The Agrinautica

Simultaneous with the "Old Timey Religion" entry I just made:


Kingdom of Laighin, Hibernia (Ireland), 375 AD - The River Nore naturally flows slowly, with a delicious chocolate colour. It is surrounded by lush emerald vegatation. Vines hang from trees that lean over the embankments, and beside the river a flat area, perhaps flooded at times of greater rain, is covered in leafy shrubs and flowers.
   The scene still looks like it did a thousand years previous, and as it will look one thousand years in the future, or even one thousand six hundred and thirty four.

   Several druids (or draoiochts as they'd call themselves) have gathered by the bank in their flowing white robes. Having consulted the auguries, the head druid has predicted the imminent arrival of a time traveler.

River Nore, County Kilkenny, Ireland. 1997.

hereticxxii issued me the following challenge:

   "Completely fabericate your own original religion (ie Justifarianism, Harry Potter fandom) and detail it in your blog. Within 5 days get 5 converts to this new religion to announce thier faith in comment section of your post."

   From Wednesday afternoon until early this morning I have been in Davis. The main reason for my visit was that before I filed for graduation I had to file for my minors, and I could only do the latter in person.

   This I was able to quickly accomplish once there, however. I have now officially filed to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations with an emphasis on "Peace & Security" and "Russia / Eastern Europe," and minors in Communications, History, and Political Science. Unofficially, thats Communication with an emphasis on conflict resolution and organizational communications, and the pre-law series of poli sci.


Episode 1: Welcome to Crazytown
   Wednesday, I came in on a 1:20pm SouthWest flight and took the Yolobus from the airport to Davis. At the Woodland mall bus stop I had to change busses. While there I saw two people talking about something. I'm not sure what, but one was trying to get the other's contact information and the other was saying he doesn't use a phone because he doesn't trust the phone company not to listen in. I filed them both under crazypeople in my mind.
   Unfortunately, one of them (not the one without a phone) got on the same bus as me and sat across from me. Of course, before the bus even started moving he started tryinng to start a conversation with me. Since I was dressed up, wearing a black tie, and had my briefcase, I thought it might be hilarious to tell him I worked for the government and then answer any further questions with "I'm sorry I can't discuss that," but on the other hand I decided he'd probably get all riled up about that and cause a ruckus.
   After asking my name and what I was doing, and finding me not to be a government agent, he pointed to some construction going on on the mall. "They're being very proactive here. They're building a watchtower on the mall." "Why?" "Oh five judges, the mayor of Davis, and some DAs are accused of kidnapping someone, so everyone is all freaked out." "Really? Who?" "Me!!" I proceeded to refile him under "completely off his rocker."
   Anyway, it turns out this guy was the infamous Crazy Joe Sherman, and basically he lived up to his description on the wiki page. He spent the entire time regailing me about how he is the victim of a vast conspiracy. It seems the more he annoys people, the more he thinks their reactions toward him are part of the conspiracy, and the more he feels like he's a rightious persececuted jesus character. He said he had just recently gotten out of 313 or so days of jail, where the other prisoners isolated and persecuted him on orders from the external religious establishment (because you know middle-class Davis churches have mad prison connections!). He also mentioned that he believes God has indicated to him that his true calling is to become a teacher -- which is somewhat concerning considering that several accounts on his wiki page allude to him having a creepy predilection for the company of young males. In a tangental note, wiki user MikeDurkee apparently thinks we should overlook his many creepy and socially dangerous behaviours because he is a "warrior of god." I would like to officially point at MikeDurkee and say "lol!"


Episode 2: Cover blown!
   Yolobus deposited me at the front of the school (from the student's perspective anyway, not to be confused with the Chancellor's idea of the "front" of the school, aka the back side, where important guests don't have to behold those pesky undergrads which burden down their business of corporate research). I was immediately spotted by ASUCD President Kareem Salem (The first ASUCD President since 2002 not to be sworn in by me). I took care of the Communications and History minors but the IR and Poli Sci offices had closed early that day. Ran into one or two more people. Went home and found the apartment much as a left it.
   Suprised the Court at their Wednesday night meeting, then went with Justice Harney to dollar pint night at Sudwerks, where we ran into Pete Markevich (whom you may recall recently survived a Senate witchhunt), along with Sen. Alexandra Frick.


