No power like that of the spleen

11:33pm:

Of course, some lawyers’ online problems are the same as everyone else’s, like getting caught in a fib. Judge Susan Criss of the Texas District Court in Galveston recalled in an interview a young lawyer who requested a trial delay because of a death in the family. The judge granted the delay, but checked the lawyer’s Facebook page.

“There was a funeral, but there wasn’t a lot of grief expressed online,” Judge Criss said. “All week long, as the week is going by, I can see that this lawyer is posting about partying. One night drinking wine, another night drinking mojitos, another day motorbiking.” At the end of the delay, the lawyer sought a second one; this time the judge declined, and disclosed her online research to a senior partner of the lawyer’s firm.

Judge Criss, who first told the story at a panel during an American Bar Association conference, said that the lawyer has since removed her from her friends list.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/us/13lawyers.html?_r=1&hp

5:52pm: Hey Internet!

I'm going to be in San Diego next weekend. We should hang out!

Yours,

Alex

4:12am: GRAAAR!!!
Grar?

1:52pm: http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWY3ODRhNDFjNzQ0Mzk0NDI2YjM4Y2YyOGVjMGVkNDU

...in which a blogger on the site of a rather conservative periodical determines that it is in fact gay people contributing to a rise in unmarried people having kids, rather than say, a government opposed to any sort of sex-ed/contraception/family planning.

I don't know if this is really that notable, but I just found it so wholly ludicrous I felt like pointing it out to somebody, and you, internet, are that somebody.

7:13pm: Got an interview with these people tomorrow:

http://www.ped.fas.harvard.edu/

That's pretty much a nerd job-and-a-half place to work. I hope it turns out fun. The other interview tomorrow is just with some nonprofit that takes care of kids or whatnot. Everyone knows kids should all be thrown off the Coronado Bridge.

2:58pm: http://www.stpaulparish.org/homepage.html

Maybe I'll get a job working for the Catholic Church. They're posting on Craigslist.

10:02pm: Hey everybody,

I'm living in Boston now. I don't really know what the hell I'm doing here, but if you're ever in the area, stop by, and we'll go get vegan pie (if you're KJ), or something else (if you're a normal sort of person who doesn't suggest dessert for every meal, at any time). But yeah, I figure I'll be here at least a year, maybe even more if the fates decree it. Totally looking forward to riding a bike through snow.

1:15pm: From a comment on a blog. I like it for obvious reasons.

I was anomalous, in that did not set foot on any university ground prior to the move in on orientation day. Seeing an assortment of people and personalities probably helps prospective students feel they could find somewhere within the school to exist and even thrive. My choice was made when I had an interested baseball coach and found there to be no fraternities on campus.

I attended smaller research universities and was asked to attend every science open house event from my first mention of an intended pursuit of a Physics major. Of course like many I was there for the food, but they were usually a good bit of fun. Late undergrad and through grad school many prospects and parents asked about the research of "that spiky-mohawked professor." Admissions would never openly admit to such, but an amicable campus punk was one their better recruitment points.

The primary lab I worked in was near the building doors and thus we were near the school tour route. If the lab door was open as the tour came along we would redirect them through the lab for "our" portion of the tour. The best was when one of the grad students was talking/explaining our work when he walked past a bench of assorted bits. He looked down said, "Oh, shiny!" He placed some little metal object in his pocket, and then just kept on talking as if nothing happened. Most of the prospects mentioned it later in their interviews, which led to some memos between admissions and the physics office concerning students pocketing school equipment. I know at least one person on that tour became a student at the school.

http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2007/05/you_gotta_admit.php

3:39pm: A splendid name...
http://www.villagechristianchurch.org/pastorbio.asp

I direct your attention to the name of said pastor. That's pretty much one of the more awesome last names I've seen.

1:23pm: Such obscene amounts of ridiculousness to this article...

Furthermore, the benefits of science are hugely exaggerated. Most of the advances in human technology are a function of the wealth produced by capitalism and human liberty, as may be seen in the retarded technological development in countries with no shortage of education and scientists, but handicapped by anti-capitalist, anti-libertarian ideology. Most inventors are not scientists and most scientists are not inventors; whereas Oppenheimer and Einstein gave us the nuclear bomb, Steve Wozniak gave us the personal computer and Al Gore gave us the Internet. It's worth noting that the inventors of what is considered to be the most significant invention of the century, the silicon chip, were not scientists but electrical engineers.

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54544

10:51am: On the day she first met the man who would become my great-grandfather, my great-grandmother came home and fumed to her mother, "I wish someone would take all the conceit out of that man." To which my great-great-grandmother replied: "Oh, don't do that. There's often very little left."

