KXVU

Not that you haven’t all found out by now one way or another, but I am officially announcing Hildebeasts and my engagement.  I’ll post the longer version of this some time when I’m not at work, but we are happy and romantical and stuff, and the proposal story involves Pee Wee Herman.

No dates are set as of yet.  We’re mainly focusing our efforts on telling various family members to back the eff off.

I just walked home in the slush & snow to find 4 French-Canadians on my porch, dressed up as grapes and wine bottles, filming a video-card to a roommate who used to live in this house.  When I walked into my apartment, I walked into a conversation where one of my roommates was about to go to a sex toy party (like a Tupperware party, but with slightly different plastic products) and another of my roommates was ducking the invitation to go with because sex toys go “against her life philosophy” (which is to say she’s a little scared of sex and terribly uncomfortable talking about sexuality with anyone).

This level of complete randomness seems right in my life, and make me feel that the world is properly balanced.  Cheers.

These are not one day of links, but things I’ve been keeping on the back burner and saving up for one of these bullet point posts.

• Why do Conan Doyle’s heirs still have any copyrights in Sherlock Holmes?  They don’t even have copyrights anymore in England, because there it has properly expired. I don’t think that it is a fair deal for these attenuated descendants to continue to profit for work that was (1) not done by them (2) over 120 years ago.  Perpetual protection of intellectual property is a perverse incentive that proscribes innovation.
• The line-up for Coachella 2010. It looks like a worthwhile adventure for 3 days, even though I think I’m the only one who would be willing to camp there again.
• An interesting project, Charting the Beatles, i.e. representing relationships between lyrics and musical themes across the entire Fab Four catalog.
• It is really hard to believe, that some racist wants to start an all white player basketball league, but then again, Mass did run Red-Brown.  (Yes, I feel sick like I have bloody diarrhea from that election.)
• Reflections on the severe recession from the leading minds of the Chicago Economics school.  It is all very well argued, but it interesting to see which of them are willing to admit that they might be wrong and in what senses, if at all.

Finally, and most importantly, bless Conan O’Brien with his hilarious and vindictive comedy at the expense of Jeff Zucker, and I will make the effort to support his new show whenever it comes on.

Leroys Menswear is a Seattle retail establishment.  Apparently, they did better business before all the pimps were put in jail.

I think I’ve stated before that with Facebook available, I don’t have as much of a need to post random links here. I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t post a status or link to Facebook more than once a day, which keeps my social networking addiction in check. But there are some days when there is just too much good stuff to share and comment on, thus you all get an old school set of bullets.

• There is apparently an upside to the Somali pirates, fishermen in Kenya are doing much better now that illegal commercial fishing trawlers aren’t around.
• My favorite local DC band, Exit Clov, is coming out with their first LP Memento Mori.
• Pictures from a Star Wars burlesque show, you will not find a more sexy hive of scum and villainy.
• I know none of you are going to read this, but here is some interesting insight into how and why the jurors who recently decided a patent infringement case against Microsoft made their decisions.
• As for the recent Mark McGuire revelations, oh wait, I don’t care.

The bench trial (i.e. no jury, only before a judge) regarding Prop 8 has started in the Northern District of California before Judge Vaughn Walker.  On the thought of same-sex marriage, here is what an interesting thought which has been kicking around my head for a while (and forgive me if I’ve posted this here before). What happens when someone starts a SSM church (or synagogue, or mosque, or temple)? This hypothetical church is completely identical to a Protestant church across the street, EXCEPT that it includes gay marriage as one of its sacraments, as one of the CORE TENANTS of their interpretation of the Christian faith. What then? The Freedom of Religion and Establishment Clauses in the First Amendment suggest to me that the SSM marriages would have to be recognized. As I understand it, a judge is not allowed to evaluate the merits or truth of one’s belief, only the sincerity. So the courts could not strike it down, and any State legislation to oppose the church from performing SSM would be unconstitutional. There has to be something I’m missing from my understanding of U.S. Constitutional Law, because it can’t be that simple to legalize SSM… unless IT IS that simple and this is simply a matter where no one has done this yet.

Most of the time, being the fifth wheel in SD was perfectly fine.  However, every once in a while it was … difficult being single when in the presence of two, cute, adorable, wonderful, and totally-in-love couples.   This is the a large part of the reason I chose to not go skiing; I needed the me time.  However, now orangejello and I are in that position and I’m sure that objectively, he and I with our respective girlfriends are just as nauseatingly precious.  So just what do we do on our double-dates?