Episode 3: One More Senate Meeting
   I had been reluctant to go to the Senate meeting, having been to so many in my lifetime that even Brent Laabs probably has yet to catch up to me. However, the Senate was considering a landmark bill to formally give control of the judicial rules to the Court, which is kinda big thing so I decided to go for that.
   Previous to consideration of the bill, a lot of the usual antics were re-enacted for the millionth time. Since budget hearings were this weekend, a lot of organizations came to "show and tell" how awesome they are in hopes of getting fatter budgets. Some guy with a penchant for beating dead horses harangued the whole Senate at length for being vaguely associated with someone who had during their free time expressed the political opinion that current policies are not satisfactory to ensure the safety and documentation of all immigrants. I found it highly ironic that his main point was that he thought the DCR event was immature, but I found it pretty immature that he was rightiously chastising the Senate for something they had no control over.
   Then representatives from the Muslim Student Association pre-emptively began defending the anti-semetic speaker they'd brought to campus, while at the same time attacking Jewish Senator Eric Friedman and the DCR immigration event. In short, business as usual.

   Anyway, eventually the bill came up and passed relatively quickly. I thought it was kind of ironic that they made the change in the obsolete Judicial Codes, which will soon be completely abrogated, rather than the general Bylaws or somewhere else where it'll remain, but it was largely symbolic anyway.

   Quote of the Day: "You're the reason people don't take ASUCD seriously" - Brent Laabs to Commissioner Jill Weinstein after she expressed the opinion that ASUCD is just a glorified student club, rather than possessing any semblance of the legitimacy of a governing body.


Episode 4: Scrabble I
   After the meeting, several Senators, Justice Harney & I went to Sen. Dan Xie's house to drink and play scrabble. Since Joe and I were the ones getting the alcohol I of course brought them steel reserve (though Joe also selected some hard lemonade).


Episode 5: Campus Life
   Friday afternoon there were people with a big sign evangelizing by the flag pole, which is not terribly uncommon. However, in this case they were PASTIFARIANS bringing the glorious messege of the Flying Speghetti Monster to the unsaved! True heroes of faith whom MikeDurkee should have a frank chat with.
   Upon investigation these people were not affiliated with either Campus Crusade for Chaos & Confusion (C4), or AGASA, but were in fact merely persons whom the Flying Speghetti Monster in His sauceness saw fit to reach out and touch with His noodly appendage. Their unaffiliated status is clear evidence of the Truth of the supposition.
   Also there were some people in a bathtub on the quad wearing feathered headdresses. Typical. Eventually I noted that Rob Roy and Elise Kane were over there and said hi to them. (Here's a picture of both the Pastifarians AND the girls in the tub)


Episode 6: Life in the Trees
   Friday evening the internet went out at The Trees, which is just so typical. It didn't come back all weekend. Moreover, the internet connection was still there, it just wasn't recognizing the hardware address (MAC address) of mine or my roommates computers. This has been a frequent problem throughout the time we've had this provider, especially on weekends when the tech support is out, which once one actually gets ahold of the tech support is usually resolved by them simply resetting their system. Notwithstanding, you should rent my room at the Trees!!
   Anyway, Friday evening I took a nap in hopes the internet would come back, as I had no other form of entertainment in the midafternoon. By 7 I was getting desperate and decided to take the bus to campus to use the computer labs.
   I took the 7:18 bus in, only to find the computer labs close at 6 on Fridays! I could have sworn they used to be open till ten on Fridays. Anyway, there was still free wireless on campus but my laptop was at home and the bus I'd just come in on had left already. I waited for the next bus, the 8:10, until 8:20, when another person waiting for it suddently exclaimed that they'd forgotten the busses were no longer running since it was Friday evening. This left me with an hour and a half until I had anywhere to be. I called Justice Wheat to see if I could come over early for his shindig, but no answer. Despite the fact that that location was near campus, I started walking home because I had nothing better to do. It took half an hour to walk home from campus. It being then 9:00, I'd have had to immediately turn around and head back had John not called me at that point and said he could pick me up.


