The Screwtape Letters

My audiobook for February, 2012 :)

The Call of the WIld

Just finished reading (on iPhone...).... Pretty good!

JD

Just finished....

All About Rockets and Jets -- remember it from 4th grade!

The Lord of the Flies

Finished it -- still wondering why we watched the movie of this in church when I was in middle school....

"The arc of history is long...

... but it bends towards justice" -- MLK

Email address

PLEASE NOTE: The jderrick@email.unc.edu email address is going to be deactivated soon due to my graduation more than a year ago from UNC, taking with it the jd@unc.edu address. The jderrick@alumni.unc.edu and jderricknc@aol.com addresses should still work. Just wanted to let folks know in case they need to update how they contact me.

Drum Brakes... long story....

Gay Marriage?

"Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?"

"The Bachelor"

"Bride Wars"

Gee... I'm sure glad we don't let gays get married. They might ruin the sanctity of marriage -- and we heteros are perfectly capable of doing that on our own....

....

Because as everyone knows, marriage is the sacred union of a pregnant 17-year old and a scared high school dropout with a shotgun to his back.

Minnesota Milita to Deploy Peacekeepers to Upcoming Political Conventions

“Hordes of masked government storm troops, covered in black Kevlar uniforms, arresting everyone in sight?”
“Dude, I thought we were just making that crap up,” said George McHenry, a battalion commander with the Minnesota Militia, a fringe militant group on the federal government’s terror watch list, “but I just saw it on YouTube.”
“Those pictures are going to look great on next year’s recruiting brochure.”
The recent Republican National Convention earned notoriety with many, including people who are supposed to be wackos, when a political organization that espouses freedom and small government used a police force larger than the Libertarian party to ensure the safety of its delegates from thought.
“I mean, what about free speech? Freedom to assemble? Probable Cause?” asked McHenry while using pages from Article III of the United States’ Constitution, which covers the federal judiciary, to wipe down his rifle, nicknamed “Due ProceSKS.”
“Next time they want to take on the American People, I figure we’ll show up and let them take their chances with the Second Amendment and the 3rd Battalion, Minnesota Militia! The Fightin’ Mooses!”
Moosei?
“I figure we can hop a ride in my wife’s Prius,” said McHenry.
“She runs the ACLU booth….”

Death Penalty Project Student Volunteer Takes Group Name Literally

"Ooops.”

"I mean, I thought the group name was…. Oh, my,” said first year law student Sandra Ginsburg, standing over recently death-penaltied Chris Holstein.

Holstein, a Chapel Hill resident, had beaten the rap for three homicides, four rapes, and bestiality in a school zone but didn’t get past Ginsburg one recent afternoon when she knocked on his door and he opened it, thinking she was another Obama volunteer.

“Do I still get pro bono hours?”

Ginsburg was volunteering with UNC Law’s Death Penalty Project, a group that is typically focused on opposing the use of the death penalty, which group leaders explained at their recent meeting, which sleep-deprived Ginsburg slept through.

“I’ve spent three years working to keep Chris out on parole!” bewailed Project President Stephen Roberts upon hearing the news.

“On the other hand, good riddance to bad rubbish.”

"How many more bullets you got?”

Officer A.L. Parker, Chapel Hill Police, praised Ginsburg’s “spirit of American volunteerism” and “involvement with her community.”

“Just think of it as an extreme late term abortion,” said Officer Parker. “I believe Holstein was in his 196th trimester.”

In other news, UNC’s branch of the Domestic Violence Advocacy Project, DVAP, has recently changed its name to the Domestic Violence Action Project.

Ooops.

Australopithecines and a crisis in Detroit

Once upon a time there were some unfortunate, dim brutes that couldn’t adapt to changing conditions and died out. They were well suited to the contemporary environment, but inflexible and hapless when the conditions changed.

Way on way back when there were a set of hominoid species called the australopithecines (just call them cavemen). Shortly thereafter I learned about them when I was an anthropology major. Some of them evolved to be relatively smart and able to adapt to many changing environments (us).

Others of them got really big and really good at chewing on sticks and stuff and didn’t really learn how to do much else.

They became very physically specialized and dependant on a very particular set of environmental conditions in a way that kept them from changing with the times. To chew the tough foods of the African savannah, they developed big jaws but small brains.

We, however, developed bigger brains that helped us come up with primitive yet versatile tools…. No, we aren’t physically all that spiffy. To be exact, on the grand scale of lions, tigers, and bears, we’re really pretty pathetic. We don’t have horns or hooves or sharp teeth, and aside from our brains we don’t really have a chance. But these wonderful, adaptable brains enabled us to survive and explore or environment using fire, and spears, and rocketships to the moon, and clearcutting of rainforests….

Instead of big teeth for chewing on hyena carcasses, we became smart enough to build blenders. Now we can drink that hyena carcass through a straw. That’s progress.

But when the climate changed our big dumb hominoid cousins couldn’t just make a different tool. They weren’t able to adapt quickly enough. When the climate got cold and they ran out of stuff to happily chew on, they died. We, instead, invented microwaves.

Mmmm…. warm hyena.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, according to the Creationists, and we get to the American automobile agency and its australopithecines/SUVs. Back in the day when gasoline were a cheap as the blood of Arab children, what did it matter if we only got eight miles to the gallon? We could have cared, but, eh… we didn’t want to.

Now suddenly gas prices have been in the news and we’re concerned about the environment and Detroit can’t keep up with change and an old anthropology major just couldn’t help take note….

Once upon a time there were some unfortunate, dim brutes that couldn’t adapt to changing conditions and died out?

What makes a car American?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/12/american.cars/index.html

Sounds like my Japanese car, made in America by Americans with parts made in the USA, is more red-white-and-blue than most of the guzzlers out there...

Cars, Cultures, Towing, and Customer Service

My family’s never had trucks – we’ve always had cars that were rated to tow a small utility trailer full of pine straw, load to the dump, or whatnot a couple times a year. I’m not talking about a jalopy dragging a mobile home with one frayed bungee cord – rather a good car with a good trailer behind a professionally installed hitch driven by someone who’s done plenty of towing over the decades.

It’s getting harder to find cars that are rated by the manufacturer to tow anything, and I’ve been digging into this a little. I’ve got family in Germany, and I’ve spent time over there and seen all sorts of cars towing all sorts of trailers, and they get along fine and the continent of Europe miraculously seems to exist without SUVs the size of Panzers.

In America, however, there seems to be a prejudice that nothing smaller than an Excursion has any business towing a jetski, to use a little hyperbole.

One of the common reasons I hear being bantered about is that the engines or transmissions are different. But, for example, when I compare the humble Canadian Yaris (rated to tow 700 pounds - http://www.toyota.ca/cgi-bin/WebObjects/WWW.woa/16/wo/
Home.Vehicles.Go.YarisHatchback-lgxvpnVVtZh7EkmjwkIKyg/
5.11?v124040e%2ehtml) and the American Yaris (rated to tow nothing, http://www.toyota.com/yaris/specs.html) all the hardware looks the same. The British Yaris is rated to tow more than 1200 pounds, even with its smallest gas engine (http://www.toyota.co.uk/cgi-bin/toyo...editorial.jsp?
BV_SessionID=@@@@1319304561.1224440165@@@@&BV_Engi neID=
cccgadefhhgmlfjcfngcfkmdfkidffh.0&deepLink=YA3_Spe cification_new&
nodiv=TRUE&fullwidth=TRUE&edname=specSheet_YA3&car Model=Yaris&img
Name=bv/CarChapter/YA3/Imagery/YA3_spec.jpg&zone=Zone%20YARIS).

