork. Or at least, that's the general idea.
trent lott's comments keep getting more attention and friends are becoming scarce. it looks like his leadership role is in serious question. i think most democrats would love to see him stick around. it would make it much for the republicans to get anything done when their senate leader has to spend time ensuring that he doesn't sound too racist.
abcnews has an article about one of the co-founder of bikecentennial (which later became adventure cycling). he's working to make it safer to be a pedestrian among cars. couple of gruesome statistics:
pedestrians account for only 5 percent of all trips in america, but 12 percent of all traffic deaths.
and later:
some of burden's solutions can cost $20,000 to $30,000 for one corner. but that's less, say their advocates, than $80,000 for a set of stop lights — and far less than the $247,000 it will cost if one person gets run over.
finally got to check my grades today. chem b-, math b-, honors a. fucking right got me a 3.18 gpa. of course my cumulative is a 2.42; transfering those credits from unr was the bigger mistakes i've ever made in my university career. any way krista rocked out, she got 4.0. my little brother would be proud.
this is a little old but i really got a kick out of the judge who delivered his opinion in rhyme.
meet one of these very speical ladies "living in correctional facilities all over the united states. most are, understandably, very lonely[!]" just keep in mind those picture were probably taken before they went in. hehe
this lady "photographs" flowers with a flat bed scanner. i'm not so into the gushy art talk but they're pretty cool.
the music industry's been up to some funny business. mac wizards music, an indie lable, refutes the music industry's claim it lost $4 billion to piracy.
at least you've got a chance to get it back. the music industry is looking to settle a class action lawsuit over price fixing. if you purchased music from a retailer between 1995.01.01 and 2000.12.22 you can be part of the settlement. depending on how many people sign on, you might either get a check or the money will go to charity. so head over and sign up!
check this out, it's a timeline of the life of walter potter. he did some of the craziest display cases with stuffed animals you've ever seen. scroll down to see the photos.
i guess reno was racked by windstorms over the weekend. it killed the power at the office where my server lives. the downtime outlasted the ups and when the power came back on mine didn't reboot itself. anyway, everything should be right as rain now.
one of our helicopters crashed in honuras yesterday killing the five soilders all five aboard. they were operating out of puerto rica but what were they doing in honduras? haven't we fucked up enough stuff in central america?
the washington monthly has another list of things the democrasts should have been doing last year.
david rees, they guy who does the get your war on comics was in portland on his book tour yesterday. krista and i went down to see his reading at powell's. i wasn't sure what to expect, but i've gotta say i was very impressed. hearing him read the comics was very funny, the crowd was laughing hysterically at one moment and then dead silent the next. i guess that's just the nature of his cartoons though. he also showed off some comics that never made it up on the web but are in the book. what was probably the most impressive is that he's donating all his royalties to a demineing team in afghanistan.
i've been following talking points memo as the events surrounding trent lott's pro-segregation comments at strom thurman's 100th-birthday party unfold over the last week. initially it looked like he was going to get by with no repercussions, until several other racists moments were revealed. tom daschle had originally excused lott's comments, now looks like he's going to start pressing it as is joe leiberman. we'll see how far it goes.
well finished my chem final just a few minutes ago. i kind of wish i'd spread the time i spent studying for it last night out over the whole quarter, i probably would have done better. it's kind of been a lesson, hopefully i'll remember it next time i'm in a class i don't like. just put in the time and it'll be okay.
the washington post has a piece on the changes immigration is causing in the south. what struck me about the article is how similar its depiction of sprawl culture resembles that of neal patrick stephenson’s snow crash.
finished my math final this morning. i think it'll be alright. i did a little figuring and if i can get a b in the math class and an a in honors, i can skate by with a c in chem and still get that scholarship. here's to hoping eh?
i'm relucant to post this because i haven't mentioned anything about the mideast in quite a while but israeli soilders killed a palestinian woman and wounded her children in gaza. i guess now i'm obliged to note the next suicide bombing.
salon reprints a speach bill clinton gave last week explaining what the democrats should be doing to stop counter the republicans.
i got the paper for my honors class all finished and turned in this afternoon. it's on steven shapin's book a social history of truth. i'm pretty proud of it, if you're interested, you can read it here.
now that that's done i get to spend the next few days madly studying for finals. worrying about a grade point isn't something i'm used to.
the moment every teacher i've ever had never thought they'd see occurred. i got me a scholarship. that's right, the kid that left galena with a 2.25 gpa and couldn't even get into unr, has been offered a scholarship that good for four years of instate tuition at psu.
after that krista and i went on a double date with bill spaceman and his new lady friend, jessie. we went and saw that michael moore movie. he drives me crazy, watching him get charlton heston to blame the "ethnics" for all the violence in the us was pretty funny but there are only so many loaded questions you can sit through before you start to get annoyed. i don't know why anyone would consent to talking to mike moore on camera, he makes everyone look like an idiot, even the people he's supporting. i guess there's worse places my $7.50 could have gone.
kissinger's background is getting a lot of play in the alternative media and i feel i ought to link to at least one story. so here's salon's piece.