Episode 7: Scrabble II
   When I got to John's place, two of his roommates were trying to punch a second hole into a coconut ("double penetrate it"), and into which they then poured rum to make genuine coconut rum. They didn't like the result terribly much so I ended up drinking from the coconut all night. After I finished the original coconut rum I just poured whatever I was drinking into the coconut because it was funny. This resulted in some comments about my nut being sticky, along with other comments about people handling my nut, writing on my nut, etc.
   Anyway, despite the fact that John aimed to keep it "low key" a good amount of people showed up (but not too many, just enough to be awesome), and it was quite fun. My friend Shemek (who was a campaigne manager for the original Lead slate of the Huerta presidency -- but left ASUCD in disgust over their rampant corruption) joined me there. John Wheat and his fellow English-tutor coworkers from the Learning Skills Center played scrabble, but others were reluctant to engage such English aces in such a game. I thought it was funny that when the ASUD officers played the game, they argued about the rules and what the definitive set of rules was and other governance related questions, while the English majors got into arguments about what parts of speech certain words were.
   Anyway, it was good fun. Good work John Wheat & roommates.


Episode 8: Daytime Ruckus
   On Saturday Shemek and I hit the Hunan's Lunch Special around noon . Then we met up with Miss Rosejean Weller. Since we three were former Davis MUNers, and the Davis MUN Conference was currently ongoing, and especially since fellow former Davis MUNers Akila Radhakrishnan and Nishan Bhaumik, we resolved to crash the conference. Then the idea got better when someone suggested we do it drunk. So it being around 2pm we got some 40s of steel reserve and drank them, along with some jagermeister. And we were good to go!
   After this, the three of us went to woodstocks for more pizza and beer. Finally after a good afternoon of good ruckus causing we parted ways. I then returned to the conference for a little bit and guest spoke as a Russian representative. I may have still been a little inebriated, but that may have been an accurate portrayel of the Russian government. ;)


Episode 9: A Formal End
   Just as I was getting out of MUN, Brittawater Segerstrom called me and said I should come over and go to a volleyball formal with them. Which was pretty random but it was only a $12 formal and I didn't have anything else to do, and happened to already be dressed up for the MUN conference.
   Over at the M Street I joined Brittawater, Julie Parker, Kim Bowles, Sarah Jones, and a number of others.
   Eventually we walked from M Street to the event at the Senior Center. As there were initially more than a dozen of us, this took awhile, and by the time the front of our group got there the back had disappeared completely and some had found a ride somehow.

   Anyway, after being there for a little while the group consensus seemed to shift towards a hankering to go to the bars, so once again the group set out on foot, this time towards Froggys on G Street. This brought the total walking distance up to 2.1 miles, and everyone still had to find their way home again (returning to M St would bring it to 3 miles. I don't envy the girls in heels).
   Eventually I walked with what was left of the group back up to fifth street, where they turned toward M and I turned to start my own 3 mile journey back to the Trees (since the airport shuttle was picking me up there at 5:15, crashing on a couch was not an option). Fortunately I happened to completely coincidently run into one of the girls who'd been with us earlier around Central Park. She had struck off by herself toward the Colleges but had felt very uncomfortable making the journey alone and so had called a guy friend, who happened to show up almost simulteniously with me running into her. As he was giving her a ride I managed to get a ride with him as well, which was quite a relief since I still had a very long way ahead of me.


Episode 10: The End
   Airport shuttle picked me up at 05:15am and my plane departed at 7:35am. Altogether, I had even more fun up in Davis than I thought I would. It was great seeing everyone again. There's so much more going on up there than down here in OC. I can't wait to come up with an excuse to visit again!

   Once a few years ago I remarked that instant ramen has been such an important invention, its inventor should be on the one dollar bill. I never thought I'd ever find out who it was, but someone else's lj post recently brought the identity of this food messiah to my attention -- and alas, he has died! Momofuku Ando thou art a saint!


   Speaking of saints, the Reverend van Schoedlandt sent me a link to The Brick Testament the other day. For those of you too lazy to follow the link, its stories from the bible reinacted with legos. In addition to going through all the relevant parts in order, for convenience it also has all the Old Testament laws all in one place, and all the Teachings of Jesus in one place (for example, on Marriage vs Castration). So I've had this rather unexpected addiction to reading the bible these last few days.
   And this has brought my attention to some other interesting biblical events, such as the "divine mooning" that occurs in Exodus 33:23, when God says "And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen."
   Intriguing.