I contacted Toyota USA and they said they couldn’t comment on what Toyota’s branches in other nations did. I contacted Toyota Canada and they said they couldn’t comment on what Toyota’s branches in other nations did.

I'm going to withhold some of the comments that come to mind praising customer service and cue cards.

So what’s the deal here? Is the Yaris sold in Buffalo really that different from the one sold in Toronto? Is it the distances involved in the countries (umm… Canada’s pretty big)? Or the hardware (I haven’t crawled all over them, but the websites make them look like genetic twins except for some slick marketing)? Environmental (since when are we more environmentally tight than the Germans)? Personally, I hate to be cynical, but I’m wondering if the real factor in play is how many SUVs and trucks the companies think they can sell in each nation (No, your Prius can't tow a kayak. May we interest you in a Land Cruiser?).

And that’s part of where I wind up caring. Do we have a lot of folks driving around in vehicles they don’t need? If you put a hitch on your Camry anyways, will someone say the warranty was voided?

What’s the deal?

Gov. Palin =

VPILF?

South Ossetia – It’s like a whole other county.

But really, I don’t think Georgia is out of line, they just fell in with the wrong crowd. South Carolina talked them into it again and suddenly the Yankees are nervous and the Georgians are scared some guy named Sherman is going to show up.

In the meantime, they’ve been playing Russia in volleyball at the Olympics and for some strange reason the Russki’s, who are sick of Georgia’s 10-meter pistol team flinging spitwads at them, keep trying to come on their side of the net, defended only by two confused ladies in bikinis and the ghost of Davy Crockett.

And his trusty rifle, Betsy.

" U.S., China lead way in tapping wind power"

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/
science/07/28/wind.energy/index.html

"China's wind generation has increased by more than 100 percent per year since 2005 and 20 per cent of the power supply to the venues of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will come from wind generators, according to the official state agency, Xinhua.

It was initially hoped the country would generate 5 gigawatts of wind by 2010, but that goal was met three years early in 2007. The 2010 goal has now been revised to 10 gigawatts but experts say this could well hit 20 gigawatts."

Darn....

" 15 reasons Mr. Rogers was best neighbor ever"

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/
07/28/mf.mrrogers.neighbor/index.html

"2. He made thieves think twice. According to a TV Guide piece on him, Fred Rogers drove a plain old Impala for years. One day, however, the car was stolen from the street near the TV station. When Rogers filed a police report, the story was picked up by every newspaper, radio and media outlet around town. Amazingly, within 48 hours the car was left in the exact spot where it was taken from, with an apology on the dashboard. It read, "If we'd known it was yours, we never would have taken it."

" White House projects record deficit for 2009"

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/
07/28/2009.deficit/index.html

"President Bush inherited a budget surplus of $128 billion when he took office in 2001 but has since posted a budget deficit every year."

Darn, I'm glad we didn't elect a "spend-o-crat."

". . . a senior administration official says the budgetary problems stem from what he called inadequate defense, intelligence and homeland security resources that were handed down from Clinton."

C'mon, folks. You've had eight years and all three branches of government.

So... how has that worked out?

Healthy Workers Save Company Money

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/diet.fitness
/07/25/fn.healthy.company/index.html

"The ones that stand straight..."

I was walking through downtown Raleigh this afternoon when I overtook a father and his kindergarten-aged daughter circling the old state capitol building. He was pointing out the monuments as they walked past, and noted to the young lady the soldiers on our Vietnam War memorial.

"Are soldiers the ones that stand straight?" she asked her father.

Yes they are, young ma'am. Yes they are.

"Soy foods 'reduce sperm numbers'"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7519459.stm

This would explain the puzzling low number of people in Asia.

Since when is not having enough people in this country/on this Earth an issue?

"On Wednesday, NASCAR told all Toyota teams in the Nationwide Series that their engines made too much horsepower...."

http://news14.com/content/top_stories/597675/solarte--toyota-gets-clipped/Default.aspx

So much for wussy Japanese cars....

"Ford posts largest quarterly loss ever, Troubled automaker unveils plans to shift product line, bringing European-made vehicles to North America."

http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/24/news/companies/ford/index.htm?postversion=2008072407

'bout darn time....

Environmentalism....

Environmentalism doesn’t have to mean cold showers and warm beer: sometimes it can be just a matter of getting our heads out of our… and doing the little things we should be doing anyways.

I had a friend in college who would leave the fan on in his dorm room while he was at class and such. I asked him why he was wasting the energy – a fan doesn’t even keep things any cooler, it just moves the air around and feels good when you’re in the room – and he replied that it wasn’t his electricity. Maybe he was just being sarcastic, but I don’t recall him then turning off the fan. I do remember that he’s a wonderful, swell, smart guy who’s probably reading this.

On a related note, these days I’m doing a little research into mercury advisories for fish. Apparently, wild catfish in NC, including in the municipal pond I fish out of at Anderson Park in Carrboro, have so much mercury in them that there’s an advisory against me eating more than one serving a week. That’s just six ounces. And for “women of childbearing age, pregnant women, nursing mothers, and children under age 15” the advisory says “Do not eat” (that was boldface in the original, http://www.epi.state.nc.us/epi/fish/safefish.html).

How is this related to my friend with the fan? Well, coal power plants, like the ones that produce the hunk of our electricity, also produce mercury that billows up into the air, drops down into our ponds, gets ingested by fish and then eaten by us.

I’m pretty sure that my friend isn’t responsible for the exact molecules of mercury in the last catfish I caught, but I think if enough people were willing to take the extra second and a half a darn worth of caring to turn off their fans, lights, TVs… when not needed, then I might be able to maybe eat two servings a week of catfish.

Whether we like it or not, we’re all connected and each of us affects everyone else on Earth.
Darn, that’s deep.
So please stop being such …holes.
Darn, that’s honest.

I’m not saying (as I type this on a laptop in a well-lit, climate-controlled office) that we don’t need electricity. I’m not advocating people make major, martyr-ific sacrifices in their lives – going to bed at sundown, bumping into things in the dark, reverting back to some sort of 15th century, pre-industrial level of suckiness.

But is it all that hard to turn off the freakin’ fan?
Instead of a cold shower, how about taking a minute to install one of the low-flow shower heads some folks are giving away these days. Instead of drinking warm beer, how about folks saving electricity, and money, by not heating their places to 80 degrees in the winter and cooling to 60 in the summer?

If you’re going to drive ten miles to the gym to hop on the treadmill then swing by the tanning salon on the way home, griping about gas prices the whole way, couldn’t you just go for a walk on a sunny day?

These are some lessons I learned from my friend with the fan. Failing them, if you want to get folks’ attention on energy issues, you’ve got to make them pay out the….

Like at the gas pump.

Tarheels....

How about them ‘Heels?

I have always been a North Carolinian. My family on my American side has been here three generations. I’ve grown up here, this is my home, and I’d be happy to see a fourth generation of Derricks in North Carolina.

