Current country music hit: "The Bumper of my S.U.V." It's about the pride Chely feels in putting a U.S. Marines sticker on the back of her very own symbol of American greed.

Love that flag, General Patton...er...Chely.

Be good for Zord.

Flowery fountain.

Altered sign.

Daniel in gallery.

Pukey army.

Daniel and civic center.

Pathway.

Shiny.

Concert hall.

Sexy mannequin for walkers, crutches, and prosthetic devices.

I got a new cell phone. So shiny!

The Duck.

Like it says.

Gloomy clouds over The Wiltern.

Then what do you do with it?

Bush v. Salmon

In a big "fuck you" to environmentalists (that's you, Galen), Bush plans to remove "critical habitat" status for more than 80% of the currently-protected streams and rivers on the West Coast. Bottom line? Salmon habitat will only be protected where the fish are today, not where they were historically.

New place.

New phone?

This may be my new phone. My old phone battery lasts for about 5 minutes and it's cheaper to get a brand new phone than a new battery. I'm only worried about the camera. Quite a few courts don't allow "recording devices" and cameras in the courthouse. Considering, however, that pretty much anything these days is a "recording device" - any computer, a PDA, most non-camera phones, etc., I think they're pretty lax about it as long as you don't, you know, start taking pictures. Lawyers would be up in arms if they couldn't bring their phones into court - and considering that most phones sold these days have cameras, I think a change in the rules might be imminent.

Stacks of pennies.

More hair than before.

Bad winner.

Interested in cards.

News Flash: Traffic in LA Sucks

Maybe it was the pre-Thanksgiving traffic, but traffic yesterday was as horrible as I have ever seen. It took me 3 hours to drive across town to West LA and back - that's only about 10 miles each way. Good thing is - this town now turns into zombie-land until January 2.

josh passed the bar

josh passed the bar which means that he will never be stressed out again! but now it's my turn to be stresed out because i have big exams this year that determine whether i get to be phd or masters student.
bye

We passed out!

We got outrageously drunk!

We passed the freaking bar!

MPAA lawsuits

The MPAA announced today that it has begun to sue file traders RIAA-style. This sounds like it's going to be about as successful as their campaign of disinformation that they have been pressing in movie theaters and online (through a crappy Flash site).

But my beef with the MPAA is not over their lame "Respect Copyrights" initiative. Here's the problem: the MPAA is lying to people. If you have seen a theatrical trailer recently, you know what I'm talking about. You know - the one featuring some kid jacking a car with a crowbar, a guy stealing an old lady's purse, and someone downloading a movie over a p2p network. "Downloading is a crime," explains the trailer. Except - here's the thing. Downloading copyrighted work may be illegal, but it is not a crime. It's civil copyright infringement (unless you download more than $1,000 worth of material during a 180-day span). Which is why copyright holders can sue file sharers for gabs of money. What would happen to you if, you know, you did actually steal a CD from a record store? You'd get something like a $500 fine and you'd have to return the CD. But if you download a single track from the internet, all of a sudden you're liable for $150,000 in statutory penalties for "willful" infringement. That's because you are infringing a copyright, not stealing. And let's not even get into the fact that each track on the CD is probably a separate work for purposes of copyright law, so you're liable in the end for $150,000 multiplied by, say, 12. Ouch.

The MPAA wants to have it both ways. They want to label file sharers as criminals, but they want to sue them for civil infringement. This just isn't right.

Rachel and her mizzle.

Rachel's hizzle in Pittsburgh.

well, i've just been reprimanded for not posting enough so i will now. recently i decided a professor was an asshole. It was one of those experiences where you know everyone in the class is cringing, but the professor somehow doesn't notice. the prof was basically picking on a student because of his problems with speaking english as a second language. Everyone could tell the student understood what he was talking about too. the professor was obviously enjoying persecuting the student; the funny thing is, when native english speakers had said things in the past that were much less intelligent, he never blinked an eye.
It amazes me how much racism exists in this city, even though it is so diverse. I always though that racism would be worse in places like pittsburgh where i grew up, but i have seen much more in the 3 years i have lived in Los Angeles than I ever did growing up in the burgh.

fabulous

I am trying Konfabulator, which was recently released for Windows. The verdict is still out. Is it useful enough to take up precious RAM on my pokey 192mb laptop? It is pretty, though, and even...useful?

Check the mess.

New apartment at night. Yeah, I haven't been here in daylight yet.

move

The move is over. As I look at my personal effects piled in a heap in the middle of my living room, I have to wonder: what the hell is all this crap?

Pictures soon.

Just in case anyone was entertaining the notion that Tuesday's election result wasn't determined by a bunch of Jesus-loving zealots. Welcome to the Republic of Jesusistan.

Shaded county map. Looks less oppressive than the all-red two-color county breakdown.