   Otherwise, before I was afflicted by the bible, I managed to read the entirity of both UC Berkeley and UC Los Angeles' judicial codes, in preparation for a major overhaul of our own (into which we will additionally integrate the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the California Judicial Guidelines of Ethics). Also participated in discussions of the judicial article for the student government of the university of Illinois, and have been working on finalizing our Case 34 opinion. When not working on judicial or theological projects I've been applying the whip to the AMPAC staff to get their background guides written.

   Meanwhile, I've also been active in the real world. Upon returning from Mexico I had the craving for real Mexican food, so we all went to Fred's for Taco Tuesday, and then Taco Thursday at The Alamo. Interestingly, Fred's as $2 12oz margaritas, or the much better deal of $4 20oz margaritas ..err.. smart!

   Yesterday Kristy & I went to the San Diego Zoo. There were many cute animals, including coatimundis, ratel's and Bornean Prevost Squirrels.
   Of particular note were the anteaters, which as you know is my favourite animal. They chased eachother around quite a bit and wrastled vigorously.

   So today was the day that most of us celebrate the fact that one day the goddess Eostre decided it was time for some trolling IRL and turned a bird into a hare ... only it still laid eggs.
   Now Eostre being a an anglo-saxon deity, when the Catholics came and set about the mass-converting, they declared that the celebration of this actually has something (God knows what) to do with THEIR favourite demigod --a dude named "Heysuess"-- being stapled to a stick or something.
   And in an ironic twist, Easter is now frowned upon by the more anal-retentive nonchristian elements as overly christian. Its a bit like if the United States somehow remained 78% christian for the next 200 years, and then sent emigrants to the newly founded Martian colony, whereupon they tried to continue celebrating Memorial Day, but it was seen as "christian" because it came from those dang christian Americans.
   In summary, just because Christians habitually do something doesn't make it an aspect of the Christian religion -- for example let us see Christmas for what it really is, the celebration of the birth of Santa Clause -- and stop hating on holidays just because Christians are associated with them.

   Anyway, Kristy & I went to my uncle & aunt Ben & Bev's place for Easter dinner. Uncle & aunt Mike & Sherry were there, along with their childrens Sylvan & Linnea, & Bev's parents (My grandparents-in-law? what is that?). We even had a brief hunt for candy hidden in the yard & had "easter basket" cupcakes made by expert cupcake technician Kristy Heidenberger. And as we were leaving Kristy's apartment we ran into the Easter bunny -- this rabbit was just chillaxin on the lawn (to bless my spreading of the true word about Easter I believe).


Picture of the Day

Kristy, admonishing. From a batch of pictures I just rediscovered from last Fall

Previously on Emosnail
   A Week & Two Years Ago Last Thursday: 1st Day of Spring Qtr, 2004 - Taking VEN3 (Intro to Winemaking), HIS138A (Russia until 1881), HIS138C (Russia 1914 to 1990) & ECN162 (Internat'l Econ)
   A Week & Two Years Ago Last Saturday: Badly Written Front Page Articles - RECENTLY DECLASSIFIED: ASUCD President Sara Henry & sockpuppet Paloma Perez allege that Chief Justice Kris Fricke should recuse himself from Case 24 since it was filed by the Green Party. Despite the fact that Fricke is not now nor has ever been a member of the Green Party, he recuses himself to steer clear of contention. The Aggie covers this story on the front page (compare to two years later when the Chief Justice & three other high officers getting impeached doesn't get a mention anywhere), in a rather unprofessional article. In particular, statements like "it was believed the case would not be heard by the court," are made as if it were a universal belief whereas in fact its probably something the reporter only got from Sara Henry (as a consequence of an endemic authority-bias, or possibly a primacy-bias being that she talked to her first). Unfortunately the article can no longer be accessed since the Aggie has broken all past links.
   A Week & Two Years Ago Today: Medieval Warfare - More on the antics & hijinks of the ASUCD Senate regarding Case # 24 (attempts by VP Perez to stop necessary Court legislation with a minor technicality, overriden by the rest of Senate though), and more complaining about that Aggie article (since this entry was public & the other one wasn't). The reporter in question was Aimee Theron, whom we'd later find out had been intimately involved with two senators while assigned to report on ASUCD and was believed to have squashed a very major scandal story.
   Two Years Ago Last Wednesday: Easter Weekend 2004 - I mention that though Perez may have thought she was inconveniencing me the other day by not passing legislation which would have changed the method process is served for ASUCD cases, in fact she accomplished the opposite effect. Instead I am presented with directions from the bylaw which are not possible to accomplish, and so I am left to use my discretion to accomplish the task. If my legislation had passed I'd have been tied down to a very specific method. I endeavoured to do this because I believe in serving justice in ASUCD with the utmost good faith, and as such I adhered to what my proposal would have been anyway. Its just ironic that Perez thought she was spiting me when in fact she was only spiting justice. In unrelated news Kristy & I attended a party hosted by Jenn de la Vega.
   Two Years Ago Last Friday: Posh Bagel - Picture from eating with Gabi at Posh Bagel the otherday - I look like zoolander in it. And I get a DeviantArt account. It was better than other existant photo hosting services, but ultimately it was totally pwned by Flickr with its hotlinking and faster loading.
   Two Years Ago Today: Courting Justice - Defence for Cases 24 & 25 dispute jurisdiction, a special hearing on jurisdiction is scheduled.