But only over the years have I realized what it is to be a Tar Heel.

I remember as undergrad hearing Gov. Jim Hunt speak on our Quad about the history of our new nation’s first public university. As a poor ex-colony, we didn’t have the rich patrons of New England’s Harvard or Yale. But we as a state recognized the importance of education and had the audacity, the audacity, Gov. Hunt proclaimed, to found our own school – a university of the people.

I remember standing in a classroom in Germany, telling fellow study abroad students from all over the world the legend of how we became the Tar Heels – taking a slur of derision against poor barefoot workers burning pine trees to make tar and turning the name into a title of honor as our soldiers stood their ground in battle, while other Confederate units retreated, “because of the tar on our heels.”

But I have never been prouder to be a Tar Heel than this evening on Franklin Street, when thousands of us cheering, chanting, fire-jumping basketball fans spontaneously, with one accord, grew quiet for a moment of silence in memory of Eve Carson, our Student Body President who was taken from us this week.

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c23/jderrick/?action=view&current=Tarheels.flv

This is how we win.

This is how we celebrate.

And this is how we mourn our loss – with the strength, spirit, and honor of the historied, legendary Carolina family of Tar Heels.

I’m a Tar Heel….

I saw this on the History Channel and it's just too odd….

Alaskan natives have long provided our military with expertise in arctic warfare. It should come as no surprise that Inuits know a thing or too about living and working in the cold.

Inheriting a storied history of Alaskans serving our forces in native military units, we currently have the Alaskan National Guard…

… units of which have been shipped to Iraq.

Really, I saw footage of some of their training. Like many contemporary units training for military operations in urban terrain (MOUT), they had a mock Iraqi streetscape they were using to practice building clearing techniques… in a blizzard.

I have this mental image of a unit of Inuits deplaning somewhere in the sandy Gulf, still uniformed in their furry white parkas despite the 120 degree shade temperature, when one turns to the other --

"Hey, Arnakua'gsak."

"Yes, Pukkeenegak."

"WHAT THE F…!"

UNC: Smoke Free/Math Free?

The signs across campus profess UNC to now be smoke free. Actually the new rule is against smoking "within 100 feet of University buildings." (http://www.sph.unc.edu/epidemiology_news/school_of_public_health_supports_unc_smoke-free_policy_effective_jan._1_2008_6570_1957.html)

That's not really very far, folks. The flagpole at the law school is 100 feet from the door (I paced it off. Yes I am that anal). I'm not sure how close you'd be to the track building at that point, but a few steps into the parking lot and you'd be in the clear.

So we're not banning smoking, just giving those who do a little more exercise. There are lots of places on campus more than 100 feet from buildings -- the quad, the arboretum, other quads, lots of parks, parking lots, quadparkinglots….

Heck, if The Pit on main campus was about 40 feet wider you'd be able so smoke there (I paced that off too. I told you I was anal).

It's not that I enjoy second hand smoke or am against helping folks quit smoking. But is this really a ban or a restriction? And let's have some understanding of distance. I've gotten both lost and nearly in a bad car accident because folks don't know 100 feet from a quarter mile or 100 yards from where a hurricane blew down a tree in the road that I was supposed to go take pictures of for the newspaper and it wasn't where they said it was so I sped up again… and then drove through the tree… in a hurricane.

Yes, I know I'm a codgerly coot verging on curmudgeonliness, but when I say I walked six miles to school each day uphill both ways (I lived on South Campus) in three feet of snow and 110 degree heat (on the same day, no less), it really was six miles.

I paced it off myself.

So some friends of mine invited me to a Lovefest...

So some friends of mine invited me to a Lovefest.

Turns out I didn't need the leather whip. Or the fuzzy pink handcuffs… it was a Moravian Christmas Love Feast.

Oh what a difference an "A" makes?

Wish they'd explained this before I showed up at a church dressed in, um, swaddling clothes?

But to tell the truth (which is switching gears) I was invited to a Lovefeast (which is different from a Love Fast - that's what Ghandi did) at Raleigh Moravian on Christmas Eve, and I did have a wonderful time, and no, there was no kinkiness involved.

Oh well, there's always Boxing Day.

I showed up with a couple friends - Sarah and her sister, Kathryn - who I'd carpooled over with from Chapel Hill to meet a couple friends from Raleigh - Emily and our friend Sara -for some Moravian buns (made with 100% real Moravians) and coffee. It turns out the Moravians (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moravian_Church) actually have a children's church camp song about these traditional goodies served at Lovefeasts, which are celebrations of community, love, and buns and coffee.

The song is set to the tune of "Folsom Prison Blues" sung by Johnny Cash, but they took out the part about shooting a man in Reno just to watch him die.

Probably for the better.

Anyway, I learned a little about Moravians (lots of them in Winston-Salem and Tanzania, apparently) and Lovefeasts (at the end of the service they distribute to the congregation candles and ladies with fire blankets) on the drive over and when we stopped for a bit at Sarah's house I played with a cat named Mouse. The cat must be very confused. Are you confused? I am.

When we got to the church early we were late -- they were already full. Lovefeasts are very popular. Those must be damn good buns.

But the folks I was with explained they were only going to duck inside to say hello to our friends and then come right back out. I even joked with the usher about being left at the door as collateral. Or a hostage.

It turns out our friends had been holding seats for us, which was against the rules, which the usher we'd talked our way past explained when he caught on to what was happening.

If I get bouncered out of a Lovefeast, that's bad.

But the usher was mostly (or at least a little bit) joking and was really quite friendly (though he probably would have liked a little more leverage. Or a hostage) and we were allowed to keep our squeezed-in seats (at least there was enough room I didn't have to go sit in a manger or something) where we quickly made several more close friends.

Then before the service started one of my friends mentioned they were going to go say hello to their friend Chase who was at the service. I remembered I had a friend named Chase and went over and said hello to him. Small world, eh?

And the Cranfords were there as well. One of their sons was one of the first people I met when I moved to town years back. He was also one of the first people Emily met when she moved to town…. Eerie, eh?

His Dad taught actually me how to blacksmith.

I'll bet you didn't know that about me, but you probably aren't surprised.

Anyway, so several generations and various circles of friends were gathered together in a celebration of Christmas, community, alliteration, and cinging carols.

It's kind of like The Circle of Life or something except we don't eat each other, just the coffee and buns.

It turns out they substituted cider for the coffee, which was understandable see'in as how it was the children's service (the "adult" Lovefeast came later. Maybe they can use the whip). There was also a cute children's Christmas pageant, some fun bluegrass, a lot of great carols, we took up an offering for some mission or something in Tanzania (my friends weren't kidding about that)….

And at the end we got some really nice beeswax candles that we lit, and sure enough a lady with a fire blanket came over to stand by me.

They must have heard about that time I nearly burned down my Episcopal church.

Which was not my fault.

Church Music....

... so for some reason, the Loreleis, one of UNC's premier lady acapella groups, practices at one of my churcheson Sunday nights. A little farther down the hall I can hear Gregorian chants as the choir warms up for Compline. Walking a little farther, there's organ music wafting up through the walls....

Don't know if anyone else notices the beauty of it all, but I am struck.

Care Packages....

I was at the post office today shipping off another couple care packages to Iraq.

