The Blog with No Name

Earlier this month I noted the rejuvenated woman’s suffrage movement in Kuwait. Of course, they had protest babes. Accompanying an article about the role of text messages in Arab circles, there is more proof that the Mid-east has the hottest protest babes on the planet:

(via Instapundit)

The ants are back, and this time they brought their friends. How should I handle this? My current method is to gripe about it a lot and squish them one at a time. It’s not effective. I have a poll to determine what the People think I should do.

Once again, the UN is making noises about how it should control the Internet. As I covered before, the Internet was created almost soley by the US, is administered by US organizations, and the future of it is spearheaded by the US. I can’t tell you how scary the idea of the UN controlling the Internet is to me. It’s every scarier when the champion for the UN is from China, a country that systematically censors and controls the Internet for its citizens. This has bad idea written all over it.

If you take the time to read through the interview you notice that Zhao basically gives only half-answers and possibilities to the questions asked. The only clear idea I get out of it is that the ITU, which is sponsored by the UN, has no real clear plan. And then at the end of the interview, we get this rich quote:

People say the Internet flourished because of the absence of government control. I do not agree with this view. I argue that in any country, if the government opposed Internet service, how do you get Internet service?

Is anybody else bothered by the fact that the guy who wants to control the Internet thinks governments are necessary for it to “flourish”? That bothers me. It bothers me a lot. Furthermore, if people want the Internet they can get it. Even in countries that ban it or extremely curtail it, people still find ways to access it. Zhao may have a point that some level of government involvement is beneficial, possibly extremely beneficial, but the Internet has done quite well with only minimal governmental involvement. I see no reason to broaden it. I think a rough analogy could be made that a single government controlling the Internet is like the government controlling all the printing presses. Of course, nobody would allow that to happen.

Don’t worry it’s just a plastic one. I just saw this exhibit in L.A. I think I remember seeing this baby fetus. One of the coolest parts about the exhibit was the display of babies fetuses in different stages of gestation. It was amazing how developed and human the baby fetus looked even at 24 weeks. The exhibit did make clear that all the plasticised babies fetuses had died natural deaths (as opposed to human choice, I assume).

The whole exhibit was amazing, so if you ever get an opportunity to see Body Worlds, you should go. Just don’t let your imagination run rampant while you’re there.

I think I finally found something in law school that I really enjoy: oral arguments.

I just had my first round tonight. It was a practice round, so it didn’t count for anything. However, for basically just winging it after only a day to read the other side’s argument and prepare, I think I did pretty darn good. In fact the judge with the cowboy boots and large belt buckle described part of my argument as “f***ing phenomenal.” I think that’s a good thing.

Tomorrow I think I’m suppose argue the other side, which is the side I only know via reading my opponents’ brief. I’ll really be winging it then.

Maybe, just maybe, I’ve found something that I can focus on here at law school.

For breakfast I’m having the Breakfast of Champions: strawberry pop-tarts and V8. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong are singing duets. The sun is shining. I had eight hours of sleep last night and no alarm in the morning. This is how life should be.

Oh wait, I have classes, oral arguments, papers, and tests with which to deal. Leave it to school to mess up my life.

The last few days of Spring Break were just as good as the first. I think my grandparent’s place in California is the most relaxing place ever. Tom and I got to hit some golf balls at the driving range. My dad had us take some golf lessons once, and they vastly improved my ability to hit a ball straight. However, I think I’ve forgotten much of it, so I spent most of the time trying to remember the lessons as I whipped balls off the tee at 90 degree angles. I had a few superb drives, but most of the drives behaved more like boomerangs.

We also got to go skiing one more time. We went to a place that was only an hour from my grandparents. It was a small place, but it was cheap. The weather was wonderful. We spent most of the time setting up shots of Tom going off of cat tracks or dropping cliffs. The shots didn’t come out as well as I hoped, but my camera isn’t the greatest. I need a new one. Here are some anyway:

You would have been more impressed if you saw this one in person:

Okay, time to get on with the less enjoyable aspects of my life.

Drew put it well: southern California isn’t so bad once you realize all it has to offer. I used to hate it down here; now I kinda like it.

After 17 grueling hours in my truck, Tom and I arrived in Loma Linda at 2 am Saturday morning. Wait, let’s back up. I turned in my brief on Friday morning. I was expecting it to be a more of a celebratory, burden-off-my-shoulders experience. I guess I had the wind taken out of my sails when I picked it up at the printers, and right there, smack dab in the middle, was a glaringly obvious typo: “REIVER” instead of “RIVER.” It was too late to make changes, so I had to turn it in. I’m guessing a model would have the same feeling when she has to turn in a headshot which has her with glaringly obvious zit right smack dab on the tip of her nose. Yeah, not cool. Not cool at all. That little slip-up vexxed me the whole drive down. I’m sure Tom wondered why I would suddenly pound the steering wheel for seemingly no reason. I guess it keeps me humble.