   Like I said, my camera is working again. This is the Yolo County Superior Courthouse, where I spend much of my time these days.

   Note the POW/MIA flag that flies in front of the Courthouse. It always seems to me that this flag must seem slightly ironic to the many who come and go from the Courthouse in chains.
   Incidently, Wikipedia doesn't have an entry on the POW/MIA flag. I've always wondered what the deal is with it.










   All in all the Courthouse is kept pretty spotless. This is the only graffiti in the restroom. Given that its in a pretty visable location and it appears that graffiti around it has been erased, I think the maintanance people have found it amusing.

   On my first day working there my supervisor Gail looked over the filing I was doing and remarked "good, it looks like you're doing it all right ... but of course if you weren't it would be my fault for improperly instructing you." This struck me as a particularly enlightened philosophy others should take note of -- that if one has subordinates and they are operating sub-par, rather than blame it all on them, the ranking individual should consider it entirely their own responsibility to ensure quality operations.


In Other News:
   (1)Contention continued throughout the day on the Rob Roy / Talk page regarding whether the wiki would include any references to his allegedly racist public statements. Thomas Lloyd repeatedly declared himself to have won the argument and deleted all references he found offending, but I wouldn't let him get away with it. Then Lloyd dropped the Libel word, which is becoming somewhat like Godwin's Law on the wiki¹ I think (the Abebnego Woods troll alleged libel the other day as well), and illustrated his point with a link that clearly damaged his own point.
   Lest you get the wrong idea, it should be noted that I have not added any of the disputed content myself, and am not saying I think he's a racist; I am standing against the suppression of unfavored viewpoints & a double-standard in reporting.

   (2)Jurists across the world were saddened the other day by the death of Slobodon Milosevic while in custody in The Hague. Slobo's death denies thousands of the justice his conviction would have brought them.

¹"As a wiki discussion grows longer, the probability of someone incorrectly alleging libel approaches 1." - Call that Kris's Second Law (The first is that if the potential for drama is enough, anyone can and will find your livejournal)

Previously on Emosnail
   Year and a Week Ago Yesterday: The Politics of Character Assassination - More on the drama in MUN: I post links to the opposing arguments. Also, the BBC calls me for an opinion on US Supreme Court Cases (true story).
   Year and a Week Ago Today: UCBMUNC 2005 - In the middle of all our MUN drama we decide to all pack into a small hotel room or two for a weekend. We survived with fairly little intrigue considering. I think I was the only one to win an award (Shemek might have as well?)
   Year Ago Last Wednesday: Classified - Classified. Sorry for the broken picture links.
   Year Ago Last Thursday: Elections & Disenfranchisement - The new ASUCD Senate is seated "ushering in an era of unprecedented diversity of affiliation on the Senate." In contrast, with the seating of this year's new Senate, the Leadite party controls 2/3rds of the Senate, the Executive Office, and has appointed all but one of the Supreme Court Justices (I was a Focus appointee).
   Year Ago Last Friday: The Emo-Agricola International - In an international development I've found reason to cite with suprising frequency in the year since, Bolivian President Carlos Mesa attempts to resign only to have his resignation rejected by the Bolivian Senate. Also, the former president of rebel Chechnya, Aslan Maskadov, meets a humble end at the hands of his own bodyguards in a basement. Also, a hawt picture of Kristy.
   Year Ago Yesterday: Senate Finds Chief Justice to Have Jedi Powers - Sen. Darth Lloyd was instrumental in convincing them that I used mind tricks to cause 9 Internal Affairs Commissioners & 12 Senators to think that a 5 line Bill meant the opposite of what it actually meant. And I would have gotten away with it too if it hadn't been for those pesky kids "your mind tricks don't work on me" Kalen the Hutt! Also the Lebanese Prime Minister tries for the second time to resign, but once again his resignation is rejected by the parliament.