The student at the counter, who I know from the German department, says that I'm the first person she's ever seen who could correctly fill out the customs form to ship to an overseas American military address.

Well, I've had a lot of practice over the last few years

Not sure how I feel about that.

"NC pair feud over leg"

This made it all the way to the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7024124.stm

Maiden, NC, is what, one county over from Shelby.

Actually, I'm damned proud we made the BBC!

Cyclist/Motorist Cooperation

I've written on cycling advocacy. I ride everyday....

But lady, when you fly out of the arboretum, across the sidewalk and into the road right in front of me before bothering to brake...

... I don't care if you are in a crosswalk, Darwin and Newton may correct your actions and don't get on me for honking.

Behind the Photo.... The hurricane, the tree, and the underwear.

... I'd just gotten to Shelby perhaps a month or so before and we were having a series of hurricanes come through.

At the time I was in the apartment that leaked during hurricanes.

One woke me up early one morning, say 4:30, and as I lay in bed I started thinking that as a newspaper photographer, perhaps I should go take some photographs for the newspaper.

I figured I should listen to my scanner some to see what was going on. Then I remembered my scanner was in my car, outside in the hurricane.

I figured I could put on my cloths, but then they'd just get wet.

Yes, I was running around in a hurricane, in my yard, in my underwear.

Anyways, I lay there in bed for a while, now relatively naked AND wet, listening to the scanner whisper sweet nothings into my ear.

Damn, ain't photojournalism romantic.

After a while, I heard of a tree down a couple hundred yards up from Buffalo Creek on NC 150 out towards Chrvll (yes, that's how you pronounce "Cherryville." Vowels are for pssys).

I figured I'd go check it out. So I went out to my car (with my clothes on) and headed on up.

I passed the creek and started looking for the tree. A hundred yards passed. And then a few hundred more yards....

... I figured I'd passed the tree, so I sped up again and kept on driving for the next half mile or so to find a place to turn around...














AND THEN I HIT THE TREE.

Actually, thankfully, just the fluffy bits at the end and I stayed on the road and the car stayed in one piece. Still, it was rather exciting.

So I found a place to park the car, got out with my camera and poncho and walked over to the tree to take pictures of other people hitting the tree. One lady actually went off the road and sat in her car looking pretty traumatized for a while.

At some point I started thinking that maybe it was more my duty as a decent person to warn folks about the tree instead of just taking pictures. Now I carry flares in my car.

Still, I got some good pictures.

After they came and cleaned up the tree and the sun rose I started heading back to the office to offload my shots. Along the way I found a bunch of volunteer firemen from Waco and a tree on a powerline catching fire. These things get old hat pretty quickly.

I got back to the office soaked from one end to the other.

"I've heard it's coming down pretty hard out there," said one of my superiors.

Yep.

Flat up, straight out, hell yeah.

The Curse....

... Chad, Alan and I joke about "The Curse", but so far our comedy is related to at least a couple deaths and a broken truck.

The deal is that everywhere I go, bad things happen - I got on Chad's boat and we were suddenly caught in a hail storm, I go to New Years and wind up first on the scene of a pedestrian fatally hit in the road, I'm riding in Chad's truck and the drive train falls out, I go to New Years a year later and a car flips within sight of me....

And I don't even have to be in the country.

The day before I came back from Germany this summer, a drunk driver flew through Chad's yard (literally), flipping the car several times into the yard of Chad's grandmother-in-law, where the mortally injured passenger was ejected from the vehicle.

I'd left my car parked in Chad's yard while I was away.

And then I came to law school...

... and in the first week the school literally started falling down: http://media.www.dailytarheel.com/media/storage/
paper885/news/2007/09/04/University/
Law-School.Evacuated-2948312.shtml

http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2166117&id=2730354

Y'know, at one point a couple of years ago I actually noticed large black vultures circling my house.

Damn.

Pics from Germany....

http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2145375&l=e6b78&id=2730354

Pics!

from the Outer Banks, where I'm doing a legal internship for the NC Coastal Land Trust....

http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2136207&l=b7aae&id=2730354

http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2137763&id=2730354

http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2136248&id=2730354

http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2136247&id=2730354&op=6

http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2136245&id=2730354&op=6

Vatican to start using some solar power!

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/06/05/vatican.solar.ap/index.html

Also....

.... if I may amend my previous blog, I ran by the post office today around 4:50. They close their window at 4:30. So they are unavailable before, and after, work.

Additionally, I'm getting ready to have to send some money overseas for study abroad housing. The US Postal Service will happily do an International Money Order to Albania or Sierra Leone... but not to Germany.

Last time I knew the stats, Deutschland had the third largest economy in the world, largest population in western Europe.... you may have heard of them. They're kind of a big deal. Maybe we should do commerce with them.

Brilliance.

Hmmm.......

.... so the post office opens after people get to work, but the recycling center closes before people go home from work. So if you wanted to combine the errands on the way to or from work, it'd be impossible....

Interesting.

Recalling Life on Memorial Day....

Thanks, Vets....

I read this years ago, found it again online recently, and repost it every Veteran's and Memorial Day. It’s by a columnist for Raleigh’s News and Observer.

"Recalling Life on Memorial Day"
By Dennis Rogers

I think they would understand the way it turned out.

Memorial Day is their day, isn’t it?

It is supposed to be the day a grateful nation pauses to quietly thank the more than one million men and women who have died in military service to their country since the Revolutionary War.

Or is it the day the beach resorts kick into high gear for the summer season, the day the strand is covered by fish-belly white people basting themselves in coconut oil, the day the off-season rates end and the weekend you can’t get into a seaside seafood restaurant with anything less than a one-hour wait.

Or is it one of the biggest shopping center sales days of the year, a day when hunting for a parking place is the prime sport for the holiday stay-at-homers.

I think the men and women who died for us would understand what we do with their day. I hope they would, because if they wouldn’t, if they would have insisted that it be a somber, respectful day of remembrance, then we have blown it and dishonored their sacrifice.

I knew some of those who died, and the guys I knew would have understood. They liked a sunny beach and a cold beer and a hot babe in a black bikini, too. They would have enjoyed packing the kids, the inflatable rafts, the coolers and the suntan lotion in the car and heading for the lake. They would have enjoyed staying at home and cutting the grass and getting together with some friends and cooking some steaks on the grill, too.

But they didn’t get the chance. They were in the Marine Barracks in Beirut and died in the oily waters of the Persian Gulf. They caught theirs at the airstrip in Grenada in the little war everybody laughed at. They bought the farm in the I Drang Valley and on Heartbreak Ridge and at Hue. They froze at the Chosin Reservoir and were shot at the Pusan perimeter. They drowned in the surf at Omaha Beach or fell in the fetid jungles of Guadalcanal. They were at the Soame and at San Juan Hill and at Gettysburg and at Cerro Gordo and at Valley Forge.

They couldn’t be here with us this weekend, but I think they would understand that we don’t spend the day in tears and heart-wrenching memorials. They wouldn’t want that. Grief is not why the died. They died so that we could go fishing. They died so that another father could hold his laughing little girl over the waves. They died so another father could toss a baseball to his son in the backyard while the charcoal is getting white. They died so another buddy could drink a beer on his day off. They died so a family could get in the station wagon and go shopping and maybe get some ice cream on the way home.