For New Year’s Eve, we went to a bar on H St. in NE DC, Palace of Wonders, for a burlesque show.  Yes, burlesque, though more carnival-sideshow than Gypsy Rose.  There was some very impressive sword swallowing and fire eating by performers Tyler Fire and Thrill Kill Jill.  The bar was extremely packed and somewhat cold.  It is decorated with, appropriately, carnival sideshow posters, paintings, and things like a stuffed unicorn head.  I consider it one of the best dive bars in the city, in part because its location isn’t generally that safe.

The four of us also saw Sherlock Holmes together this weekend. It was an excellent buddy cop movie that happens to be set in Victorian England.  Robert Downey Jr. & Jude Law have solid chemistry, and Guy Richie seems to be regaining his focus as a director.  Word is that the two actors helped their director get back up on the horse following the divorce from Madonna; one can only imagine what carousing ensued. There is a blatant set up for a sequel, but as a whole the plot was tight and the pacing good. We went out for grilled chicken afterward.

So generally, outside of work, things are quite good. I am now too tired to write further, or to make my writing prettier.

I don’t know when or why this happened, or who kalleanka71 is, but setting the theme songs of 80’s TV action shows to Star Wars clips is a pretty great nostalgia mash-up.

The A-Team

MacGyver (my favorite of these mash-ups)

Airwolf (there is an Imperial version too)

Magnum P.I.  (done by TheCBVee)

Now all I can ask for is a Dukes of Hazard version.

I received an e-mail today from the university I am getting my master’s through.  Apparently I made quite the impression on my educational technology professor and when HR asked her for recommendations among her previous students my name was one of the names given.  The position is to design curriculum for online courses and to design instructional media, which I don’t actually have much experience with.  They did want someone with high school teaching experience though.  This would be a full time job and would be a total change of careers before I even got comfortable with my current one.  Anyway I turned it down before they had a chance to see on my resume I don’t have the necessary experience.

It has already been 4 months since I started work as a lawyer, so this is as good a time as any to take a step back and examine what makes me happy and unhappy with the job. I’ve already written that I have good days and bad days, but that they are all exhausting days.  The response to that statement was that every job has the same effect. Fair enough, but I still feel like there is something more … crushing about being a lawyer.

(This is going to be long, so I am putting it below the fold.)

» Read the rest of this entry …

Travel notes from today:

• I got picked up by the airport shuttle this morning.  I don’t know if I was more impressed or scared by the driver handling 2 cell phones at the same time as driving and manipulating the GPS.
• I had a really solid breakfast this morning at the B Gate concourse at Dulles, at Max & Erma’s.  Not (too) overpriced, I got 2 eggs properly over-medium, pimp but done bacon, and well-seasoned home fries.  I was pleasantly surprised.
• On the JetBlue preview advertisement channel, there was a piece on Rihanna’s new album, Rated R.  This was also a retrospective on all of Rihanna’s songs since she broke onto the scene in 2005.  My adoration of her has been heightened greatly.
• Flipping channels during the flight, I came across Snoop Dogg on Martha Stewart.  This broke my mind.  They were baking brownies together.  I turned to the guy sitting across the aisle from me, and he also looked terribly confused.  We both needed the other to confirm that our double-take was justified and that we weren’t hallucinating. Snippets from the segment:
  • Snoop was wearing a black velvet/suede suit, with a long coat jacket.  He was also wearing sunglasses indoors, which may have been silver rimmed.
  • Martha asked about Snoop’s 3 kids and upcoming vacation to Hawaii.  Snoop responded, “The kids will come to Hawaii once my wife and I are tired.“  The whole audience laughed.
  • Martha had green crystal sugar to put on the brownies before baking.  Snoop non sequitured, “I got some green I want to sprinkle here.“
  • As Snoop was describing the room in his house which is his “Man Cave”, Martha replied, “I have a ‘Woman Cave’.“
  • Martha says in passing, “Then we bake these at 350°.“  Snoop slyly asks, “Why not 420°?“  Martha simply replies without any notice of the innuendo, “Baking is an exact art.“
  • Snoop ate his brownie, but only nibbled at the edges, and SMACKED HIS LIPS REALLY LOUDLY THE WHOLE TIME.  The entire bit was incredibly surreal.
• My mother just made me try some homemade applesauce which she has in mason jars and is giving as gifts for Christmas this year.   I have a small taste, and it is quite good, and I tell her so.  It is made with 4 different apples apparently.  Then, she jumps up, puts me in a HEADLOCK, and forces me to eat a heaping spoonful of applesauce as if I were 3-years old.  Ah yes, I am home.

I am still trying to put my head together about what to write about working as a lawyer so far.  For the moment, I’ll just try not to go insane.