Zombie Rights
   So something occured to me in reference to this Schiavo fiasco; if one is going to define "life" in a divinely recognized sense as merely breathing, then that would certainly include zombies¹.
   Now this sounds silly, but I think it has serious implications. And before I go on I will note that not all religious persons believe the unliving corpse of Schiavo should be continually fed, and not all religious persons have in the past believed in zombies. But in times past the religious community overwhelmingly allowed for the existence of zombies and the like (and certain official bodies officially speculate on exorcisms for example). Now at the very least, the belief in zombies was so widespread that if it was against religious doctrine to terminate them, it without a doubt would have been noted. Thus I think there is really compelling reason to believe that most religious doctrine up until extremely recently would have held that the Schiavo body is not alive, we have no obligation to maintain its existence, and in fact it may well be an abomination which should have a stake placed through its heart.
   And for that matter, how is Schiavo different from a zombie? I mean, presumably she doesn't want to eat our brains and her bite won't infect the living with her condition, but I think otherwise she is arguably undead at this point. And as previously noted I'm not an adherent of religion in the traditional sense, but if I was all up in arms about the sanctity of our souls, I would say the continued support of the Schiavo corpse is more an insult and abomination to the sanctity of our souls than the contrary. After all, it holds that our souls ARE inextricably linked to our body rather than that they are something separate. I really think the religious people who are for zombie rights in this case have seriously got their theology in a mix up.

See Also: Yasser Arafat Declared Undead - Arafat, now fighting for the rights of the "un-alive" may well have some things to say about the Schiavo case.
          Comic on this Subject - that actually inspired me to these thoughts.

¹Do zombies breath?! Even if they don't, their muscles clearly function in other similar ways to achieve locomotion and biting.


Hot or Not, Statue Addition
   Once again contention has has been broached in Daviswiki as to whether or not what is currently referred to as The Ugliest Statue [in Davis] is in fact ugly. As usual, we here at Emosnail are eager to resolve this through polling. In fact, renowned naysayer Saul Sugarman also maintains that "those who have not visited Davis or the Davis Wiki have not been able to vouch for themselves on whether or not they like the statue" and therefore we shouldn't prejudice them. As such its of particular note that those readers who have not seen the statue for themselves take a quick gander at it and then weigh in.
   The numbers shall be defined as more or less: 1 it is divine; 2-3 its beautiful; 4 it is pleasant; 5 average; 6 rather unattractive; 7 it is quite ugly; 8-9 it is probably the most ugly statue in Davis; 10 it is possibly one of the ugliest statues I have ever seen. This is discounting the gaudy neon peice of archetecture in Drew Circle (nothing to link to? )= )
[Poll #464328]


Picture of the Day

   I took this about two weeks ago when I went for a long walk. Its a hallway in what appears to be an abandoned fire station next to the UC Davis Airport.

Previously on Emosnail
   Two Years Ago Today: Not Skanking
   Year Ago Today: AA Meeting

   So one fine day on Daviswiki, contention erupted over the shadiness factor of Campus Crusade for Christ. To help solve this controversy, Emosnail staff benevolently volunteered to do some polling on the subject, but in response noted local Republican George Andrews stated "having Fricke do a poll on Campus Crusade in EMOSNAIL is like having me do a poll on Nathan Thomas/Black Caesar/Dan Beeman Approval ratings among DCR members."
   We then posted polls both here and on the UC Davis community (ucdaivs). Ostensibly this was to ascertain the shadiness factor of CCC, but really we're just using jedi mind tricks to make you think thats our motive -- the true motive was to show that CCC would get a higher shadiness rating from the UC Davis lj community than from the readers of this livejournal (the postings were exactly identical).
   At this point, more than 18 hours after the polls began, and with 60 responses: the ucdavis community has rated Campus Crusade for Christ at a shadiness factor of 7.14, while the emosnail readership has rated it at 6.33. Clearly Emosnail does not foster antireligious mentalities.