They won’t mind that we have chosen their day to have our first big outdoor party of the year. But they wouldn’t mind, either, if we took just a second and thought about them. Some will think of them formally, of course. Wreaths will be laid in small, sparsely attended ceremonies in military cemeteries and at monuments at state capitals and in small town squares. Flags will fly over the graves, patriotic words will be spoken and the few people there probably will feel a little anger that no more people showed up. They’ll think no one else remembers.

But we do remember.

We remember Carlton and Chico and Davey and the guys who died. We remember the deal we made: If we buy it, we said, drink a beer for me.

I’ll do it for you, guys. I’ll drink that beer for you today, and I’ll sit on that beach for you, and I’ll check out the girls for you and, just briefly, I’ll think of you. I won’t let your memory spoil the trip, but you’ll be on that sunny beach with me today. I will not mourn your deaths this Memorial Day, my friends. Rather I’ll celebrate the life you gave me.

This Bud’s for you.

USS Nimitz!

Turns out one of my friends from my Boy Scout troop is serving at an undisclosed location south of a bunch of Taliban getting bombs dropped on their heads by him and his crew on the USS Nimitz.

I don't want to shock my Army buddies (and don't worry, I'm still pulling for Go Army, Beat Navy) but let's hear it for the USS Nimitz and our Navy buddies over there!

http://www.nimitz.navy.mil/index.html

Bar Review on Franklin Street....

Let's hear it for institutional memory! A couple years ago this was written by one of our fine law students, Brian Ernst, and I think the wisdom still rings true....

Brian's Bar Review - East Siiiide, Pt 1

Today I will address a topic of great importance to incoming law students. Those of you from outside the Chapel Hill area should pay particular attention to the present discussion as this information will prove to be invaluable to surviving your first year.

As you've likely heard, the law school organizes a weekly "Bar Review" during which a bar is chosen and the few law students with social lives assemble at the establishment. It's a great way to meet people you might not normally get to see, such as people in other colleges as well as students outside of law school who aren't nearly as neurotic as you are. This email should also assist in figuring out where these places are if you're not familiar with the area.

So... it's time once again for Brian's Bar Review, or BBR (not ever to be confused with PBR upon pain of death). In today's newsletter I will be providing a brief analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, and overall quality of bars on the eastern side of town. "East" generally refers to everything east of Columbia Street, which runs perpendicular to Franklin at one of Chapel Hill's main crossroads. It includes the more well-known hangouts such as Top of the Hill, and there's definitely a different crowd between West Franklin bars (generally more alternative) and those on East (more mainstream).

* NOTE WELL: The views expressed herein represent only the opinions of the author and not necessarily of CLISA or UNC Law, though they should.

Without further ado, here's a bar-by-bar breakdown of East Franklin's major establishments:

--------

GOLDIE'S

Location: Goldie's is actually located within a structure housing a walkway from Franklin to Rosemary (the street running parallel north of Franklin). Look for the Bank of America ATM and go through the doorway to the left. Walk straight ahead and you'll run right into it.

Strengths: Goldie's has an outside area which is awesome for most of the year. They usually have decent drink specials, and there are also lots of booths at which a group may sit. They have a little dance floor tucked away in the back on which only the drunkest of the drunk dance.

Weaknesses: Like some of the bars on East Franklin, there's a certain element of snobbery in the air that's tough to ignore. Also, on busy nights, the inside area can get quite crowded. But the absolute worst thing about Goldie's is the bar staff. Unless you know them by name, expect to wait several minutes for anything other than a beer. Also, never expect to be charged the right amount for what you've ordered. I've found that what shows up on your tab often bears no resemblance whatsoever to what you ordered. Since what they charge seems completely arbitrary, I usually order a more expensive drink and hope they charge me for a soda. Sadly it's happened several times already.

Drinks: 2/5; Atmosphere: 3/5; Service: 1/5; Overall: 3/5. Your typical East Franklin bar.

EAST END

Location: On the corner of East Franklin and Henderson St. It's got a tarp outside reading "East End Martini Bar," which pretty much clues you in on what to expect inside.

Strenghts: The obvious forte of East End are the cocktails and other drinks you can order. They're mixed well (rarely short on alcohol) and taste great, though they can be pricy. Fortunately they usually have a handful of them on special.

Weaknesses: Besides usually having to pay a cover for a subpar band - I have terrible memories of one performing lounge versions of Led Zeppelin classics - East End charges a lot for drinks. Due to its narrow layout, the bar also gets quite congested on weekends and it's generally tough to manuever while holding margaritas. However, there is a waiting staff that will bring them to you and I highly recommend taking advantage of them (so to speak).

Drinks: 4/5; Atmosphere: 2/5; Service: 3/5; Overall: 2/5. Between their drinks and your casebooks you'll be refinancing soon enough.

TOP OF THE HILL

Location: At the corner of Columbia and Franklin. Note that you have to enter through a door along South Columbia and climb the steps or use the elevator. I recommend taking the elevator down for obvious reasons. Start walking south from Franklin; if you pass the movie theater you've gone too far. Just look for the "Your collar must be THIS high to enter" sign.

Strengths: TotH contains its own brewery where they make some excellent beers, in particular their IPA. If you can find a place to sit down outside, you get a great view of Franklin Street and its bumbling population.

Weaknesses: As my fellow rising 2Ls know, my personal boycott of TotH has been running strong for several months now. While the reasons are as varied as the shades of pink shirts inside, let me just say that if you do not like the preppy, popped-collar frat crowd, you will NOT like TotH. The sad part is that if there were no other customers it'd be a great place to go, but as it stands it's the symbol of every negative stereotype of UNC students one can imagine. There's also an interesting race between the girls and guys to see who can wear the shorter skirts/shorts which I don't quite understand but find amusing nonetheless. By the end of your semester, you will either love or hate this place. Guess which one I chose!

Drinks: 4/5; Atmosphere: 0/5; Service: 4/5; Overall 0/5. I will pay you money not to support this place.

LINDA'S

Location: At the far eastern end of Franklin, right before McCalister's. Note there's an upstairs and a downstairs.

Strengths: ORDER THE CHEESE FRIES. I've lived in CH for five years now and this is the best food available. They prepare a huge basket of fries, smother them with cheese and bacon, serve them with a nice side of ranch and let you rock and roll. I've had nights here turn very sour because I paid more attention to the cheese fries than my date, but even worse is that I knew I made the right decision. Linda's also has good beer specials and a friendly atmosphere. Go there on slow nights and they'll play some great music; last time I was present they played entire albums by Tom Petty and Nine Inch Nails.

Weaknesses: Like many of the bars in Chapel Hill, Linda's usually has two bartenders: a very attractive one who brings in the customers, and one who actually has some skill in preparing drinks. Make sure you order from the right one.

Drinks: 3/5; Atmosphere: 5/5; Service: 3/5; Overall: 5/5. One of my favorite bars on Franklin.

LUCY'S

Location: Down Henderson St (connecting Rosemary and Franklin) closer to Rosemary.

Strengths: Lucy's has the best 80s nights outside of any place in CH not named Cat's Cradle. The bar staff is usually friendly and (more importantly) quick with your drinks. Like Goldie's, Lucy's has an outside area which is perfect for nice nights, but it's pretty small and tends to get crowded.