I've had a no good very bad day and i want to move to australia. seriously. this week is crazy, moving, elections, planting seeds, exams, awesome concert festivals.
these past few weeks in grad school have made me really excited about evolutionary biology. I always said i would probably end up outside of academia working for the park service or something, but now i'm not so sure i could give up what the academic life offers- the chance to be at the forefront of your field.
we'll see how i feel after 5-7 years.

Now that we've lost and been decapitated, I just hope that people think twice next time about nominating someone based solely on electability. Remember "He can beat Bush!"? Also, Congressmen are a no-go from here on out, I think, for President. No matter who they are, they are *always* compromised by their voting records.

hobbits!

HOBBITS!

field time

I'm going back up to sedgewick to collect acorns, leaving josh to pack boxes and mope. I'm hoping that the massive amounts of rain we had last week made everything a bit green (except the acorns of course- they better not be moldy.) maybe i will even see some animals- i'll post pics .
then next week i will be weighing and planting frantically. moving too. we'll see if any homework gets done.

fuck all y'all

My Yahoo! features RSS

Maybe this will actually get me to use some of those RSS feeds. Opening a separate app for checking stripped-down headlines always seemed to take more time that it was worth to me.

U2pod take 2

It happened. I want to like it but it's so damn...ugly!

Drinking in the dark.

Headless Hen-man.

Pumpkins.

Delphine carves a pumpkin for the first time.

Charlie's pumpkin.

Yipe!

Carnivorous plants

Those are some pics of my plants. It's become a dorky new hobby- I even bought a little greenhouse. I got my first plants at trader Joes. But i like the others better- I got them at sarrecenia Northwest, they were cheap, but really healthy. the only thing that is a pain in the ass about them is i have to give them special water- distilled water or rain water.

This is a round leafed sundew. it's going to flower soon. it catches lots of fruitflies and gnats.

Venus flytraps! one caught a big fat fly last week.

scary!

Ahhhh! Wolves!

American Theocracy

From the new proposed Constitution Restoration Act of 2004:

`Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the Supreme Court shall not have jurisdiction to review, by appeal, writ of certiorari, or otherwise, any matter to the extent that relief is sought against an element of Federal, State, or local government, or against an officer of Federal, State, or local government (whether or not acting in official personal capacity), by reason of that element's or officer's acknowledgement of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government.'

I.e., any judge who hears a lawsuit challenging government officials who use the power of the state to enforce their own view of "God's sovereign authority" can be removed from office.

well josh just vomitted a bunch of stuff on to the blog. he likes it now. i've been being a science dork. in fact i think i will post some photos of my carnivorous plants soon, just in case there is any doubt to the level of dorkiness i can master.

Does Bush have pre-senile dementia? Somebody with iMovie makes the case.

Time for some better artwork.

U2pod

Black U2 iPod. My teenage self is going crazy. Woot.

Biting my nails

The Slate Election Scorecard predicted a win for Kerry for the first time ever yesterday. Today it has him with a 286-vote win in the electoral college.

Isn't it November 2nd yet? I can't stands no more.

LAUSD decided to tear down most of the Ambassador Hotel to build a school. While the city needs schools, I can't help but think that this city is locked into a cycle of erasing its history and rebuilding itself. Strip malls for everyone!

Bye bye Foogert.

I am the fire chief.

Got my harddrive back. Glad I backed up photos from Colorado - especially the bunch from the top of Mt. Evans (where I yakked).

We're moving, leaving the pink and teal 1986 fortress for a pre 1950 triplex with french doors and hardwood floors.

My friend charlie hen.

My friend charlie (tall emo freak) is visiting. we watched the new star wars dvd. the new/old additions suck. stay on target george.

I am very excited about this. I went jogging on Saturday, put it on endless repeat, and had a transcendent geek experience.

Dead blue oak with lots of lichen. Sedgwick Reserve.

Acorn granary. woodpeckers store acorns here to eat later in the year. Lots of gross bugs eat the acorns too.

test posts are pretty dorky yoshjosh. why don't you have anything to say?

i spent my weekend working- carrying a big fucking 20 foot ladder to put bags on oak trees so my boss can look at their DNA. we ended up working on the hottest weekend of the summer of course - but the pool at the reserve where we were working was emerald green with algae so swimming was out of the question. Instead i introduced the european postdoc to gatorade, she thought it was gross, but she still ended up drinking most of it and then bought two more bottles.
Right now i'm getting ready to start classes at UCLA for my doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology. I can't believe i'll be back in school until i'm 30.
the secret is that biology is a good excuse to travel and spend time outdoors. as much as i complained about my weekend, i got to spend my time under oak trees, barbequing and drinking wine. (Sedgwick reserve where i do my field work is in wine country - los olivos and santa ynez are close by) . i'll post pics of working at the reserve soon.

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