Resistentialism
   The other day my browser (mozilla) inexplicably crashed and when it came back up, all my bookmarks had been lost. I find this very aggravating because I had quite a few things that I regularly used bookmarked. I miss the most-recent-pictures-updated-to-livejournal webpage that I haven't been able to find again. )=
   Last night apartment-mate wdsguy came home from LA, where he spends the week steeped in the adult entertainment industry (you think I'm kidding), and promptly unplugged my internet and went to bed -- presumably without actually realizing I needed it (we don't have a router because I live in a cave so only one of us can be connected at a time). So I spent the rest of the night in the computer lounge working on my paper. When I returned in the morning I was plugged in again but our internet was down, appeared to be a problem with our service-provider. When it finally came up trillian (my AIM client) crashed and burned horribly. When I was finally able to get it up again all my friends groups had been eliminated, so I now have 435 people all in one big group. I promptly created the missing groups and garnered a small amount of satisfaction sending some people to the gulag (my friends-list category of that name anyway). I believe resistentialism is taking root in my computer. Either that or its developing bovine spongeform encephalitis ("mad cow disease").


The Order of Trogdor
   EMOSNAIL is proud to present Daviswiki creator Philip Neustrom with our highest honour, the Order of Trogdor:

   Neustrom is seen here receiving the prestigious medal in the traditional ceremony. (with the medal on)
   Neustrom has exemplified the most admirable interests in promoting community understanding, combined with illustrious competence in creating the Daviswiki and making the wonder that it is today.
   Truly, if there is anyone who deserves to be on Davis Mount Rushmore, it is Phil (incidently I've never heard of four of the five people listed there).*

Weekly ASUCD Shadiness Rating
   We're overdue for the weekly ASUCD shadiness rating. Since last polling, ASUCD went ahead and passed unanimously the legislation preventing members of the ASUCD judiciary from authoring legislation, and Kalen Gallagher was replaced as President by Caliph Assagai and Darnell Holloway (but not before Gallagher characterized choice voting as a disease he would squash). Here's an Aggie article on the recent adventures of ASUCD.
[Poll #457889]

Daviswiki Entry of the Day: Magic Items of Davis


Shady Quote of the Day:
PrzemekP: true, but if it's possible, have him hold off, like I said, the worst possible for her would be her nominating herself
PrzemekP: haha, or better yet, if Fricke does it!
amazonjedimaster: you have enough pull with fricke
amazonjedimaster: have him do it
amazonjedimaster: have fricke nominate her first
PrzemekP: I'll see what I can do
PrzemekP: but there is a part of me that thinks Fricke might vote for Veronica
amazonjedimaster: because if you want the worst person to nominate .... fricke is that person
PrzemekP: true
amazonjedimaster: janet and i made it clear to centian people that we hate kris
amazonjedimaster: with a passion
amazonjedimaster: some of them are peons at berkely
PrzemekP: yeah, but like I said, a part of me feels Fricke might vote Veronica
amazonjedimaster: you think nomiating gena will change how he votes?


Year Ago Today: Ice Cream Sandwich Cravings - & rooommate Jill asks us sausage themed questions for her lover.

*if someone wants to use the above picture to make it look like Phil (& Amie) are on the real Mount Rushmore I think that would be ridiculously funny, and um, I'll buy you a twinkie.

   In response to this interchange, which I thuoght was over, I recently got another email from the same source:

Hello again from The Dr. Bob Jones Institute www.docbojo.com

Previously your website and/or organization was ordered to CEASE and DESIST by the Dr. Bob Jones Institute for being Biblically errant. Our BJI Board of Theological Scholars had found you to be outside our perimeters of accepted CHRISTIAN THEOCRATIC accountability and well on your way to HELL. These conclusions were based upon the direct commands from our LORD and SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST. I, as Director of Operations at the BJI am only the messenger and it was my duty to so inform you. You were given an opportunity to bring your thinking into line with the CORRECT dogmatic precepts of BJI as directed by Christ and we are pleased to announce that YOU have been judged to have done so. These conclusion are based on the many apologetic and confessional responses this office as received from your ilk. Also, Christ is a compassionate and forgiving MASTER and he has made known to the Board of Elders BJI on CORRECT THEOLOGY those that HE hath forgiven for past indiscretions. Some of your organizations were actually ATHEIST groups but JESUS in his LOVE for you has granted forgiveness just as he did the whores and common criminals he forgave in the days HE was upon this earth. Praise HIS NAME and you are darn lucky as I personally would not have been so kind. Consequently, we now announce you may re-establish your WebPages/Organizations AND AS A SPECIAL REWARD for your 'seeing the light' as JESUS so ordered you through BJI, your webpage and/or organization shall now be posted at www.docbojo.com as a link to our powerful CHRISTIAN THEOCRATIC ORGANIZATION. You will find your name listed on the BJI Home page LIST OF LIFE. You are now a whole hearted supporter of the Dr. Bob Jones Institute as is the Bob Jones University and so many others. You have been FORGIVEN! God bless you and congratulations.