Weaknesses: The crowd at Lucy's mirrors what you might find at a place like Goldie's, which might seem stuck up if you're a socially conscious person. Also, it's a small place so it can be a tight fit on party nights. Finally, they typically require a cover even when no band is playing and no drink specials are offered. wtf mates?!

Drinks: 3/5; Atmosphere: 3/5; Service: 4/5; Overall: 3/5. If it weren't for 80s night, Lucy's would seem redundant.

WOODY'S

Location: The blue-lighted bar near the intersection of E Franklin and Henderson, adjacent to the post office. The PO is easy to spot - just look for the emo/goth high schoolers hanging out in front talking about how much they want to be vampires.

Strengths: Woody's is primarily a sports bar and for that purpose it works well. It's quite spacious and there are lots of places to sit and TVs to watch, so crowding isn't an issue except during bball season. It also serves greasy bar food at modest prices.

Weaknesses: Surprisingly, the drinks aren't that great (even the beer, which is often flat) and they tend to overcharge even on specials. Also, you'll occasionally run into one heavily inebriated fan of a random sports team who sits alone at a table, decorated in his team's gear, shouting and hollering after every first down, dunk, etc. Really, it'd be amusing if it wasn't so damn annoying. Make sure to get a seat early on game day.

Drinks: 2/5; Atmosphere: 4/5; Service: 2/5; Overall: 3/5. Going to Woody's gives me one. (Okay, it doesn't, but how often can you use that joke?)

THE LIBRARY:

Location: Near the corner of Franklin and Columbia on the south side of the street (most bars are on the north).

Strengths: For the most part the Library is an unremarkable bar. It's biggest asset that I've found is it gives you the ability to say to yourself "I'm spending time at the library tonight" while you're double-fisting Sam Adams. Other than that, the bartending staff is usually really nice and they seem to run a lot of promos there through which you can get t-shirts and other neat stuff.

Weaknesses: No major problems, but some nights I walk by and the the music is absolutely BLARING from inside. It gives the place a sort of ghetto ambience [have those two words ever been put together before? I submit that they have not] which some might not enjoy.

Drinks: 3/5; Atmosphere: 3/5; Service: 5/5; Overall: 3/5. Much more fun than drinking in the law library.

GOODFELLAS

Location: About half a block down East Franklin. Note that you'll have to walk down some steps to get to it, which is a great omen. I have a theory that, for bars in CH, if you have to walk downstairs to get to it, it's going to be good; conversely, if you have to walk upstairs, it's going to suck. The science behind this theory is obviously rock solid.

Strengths: I really like the atmosphere in Goodfellas. It's got that quaint pub sort of feeling and it attracts a somewhat older crowd usually. They usually have decent drink specials and the bartenders are more than competent.

Weaknesses: Goodfellas doesn't really have any glaring weaknesses other than the inevitable crowding than plagues most bars on East Franklin on busy nights. I was actually banned there for a short while during my undergrad years (long story, don't ask unless you really want to know) but now that it's under new ownership I'm back in business!

Drinks: 4/5; Atmosphere: 4/5; Service: 4/5; Overall: 4/5. Even better than the "Goodfeathers" skit from Animaniacs!

--------

So that's the first installment of my bar review. I intended to cover virtually all of the bars on Franklin eventually but I think we all can agree I spent far too much time on this one, so that's pretty unlikely unless there's a huge demand otherwise. Of course, the best way to assess a bar is to simply pick one and go to it. UNC's Bar Review only hits about a handful of places - Goldie's, Lucy's, Linda's, TotH, The Library, and He's Not (on W Franklin) - so I encourage everyone to do some exploring on your own. Even on Henderson St there are a couple of neat pool and sports bars that I'd recommend.

Hope you all are enjoying your summer. Random thought, but is there anything more annoying than back to school commercials in July? I mean, geez, throw us a frickin' bone here. Anyway, I once again encourage everyone to come out to bar reviews if at all possible, especially if you don't know anyone here yet. I didn't know anyone here at first and now I've got lots of friends, right guys? ...guys? ...hey guys, where are you going...?

Have fun!

-Brian Ernst, rising 2L (pending review of this email)

AIM: FloydianSlip UNC

Law School Fountain at Night....

A few weeks ago I took a picture of the Grace Mewborn Aycock fountain out front of UNC Law at night. Folks seemed to really like the photo, so here's how I did it.

I wasn't using any sort of crazy camera or equipment, just a point and shoot and a small tripod. My camera is a Canon A85 that's a couple years old and out of date by some respects. But I like that it takes AA batteries instead of some fancy lithium type I can't find anywhere. It also takes the same type of big, old-fashioned digital memory card that my bigger SLR cameras used when I was doing photojournalism, which added a little redundancy to my camera gear.

Anyway, I was scoping out how to get a good shot, took some that really weren't all that great, and then finally nosed into an angle I liked. I put the camera on a small tripod I have (you can get them at photo stores and some office supply places... they collapse down to only about six inches long -- small enough to fit in a camera bag).

While my camera is a point and shoot, you can also set it manually. So for this shot I used a very lng shutter, say 10 seconds or so, and set the timer as well. This gives the camera a few seconds to stop vibrating after I've squeezed the shutter.

And I didn't use any flash. Not that flash is bad -- sometimes it is very useful. But there are a lot of times when you may want to avoid it. For one thing, while flash illuminates your subject, it also portrays your position. There are times at a crime scene with a gunman on the loose when you want to get the picture without being as, umm, findable.

I personally like to use the blue and red lights of the emergency vehicles to light the scene -- I almost feel guilty making something beautiful out of red firetruck lights shining through the smoke of a personal tragedy.

And sometimes you're at something where you don't want to disturb folks with a bright flash popping at a nighttime event, such as at a passion play. Here, I shot into the light, blocked by the cross, to create the outlining effect, using a fast shutter to catch the sharpness and contrast of the image.



In total, I don't enjoy using flash all that much. Maybe it's partly that I've never really learned how to use it well, but it sometimes seems brutish -- like painting with a mop. I prefer to let the light flow as it wishes, and just make sure I'm in the right place to enjoy the show....

Exams

Done.

Frog Juice

http://www.wral.com/lifestyles/
pets/story/1382574/

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

" Critics not amused by queen photo"...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/
WORLD/europe/05/02/
queen.portrait.reut/index.html

It was too conservative? C'mon, folks -- this is the Queen, not Marilyn Manson....

Ahh, the Post Office....

For years, I've been getting mail titled to my Dad, addressed to my residence, wherever I live.

Now I've started getting mail titled to my Dad, addressed to his residence, where I live.

When I make note of this, I am told that they have no forwarding form on file.

That's because there never was one. My family has lived in the same house since 1992. They have never wanted their mail forwarded to me. Rather, they want their mail delivered to them, through sleet, snow, rain, dead of night... and even questionable competence.

C'mon folks. At least deliver it to the right town....

Godspeed, Scotty....

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/
04/02/doohan.ashes.ap
/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Jurisdictional Issues...

2,000 years later, they're still the courts' favorite dodge....

From Luke....

He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place.

6 When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether the man were a Galilaean.

7 And as soon as he knew that he belonged unto Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod....

Azaleas are blooming....

New neighbors....

Birdhouse outside the apt....