After 17 grueling, vexxed hours in my truck, Tom and I arrived in Loma Linda. Drew had sent us on this “shortcut” that looped us way out into the Mojave Desert before dropping back into the urban sprawl that is the Greater L.A. Mess. Along the way we were delayed by an exploded truck and super dense fog. The next day we were too tired to get up early enough to go skiing, so we went shopping instead. I think we bought everything except the things for which we were looking. I still need shorts. Tom still needs (”needs”) shoes.

On Sunday, we drove up to Bear Mountain for some skiing and snowboarding. I was pretty skeptical that there would be any snow, but I was wrong. There was plenty of snow. In fact there was so much snow that people made big piles of it all over the mountains. Others then used these piles of snow to launch themselves into the air and do fancy tricks. We did the same. I’ll have a couple of pics of that uploaded later. It was a good day of skiing over all. Not too cold, some sun, good snow, short lines.

Today, while Drew went to work, Tom and I went to the local Six Flags where we met up with 4 of Tom’s college friends. It was good to ride some serious rollercoasters. Last time I road rollercoasters was all the way back in 2002. Today Six Flags was swamped with high schoolers, and for a brief moment I thought no self-respecting twenty-something goes to theme parks. However, after the thrill of the first ride, I stopping thinking about my image. There were no hot babes around anyway, which was pretty disappointing. One of the last coasters we rode had the stupid name of “X.” The coolness of the ride had an inverse relationship with the stupidity of its name. It was by far the best rollercoaster I’ve ever been on, and I’ve been on quite a few. It had this interesting set up where the seats were on pivots, so that the entire seat racks could be rotated any which way they pleased. The way this worked out was you could be facing the ground, hanging upside down, riding backwards, or being back-flipped as the ride twisted around. It was the only rollercoaster that ever had me screaming in pure exhilaration and surprise. Probably the most memorable part is the intial drop. The ride takes you up facing backwards, slightly tilted up. By the time you reach the apex, you are lying flat on your back, and you can’t see where you’re going at all. Then you start falling. Just as you start falling, the chair rotates around so that you’re literally hanging from the straps facing the ground as you plunge down, only to be swooped away at the last minute and hurled into more twists.

Tomorrow, I’m looking forward to another day of shopping and hopefully going to this. Pretty creepy huh? I’m pretty wiped out, so I’m going to proof this in the morning.

In mere hours, I will have finished and turned in my brief. Thinking back on it now, it doesn’t seem like it was something that was that bad. In fact, I hardly even remember writing most of it. Maybe it’s like that whole thing where extreme pain blocks out memories. Like child birth. So, the appellate brief is my child. What an ugly child. The real break I got with the brief was when my rough draft came back relatively untouched. I guess I nailed the appropriate nails on their heads. I think he also liked one of my arguments, which I’m beginning to think is rather clever.

I hope to read this book and this book over the break. I have a book review I want to get posted sometime soon. I finished the book a while ago but haven’t had a chance to put down my thoughts on it.

Tom and I will be leaving for L.A. as soon as we can tomorrow morning. I’m looking forward to being on the road, heading towards sun, and listening to some good tunes. The break will be welcome before the end of semester kicks into high gear. After the break my life won’t be that much improved: 25 page paper, oral arguments, and finals.

This will probably be my last post until early next week.

Victor Marks, always looking out for my best interest, has made my day by alerting me to this nice photo (from here):

Beautiful women, quotes from Braveheart. . .what more could a guy need? Are all the fabled cedars of Lebanon actually trees?

One more week until Spring Break. Man, I’m ready for it. My brief is due on Friday, and I have a lot of work to do on it still. Blogging will remain light.

For Spring Break, Tom and I are going down to California to visit Drew. Hopefully we will be doing some skiing and make it to a theme park. I haven’t been on a decent rollercoaster in years. On the way back from LA, I hope to drop in on our grandparents in northern California. It’ll be nice to be on the road and getting some sun. My opinion of California has improved quite a bit over the past couple of years. I have a new poll concerning The Golden State.

These past couple of weeks have had absolutely gorgeous weather. It’s hard to believe it’s technically still winter. It’s also hard to believe that it’s Salem, Oregon. It has felt like California or something. Last Friday some law school buddies had a barbeque. It was very relaxing to sit in the warm sun, eat some good meat, and drink some (yes, just some) beer.

Anyway, to sleep.

Sinfest perfectly encapsulates my existence these past few weeks.

The Wallace And Gromit trailer is now online! Well, it’s not a trailer, but it’s something! My expectations for this film are as high as my expectations for Pixar’s films. In short, it’s gonna rock. Too bad I have to wait until October.

Mt. St. Helens makes some noise and pollution. She doesn’t scare me, but read this for apocalyptic fun!

Iraq exit strategy: Iran. The Onion has the scoop.

Greg highlights the newly restarted women’s suffrage movement in Kuwait:

The country best known as invaded territory 14 years ago has had a women’s rights movement going back to the first gulf war, but when a women’s suffrage bill was beaten back in 1999, there were no demonstrations. As a new suffrage bill made its way Monday, 500 Kuwaiti activists, mostly women, demonstrated outside the parliament

Of course, the women are gorgeous.