michael c. kelley
director of operations, BJI
Arkansas


   I believe there are two possible explanations for this:
1) It's a form-letter sent to all sources that they have identified as having mistakenly been sent their "cease and desisit" form-letter earlier.
2) What I see as more plausible, Jesus himself has interceded on my behalf versus the born-agains. Hey, it happens.


"I Like to Whitewash Oppression and Murder"
   Conservative Aggie columnist Ian Watson published an article today entirely dedicated to how I am an ignorant ogre.
   You see, he apparently saw me the other day wearing the Aeroflot shirt Kristy got me for christmas, and it sent him into a delirious rage. I'm thinking about writing a letter to the editor in response to his column, pointing out that Aeroflot is just an airline, and one that has offered The People ridiculously low air fare in the past, thus allowing the proletariat a chance to traverse the vast Soviet empire in ways they never would have otherwise been able to. Also, the hammer and sickle is not same as a swastika: nazis were first and foremost racist, the soviets were not, and that in my opinion makes them incomparable. Not that I'm saying the Soviet union was divine and I advocate world communist revolution, I just think Ian Watson is overreacting to an airline shirt.

Housing - Contest!!
   So we still need another roommate here for next year.

   Whosoever attests to the most specific persons they have found who need somewhere to live next year wins a twinkie!! Thats right, find people who need somewhere to live next year and tell them that one Kris Fricke currently needs another apartmentmate, then tell me that you did so, and hopefully their contact information if they're interested, and you'll be in the winning for one (1) whole twinkie!!! It will be presented to you if possible in person by myself at in the MU between 12 and 1 at The Table.

   Room in question is big enough for two people, around $470 /month (somewhat less if the room is shared of course), in The Trees, West Davis, right next to the Arlington Farms bus stop.


Name Recognition
   So I'm out by the silo the other morning, and this guy is tabling for voter registration. As I'm walking by he's like "Are YOU registered?" I've barely nodded yes when he's like "of COURSE you are!" and then turns to his imaginary audience (did I mention he is standing on the table? And no this wasn't Brian McInnis) and continues with "KRIS FRICKE is registered to vote..." I have to my knowledge never seen this guy before in my life.


Posh Bagels
   Today Kristy and I ate at this place called Posh Bagels downtown that had strong sauce sandwiches. They currently have a 2 for 1 sandwich deal advertised in The Aggie. Its strong sauce.


A Rant of PC Pettiness
   First of all, why does AD represent a latin phrase "anno domini" whereas BC represents the English phrase BC? If there is some other meaning of BC its not givin in any of the dictionaries at dictionary.com.

   Second of all, the subject of AD/BC vs CE/BCE came up in my english class the other day, and I would just like to say that I think the CE/BCE political correctness is inordinately silly.
   Changing the tag doesn't change the more relevant significance of the fact that the years inherently denote the time since christianity began (well, to my knowledge it is off by four years, as I seem to recall Christ's birth is commonly attributed to the year 4AD). And if the name of the AD/BC tags really is such a problem, than why isn't it a similar problem that many of our months have Roman religious or cultural significance? Or even worse, that our days of the week are nearly all named after Norse gods??
   In summary, such excessive political correctness is petty and silly. Pretending that our calenders were not influenced by religious events of the past is an act of intentional ignorance insulting to the intellegence of all humanity.

   At the very least they could pretend AD and BC stand for something different without changing them.


Picture of the Day

Fish & Kris
"Emo" Icon of this Livejournal
© Kris Fricke 2001

Related
   A Year Ago Yesterday: The Ozma Show (Where I first met samedisorder, though I wouldn't meet her again until about nine months later)
   A Year Ago Today: Best of Strong Bad