U-Haul: an adventure in !&#$% moving….

So I needed a trailer to move from Wake Forest to Chapel Hill a while back. Only about 35 miles away, under no time pressures, things pretty much still packed from the last move. It’s really a pretty simple affair.

Except there’s a U-Haul involved.

I called the local U-Haul place in the center of town, across from the Hardees, and reserved a 5x8 trailer. My family doesn’t have a pickup truck or such for when we need to move something big, we just have sedans that are rated to tow our utility trailer, our boat… and when we need to move mattresses or something we want to keep covered, a U-Haul.

We’ve got the hitch professionally mounted on my folks’ Toyota Camry. Used to have a hitch on the old Volvo 850 until some… ran a red light and totaled it (thankfully my Mom wasn’t injured…). Before that it was a Ford Taurus. I think before that it was a VW….

Anyway, we’ve got the 2-inch ball as well as the 1 and 7/8, I’ve been hauling trailers as long as I’ve been driving and can even back one (*gasp*).

Believe it or not, we’ve got our crap together.

But our car isn’t wired for trailer lights. This doesn’t conflict with any law as far as anyone’s ever told me (and I didn’t see any problems in the statutes that I just glanced at online -- http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/bysection/chapter_20/gs_20-123.html), because we only use tow boats, pine straw, sand… in the daylight.

So whenever we rent a U-Haul trailer, which comes equipped with a lighting system, we tell them that we’re only towing in daylight and either that’s always been enough before or they don’t care one way or another.

Making the reservation yesterday I told the guy we were only gonna be driving it in the daylight. I went in today, had some pleasantries with the fellow… and then I tell him I’m towing with a Camry.

Can’t do that, he concludes.

Really, how about you check? Yep, just like the owner’s manual and I say, the 2005 Camry is rated for towing 2000 pounds, and my mattresses certainly aren’t that heavy.

Some folks seem under the weak idea that anything less than a Hummer is puny, child-sized toy that’s too small to carry more than a little old lady and too impotent to tow her walker.

I was working as a courier someplace once and we had to go pick someone up. They decided to take an SUV instead of my Camry because my car was alleged to be too small.

Listen, it’s a full-sized sedan for full-sized people. If you’re too darn fat, it’s not the car’s fault. And the continent of Europe does just fine towing their boats, trailers, campers… without Hummers.

So the U-Haul guy (I’ll call him “Flanders”) and I went out to hook up the trailer. I start hitching it up and I can take it from there. He heads in, but says he’ll have to check the lights before I leave.

Oh, please.

I’ve got it hitched up and he comes out to check the lights and we don’t have any and I explain that it’s never been a problem before, that as I said on the phone yesterday we’d only be driving during daylight… and he said it was his “legal”, “moral” and “ethical” duty to not rent the trailer to me.

Wow, I didn’t know I was defying God by driving a trailer with no lights during the day, as kosher by state law. That must be in one of the chapters of Leviticus I haven’t gotten to yet.

But, U-Haul is a private business that can set up its regulations the way it wants.

So my Dad and I drive down the road to the next U-Haul guy, really wishing there was some competition in the trailer-renting marketplace.

Somehow, this new U-Haul guy, who knew exactly what our car was rated for, could rent the trailer to us with a third the paperwork, in half the time and for $5 less.

And his guy says the lights aren’t required anyway.

The blog....

By the way, after almost a year away from The Star, they've stopped linking to my blog on their homepage and instead are using the space for folks who actually work there. That makes sense and it was very generous of them to keep me on there so long as they did.

And now, with a little new independence, you get to hear more of what I really think....

"U.S. show of force in Persian Gulf"

"The U.S. Navy on Tuesday began its largest demonstration of force in the Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq..."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/
WORLD/meast/03/27/us.gulf
.ap/index.html

And then a lone ballistic missile submarine surfaced, a lone submariner stuck his head out of the hatch, brandished a key, and then disappeared....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
europe/4627862.stm

We don't want that to happen and they damn sure don't.

I'm pretty hard to shock, but....

http://www.wral.com/news/strange/story/1243451/

" Men sentenced for running castration 'dungeon'"

http://www.cnn.com/2007/
LAW/03/16/castration.
dungeon.ap/index.html

Wow.

Diversity at UNC Law

I had some friends asking me about diversity at UNC Law, so I did some checking. According to the 2005 census, North Carolina is 25% minority.

Carolina Law is 28% minority.

Folks can get into exactly which minorities are represented in what degrees, but on the whole I figure we're doing pretty well.

How 'bout them Winthrop Eagles!

http://www.winthropeagles.com/default.asp?section=2

I confess....

I am not the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby.

Apparently I'm the only one. Can we please move on to something new? Can we have a community pool on which celebrity's gonna wind up on the news next? What are the Vegas odds on Tomkatparisnicoleireallydosototallynotcare....

I don't mean to sound apathetic, but I just don't care.

UNC v. E. Kentucky

"Carolina hasn't seen this defense, and it's a little bit of an adjustment...."

Oh, c'mon. Five minutes into the game and we're up 19-3.

I think we're doing okay.

Duke game....

Let me just put on record, that with just seconds left in this do-or-die game, I've put aside The Rivalry and am pulling for the ACC.

I'm trying to be the better man....

"Gingrich's Affair During Clinton Probe"

http://www.time.com/time/nation/
article/0,8599,1597666,00.
html?cnn=yes

C'mon, folks.

"Anchor Ad-Libs News With 97 Percent Accuracy"

http://www.theonion.com/content/
news_briefs/anchor_ad_libs_news
_with_97

From The Onion, an online satire publication.....

" Coulter under fire for anti-gay slur" against Edwards....

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/
03/04/coulter.edwards/index.html

1) Ma'am, didn't anyone ever teach you to play nice? I mean, really. You're slinging mud that's not even politically-related or relevant to anything. Do folks think Edwards is feminine or something? I've never heard such opinions. You're sure not acting very lady-like.

2) In case you haven't picked up on the social cues, most folks have kinda started avoiding the use of that f-word in polite (and televised) conversation the same way the n-word has largely (thankfully) gone the way of Jim Crow.

3) Tactically, such uber-whack statements just make you look bad and help the other guy raise money.... https://johnedwards.com/
action/contribute/coulter

Even if John Edwards were gay, and if you were against homosexuality, I hardly suspect this is the manner of action Republican strategists would advise you to take to further your goals....

One Click Feeds the Hungry for FREE

a repost, but a worthy one....

Oh, but rarely in life does a win-win-win situation arise that can actually save lives.

Heres one. Its free for you, takes only a click of your mouse, makes some advertisers happy, and it feeds the hungry.

www.thehungersite.com

Heres how it works:
You click the button to feed the hungry around the world and right here at home. Takes half a second. Then you see links to the advertisers who sponsored your donation. Yay. They get publicity, you get that warm, fuzzy feeling inside and hungry folks get to eat. No bad, eh?

For example, I just donated 1.1 cups of some staple food to somebody. That's enough for a meal.
Thats enough to help keep somebody alive and you can do it EVERY DAY FOR FREE. Just bookmark the site and add it to your daily routine.

While youre at the site, you can also check out links to similar webpages helping out literacy, child health, animals, the fight against breast cancer, rainforests (I just preserved 11.4 square feet of land) .