2:29pm: I direct you to:

www.conservapedia.com

...for when Wikipedia is just too anti-American.

Sadly, its servers are rather overloaded at the moment, as multitudes of various disrespectful people who oft reside at ScienceBlogs.com have taken it upon themselves to add or edit entries in a satirical fashion. (One might suggest Google's cached version.)

But yes, the last couple of days at work have presented much more ludicrousness than usual. I don't quite know what's up with that.

*Edit: Awesomeness*

This, however, is truly awesome.

http://www.scidev.net/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=readnews&itemid=3432&language=1

"Com ciência na cabeça e frevo no pé/Science in the Head and [certain sort of Brazilian music] in the Feet" is my new favorite phrase, I think. I shall have to look them up.

1:57pm: WorldNetDaily

Can you afford to allow your children to mix with a generation of licentious reprobates raised in the popular culture's moral cesspool?

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53826

Something about the phrase "licentious reprobates" tickles my fancy. Hey Coop, you ol' licentious reprobate: to where would I sent a birthday missive or the like? Like me know.

11:11pm: School, school, school

Well, in light of the couple of people who have recently wrote writing of their pleasure in not attending school, or having homework, or the like, I feel I must write something to defend the academic enterprise. So huzzah for thermodynamics and E & M, and linear algebra (more convenient to my schedule, it turned out), and C, and miscellaneous general chemistry (a much weaker huzzah there, but organic chemistry in a semester promises to be much more appealing to my character). So yes, the new semester starts in earnest tomorrow. But yes, I thought I should stick up for classes (and perhaps even homework, though I'm still not exactly the most conscientous student in that regard. More than I used to be, though.)

(The Music field below should convey information regarding a song entitled, "I Got Love.")

10:07pm: So I was off in Puerto Rico last week. If I may offer some advice: if fate ever gives you the opportunity to swim in a calm body of water populated with luminescent dinoflagellates and bacteria, I strongly suggest that you take it.

7:53pm: This is really rather cute, Miss Coop and Mr. Wheelie

4:22pm: Hey Miss Coop...
I got to hang out with Miss Winemiller on Friday and you did not. We went to the Moscow Circus, finished watching "Bend It Like Beckham," (which we had started earlier in the evening), and gossiped about you 'til we fell asleep. It was fun.

Hope you and MC Wheelie and Mr. (something that sounded complex) are well.

12:22pm: Work, work, work
I came across this article in the course of my duties at work, and felt compelled to share. I do so greatly enjoy the combination of the sublimely ridiculous with the earnestly serious.

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52567

2:05pm: I strongly approve of the combined awesomeness and nerdliness (multiple disciplines of nerdliness, even!) contained herein:

http://www.studiodaily.com/main/technique/tprojects/6850.html

5:23pm: I just thought that this was amongst the most ridiculous things ever, and I felt I had to share. And since no one's around at the moment, I shall share it with the LiveJournal kids.

http://marchtogether.blogspot.com/2006/07/murder-without-conscience.html

[edit: Aw, they made it less amusing by adding the sadness to the top. I imagine they were rather pilloried, and felt some need to strike back.]

2:07pm: Gratitude
Also, thanks to the KJ and the Stephen for coming up to the show last weekend. Without you, it just would have been a swarm of older people, and perhaps worse, my family (which doesn't always get along, but got through with relatively few insults this time around). It was fun.

1:14pm: Once more into a random update...
So this weekend was particularly fine. I'm off in Cambridge now, and I arrived on what I have been told was the first day of spring. Prior to my arrival, it was in the 30s and 40s, but now that I'm here the 60s have not been uncommon. Although it's supposed to get colder and snow later on in the week; I've don't remember ever being snowed on before. Much playing and hiking and other things in snow have occurred in my life, but I can't recall an instance of snow falling down upon me. Perhaps this will change, and I will be pleased.

So I'm visiting a friend from the university days, who lived in Davis house with me. Friday we met a friend of hers and got a variety of fake meats at a fairly delightful restaurant in Boston's Chinatown, then walked around various districts and eventually to home. The restaurant in question, and various other local businesses, is on the second floor, and I like how common businesses in the basement and on other not-ground floor levels are around here.