Please, forward this around. Its easy, its free, its good.

"Woman Finds WWII Grenade in Potatoes"

http://www.wral.com/news/
strange/story/1218199/

Yep, mines, bombs and other ordinance is still strewn all over. One of my Dad's old bases in Germany still has signs up warning you about old minefields left over from the war....

My laptop’s searching for aliens….

Yep.

Here’s the way it works. There’s this group called SETI – the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence – that uses big radio telescopes to listen for the sorts of electronic communications that tech-savvy civilizations broadcast.

If somebody was listening to us, for example, they’d be picking up “Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire.”

Ever wonder why they haven’t made contact?

Anyway, SETI winds up getting far more data than they can deal with. The computing power to sift though it all looking for something meaningful is enormous. So they farm the labor out to the rest of us.

Let’s say I’m sitting in class taking notes. My computer’s no mainframe, but it’s got plenty of brain power it’s not using at the moment. So I’ve downloaded a program from SETI, http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/, that runs in the background crunching numbers while I’m still doing my normal work.

And let’s say I don’t use my computer for a few minutes and it goes over to screensaver. I’ve got the SETI program set up as my screensaver with pretty colors, little stars flying at me, and at least somebody getting a little use out of the thing while I’m not needing it….

Best case scenario, you can help resolve one of the greatest wonders of time – are we alone.

Worst case scenario, you get a pretty screensaver.

Guitars made from Armadillos....

http://www.solutions-site.org/
exhibits/bolivia/gallery7.htm

I swear I don't make this stuff up....

Anna Nicole Smith....

... and her passing have raised so many legal issues, I'm calling for a symposium at the law school....

Contract law class....

So towards the end of last week my Contracts professor revealed that she'd written a poem about a hypothetical legal situation in one of her law review articles.

The class then asked if she'd read it to us.

Then we asked if we could read it out in class.

Then someone asked if they could sing it.

Then this happened....

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c23/
jderrick/?action=view&current=Video5.flv

:)

"Drunk Aussie Attacks Shark"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player
/nol/newsid_6360000/newsid_6367700?redirect=
6367785.stm&news=1&nbwm=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1

Yep, saw this one on news.bbc.so.uk, the BBC website. Haven't listened to it yet, but I figure that when you mix too much Foster's, the country that gave us Russell Crowe, and a shark... somebody's getting bit.

And it may be the shark.

"Drunk Aussie Attacks Shark"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player
/nol/newsid_6360000/newsid_6367700?redirect=
6367785.stm&news=1&nbwm=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1

Yep, saw this one on news.bbc.so.uk, the BBC website. Haven't listened to it yet, but I figure that when you mix too much Foster's, the country that gave us Russell Crowe, and a shark... somebody's getting bit.

And it may be the shark.

Buffalo-sies!

Over on the north side of 74 headed out from Rutherford County through Polk County a while back....

What not to do in church?

So I'm in church, filing towards the presiding bishop of the US Episcopal Church to receive communion this week....

It was a special service, both because it was in honor of Pauli Murray, civil rights activist and one of the first women and the first black woman ordained in the Episcopal Church and also because the service was led by Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori -- the first lady presiding bishop in our denomination.

And the service was at the same altar as the first communion celebrated by Rev. Murray -- the same altar at which her grandmother had been baptized as a slave.

Anyway, as I'm filing forward to receive Christ's body from the leader of my church in this nation, one of my friends, Meredith, falls in line besides me.

"Hey, babe, you come here often?"

She busts out laughing.

I'm glad we're a group that's accepting of women like Dr. Murray and Bishop Schori and of nutcases like me....

Road Trip!

My constitutional law professor is arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court in late March....

Road trip!

"Punxsutawney Phil Predicts Early Spring"

http://www.wral.com/news/strange/story/1190614/

Darn global warming....

Caterpillar!

(this has been on here before, but it ran in the News & Observer last week :)

The red carpet, the big names, who's wearing what....

Nope, it's not the Oscars.

It's the State of the Union....

I'm such a geek.

"...shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union..."

I'm running for President!

Well, not really. For one thing, I wouldn't be taking office as a 35-year old -- the age required by Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution.

But everyone else is doing it.... I've lost count.

"French Quarter is in a funk"

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/
01/19/french.quarter.ap/index.html

Checks and Balances....

Three branches of Federal Government?

Three elements of Paper, Rock, Scissors?

Coincidence? I don't think so....

The executive branch is the rock, or at least it thinks it is. The judiciary cuts everybody else off at the knees....

Yeehaa, I'm a ROCK STAR!

Or maybe not really....

There is a monthly service at my church for kids and adults who are developmentally disabled. It's an abbreviated, somewhat simplified ceremony (actually quite to my tastes) that is mostly student and lay run -- including the guitarists.

I've played guitar since middle school. It's actually the same classical guitar my dad got in the Army, never learned to play, and then gave to me. If you've ever noticed the longer-than-male-average fingernails on my right hand, finger picking the soft-stringed acoustic is the reason.

I don't play all too often these days, but I always try to show up to play at Special Service. There are a few other guys who usually show up and we've got a canon of campfire-style Christian tunes (This little light of mine, All of God's creatures 'got a place in the choir...) we go through.

One of the fun things is that I really don't have any idea what we're doing, but I've got enough experience on guitar that as long as I can see the fingers on another guitarist's left hand I can follow along with the chords.

I'm no Jimi Hendrix or Andres Segovia, but you don't have to be great for a little fun, fellowship, and service with the skills you've got.

So tonight the other fellow and I didn't really know which songs we'd be doing until we did them, and we knew even less about our final tune "O, come away."

"Do you know how to play that?" he asked me.

"No, do you?"

"Well, here we go...."

Bicycle Cavalry....

One morning this week, as I saddled onto my bicycle, getting ready to ride the mile uphill to law school, one of my fellow law students, a neighbor, was getting into her car so’s to drive the stretch.

The race was on.

I took off, realized I’d forgotten my helmet, wheeled around back to my apartment, got it, and started pedaling.

She passed me as I was maybe half way there, starting to puff up the long hill to the university.

As I topped the hill and entered the home stretch, I could see her heading across the street to the law school door. I poured on a little extra hurt and braked to a halt in front of her, 75 feet from the door.

“I won.”

And she was in a BMW….

More footage from The Gulf.....

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c23/jderrick/
?action=view&current=judgetour_0001.flv

A still photographer who also shoots video is sometimes referred to as a "platypus," a reference to the Australian mammal's being both one thing and simultaneously something else -- a furry mammal as well as duck-billed, webbed-footed and egg laying.

Shooting for a couple of newspapers over the past few years, which explains the photos and vids and such, being a platypus was a trick I picked up. The same small camera can do both, and the editing software isn't difficult once you get the hang of it. Male platypoda are endowed with a venomous spur on each hind limb, a trick I have not picked up but which does seem rather useful.

In any case, the morning before we took The Misery Tour though some of the hardest hit areas of the city, we met with Judge Madeleine Landrieu, and here is some of what she had to say and some more of what we saw....

check out http://forthegoodofthegulf.blogspot.com/ for more....

New batch of beer....

"Atonement Beer"


Courtesy of Mr. Beer....

http://www.mrbeer.com/images/pdf/11000atb.pdf