So then on Saturday, taking advantage of the surprising spring, we sat on Boston Common for a while, through a frisbee in preparation for her re-joining the Ultimate Frisbee world, walked over to the North End and got quite delicious pasta (in the basement of an extremely tiny place, of course), met another friend of hers who I had heard much about but never met, went to the top of one of the taller buildings around (or almost - the top floor is reserved for a rather fancy bar and restaurant, but we were close) and inspected views of Boston in all directions, acquired ice cream (and sorbet) at a venue where the flavors were raspberry truffle and Irish orange, and then back across the bridge to the dwelling. (I made a good run at trying to make that day into one long sentance, but as you can see, some notion of dignity prevented me.) After returning, we listened to music and chatted and so forth, and eventually her roommates returned as well, one in a more sober state, two much less so. So we ended up downstairs, where wrestling occurred (me naturally being dominant of course, but it's not too exciting as I outmassed and outreached everyone there by what is probably a significant margin). Then a couple of the attendees retired, so my friend and I were left with the Brazilian guy, who described for us the different tribes of punks in Brazil in the days when he was a '77 punk, and talked about how awesome the Pixies were, and how much he liked Iggy Pop and David Bowie and so forth. Always nice to meet another random Pixies fan. Then to bed, somewhere around four in the morning.

Yesterday, after prying ourselves from bed around 2 or so (almost a KJ schedule, but perhaps still too early), off to Harvard Square for Thai food and the Harvard Book Store, which contained an impressively substantial collection of used and remaindered books.

All in all, a great deal of pleasant-ness.

8:04pm: The votes of the masses:
So yeah, thinking about photography...



The upper right corner's rather weak, but whatever.

I am attempting to come up with a little statement to hang on the wall in the grand tradition of photography exhibitions, and I'm coming up with various ideas, but not that bring about an "Ah-ha" moment. So I'm soliciting the LiveJournal crowd for any random thing they think about photography in search of such a moment. What do you think, eh?

11:11am: So I'm having a show of pictures from Cuba somewhere in L.A. on March 3-April twenty something, with an opening on March 5. There'll be vegan food an' everything. So if anyone'll be around, you're welcome to come on by. If you'd like, I shall send you one of the official announcements if you send me your address. Perhaps to alexanderwing at ye olde gmaile. Who knows who will be there?

Here are announcements for those inclined to see.

And resized...

11:54pm: Music, music, music
Well, this has been a pretty pleasing week. Coupl'a days ago I saw Arturo Sandoval, then yesterday Banyan, and tonight dos in a most excellent set. Good music all around. Despite coming home at somewhat unrespectable hours considering the fact that I have to wake up early for my hour-long commute (most of it at a walk, don't worry), I've been pretty happy. And the guy opening for dos was awesome. He played an upright bass, playing jazz tunes, Ornette Coleman and whatnot, and a black flag song all more interesting, and something that I didn't recognize called "Premonitions" for solo bass which was quite awesome as well.

And on Sunday, instead of having to deal with my mom and family's ridiculousness on Christmas, I got to deal with a completely different family's even more ridiculous behaviour at their Hanukkah event, which was awesome.

And I was grinning like a maniac (or perhaps a fool, I wasn't quite able to determine which) yesterday around 4:40 p.m. I don't do nearly enough of that in my daily life.

Also, to whom it may concern:

I have decided that I shall be less of a horrible person, henceforth. If any of you have ever been negatively affected by my being horrible, know that I deeply regret and apologize, but that I wasn't otherwise sure what to do. I humbly beg forgiveness and ask if I can make it up to you in some way.

Edit: Kj called up, to remonstrate me for saying that I was a horrible person. So perhaps some clarification is in order. So, I have an ideal for my behavior. Willingly deviating from that is what I have put forth as 'horrible.' "But wait," you might say. "That's a false dichotomy, emerging from the human brain's tendancy to want to order things into two distinct groups. Real life ethical behavior isn't like that; it's not even described well by a linear scale!" And while you'd be sort of right, my point stands, if you'll permit me to explain. So I have this ideal. Now performing some behavior seemingly in service to the goals, methods, ideas of the ideal that ends up well is all right. Not the best of course, but you know, still trying to goodness. The problem arises when one is perfectly aware of the ideal and what actions constitute the ideal, and yet, because of a lack of courage, willpower, intenstinal fortitude, whatever, knowingly engages in some activity that one knows is not the right thing to do. There's really no excuse for that. Thus, you see, horrible.

On another note, I have also decided to be more expressive. While being all non-committal and withdrawn was no doubt an effective coping strategy when I was a young child and my parents always sniped at each other and complained about each other by talking to me (since they didn't live with one another), I no longer live with them, and my situation is entirely different. Frankly, while I have appreciated the general emotional sturdiness that it's helped to engender, it's lost its primary function and I'm somewhat sick of it. I intend to still be stable and whatnot, but I also intend to be more direct and sincere, and, frankly, useful. I mean I was useful for various things before but I hope the new model will be better. So if you notice me being less than ideal, let me know, if you wouldn't mind.

That's all, I think. Even'.