If It's Good Enough For History

Over night we've had a light dusting of snow preceded by hysterical pronouncements of blizzard conditions. Still, tomorrow is the first of April, and like I've said, April forecasts should not include the word, "accumulation". I'm sorry to mention that since I try not to repeat myself on this blog. I should say, I try not to repeat myself word for word; the whole blog is one long torrent of self pity.
Anyway, I don't know why I should strive for originality when history repeats itself like an OCD patient counting steps. Really, we're going to arm mujahedin  to overthrow a cruel dictator? Once he's gone, who do you think they'll be shooting at?

We Deliver

My son in law sent a link to an article about a letter that was delivered in Massachusetts last week after a 66 year trip from New York. Oddly enough, that's almost three times longer than a message in a bottle from Germany took to be found in Russia that was also mentioned at Boston.com
Granted, 66 years is a long time, but to keep it in perspective, after the first 20 years, there's almost no  incentive to hurry.

Mill Work

So, I don't have any real experience with grinding poverty, but after getting my unexpectedly hugeVisa bill, and then going to pick up Karen's expectedly expensive prescriptions, I can tell you that grinding middle class is no picnic.

The Crucio Difference

Say what you will about Severus Snape, and believe me, I've heard it all, you have to admire the panache he brings to fashion. I've always wanted to be able to wear a cloak or a cape, but no matter what you call it, when I put it on, it's a shawl.

The Blog: Millennial Edition

I finally got a comment this morning, sort of. It was a self-referential, meta-comment really. It was a comment about a comment that was never made, and like  millennium-before-last hi-tech, it was written on paper.

Leah was telling me recently that we shouldn't use Teflon because of the risk of cancer. Clearly, she's never washed a cast iron pan with burnt on eggs. Then, last week, she was a little freaked about the possibility of radiation from Japan drifting over us. I was pretty unimpressed. When I was a kid, back in the Twentieth Century, they used to blow up atomic bombs. We had actual fallout drifting around, not this namby-pamby, is it or isn't it, "minuscule leak" stuff."

Oh, oh, I published this before I remembered I wanted to quote Steve Earle. He was talking about a pistol, but it could just as easily apply to a bomber, "It can get you into trouble, but it can't get you out."

And then, just after I published that, the phone rang and I was polled about our upcoming election. They asked if I was varying degrees of conservative or liberal. I asked if there wasn't a choice to be moderate. They said there was, but that they weren't supposed to read it. "Well, I'm extremely moderate," I told them. Then they asked if I was married or single. "I'm extremely married," I said.

This Is Obvious Enough To Not Be Worth Mentioning

According to Freedom House, there are plenty of obvious targets if we want to launch cruise missiles at countries that abuse their citizens. We could start at home if we want to pick the country that imprisons the most citizens per capita. Or Ivory Coast if we want to choose a country that shoots citizens marching in protests.  But no, apparently Big Chocolate  isn't as big a threat to world peace as Big Oil.

Quick Responders Can Be So Cruel

I heard that all the cool kids with their cool sites had QR codes; those odd square barcode-y things that allow people with their smart phones to get more information quickly, hence the name.  The quick response I've gotten so far is a pitying smile.

Of course, what I wanted was a comment on this blog. I told a customer yesterday that blogging without comments was like standing in my backyard talking to myself.  She seemed to think that was a pretty good idea because if I was in my backyard, talking to myself, I wouldn't be in her driveway talking to her when all she wanted was her mail. 

It's Not A Healthy Choice

I just ate six more Healthy Choice ice cream bars. Did you hear anything about Ivory Coast? Anything at all?

It's Been A Big Couple Of Weeks Up Here (Yawn)

It's been reported recently that we're about to get an Apple Store and service from Verizon. That's all well and good, but where's our Olive Garden?

Fwd: Family Photographer

Begin forwarded message:

I sent you an email ages ago about a deal my photographer friend Emily was running for family photo sessions in AK. Ticket prices have skyrocketed this year and since Emily planned to bring her whole family to AK she's afraid she can't afford it. I said I thought some people were interested in sessions, and that I'd email again to ask.Please let me know if you, or someone you know might be interested in this. 

As a reminder, I asked if she'd give us a deal and she said for mini-shoots in Alaska she'd be willing to do the session for $100 and include a cd of all the photos she took (look around, I think this is a GREAT deal). 

Here's Emily's main website: http://emilybwilson.com/?load=flash and here's her blog: http://emilybwilsonblog.com/  (you can contact her through her website).

She's done a lot of children/family photography and in the last year or so has branched out into wedding and engagement shoots (I love this engagement shoot: http://emilybwilsonblog.com/weddings/brett-elyse-engaged-nj-wedding-photographer/ ) She's also done some great mulit-generational photo shoots for family reunions. 

I definitely think you should consider booking her if you're going to be in Alaska around July 3rd, 2011. Even if you decide you don't need photographs of you and your loved ones (and why you wouldn't is beyond me ;)), would you please consider passing this information on to your friends and family who will be in Alaska?

Sarah

Sure, They're Rich, But So Were We And We Needed Help

Donate to help the Japanese recover.
Incidentally, I think we're all a little relieved that Pat Robertson hasn't explained the origins of this latest tragedy. Nor the one last week in Christchurch. Maybe he thinks that only poor people cause their own disasters.

Piling Up Charges And Boxes

I was kind of expecting a comment on this blog since I pretty much demanded one of my customers read it. I was a little like Scheherazade from the Arabian Nights. I don't mean because I am an imaginary Persian woman. I'm not! But because I started my tale of jury duty, and then told her she'd have to read the conclusion online. 

By the way, I looked online at that defendant's criminal record the other day. The mystery isn't why the state brought the case, but why he was out of jail in the first (or second, or 42nd, place actually).

In other news, we received three boxes unexpectedly yesterday. They remain in the hall for the time being, until we can shift the camera crew from Hoarders into another room.

A Correction and Two Confessions

The six chocolate ice cream bars I ate yesterday were Healthy Choice, not Lean Cuisine. And although I ate them in a frenzy, that had nothing to do with Ivory Coast.
Someone sent me a link to a story about millions of dead anchovies washing up in Los Angeles and I'm embarrassed to tell you that I wrote back, "Maybe it was some kind of pizza disaster; sort of a Domino's effect."

Rich Dark Liquid That Powers The World Threatened

The folks at Stratfor will tell you that Libya is a sideshow. The real story is that Iran's influence in Bahrain will give them control over both sides of the Strait of Hormuz.
Oil will only flow if Iran wants it to, and at the price Iran demands. 
Well, yay, that stuff is pure evil. On the other hand, the brutal regime fighting for its life in Ivory Coast has just seized forty percent of the world's cocoa supply. I ate six Lean Cuisine Chocolate Ice Cream Bars today in a frenzy before I read that it's not expected to have any impact. Well, it's already had a little impact.

A Woman Was Kicked By A Moose Downtown Today

"At this time, we are telling people not to agitate the moose ... to give it space," Shell said.

Oh sure, everyone is concerned about agitating the moose, but I have proof that no one is trying to avoid agitating me.

Be Bitter: Vindication At Last, Sort Of

We keep hearing this advice to cheer up and stay happy because it will keep you healthy," Friedman says. "We just disagree with that after seeing the results of the study.

Everybody Knows You Can't Roll A Seven Five Split

So we never did come to an agreement. Yesterday we were split 7-5, and then 6-6, so it looked like we were progressing towards a verdict, but today we were back to 7-5 and that's where we finished up. After we were dismissed the judge allowed as how he wasn't sure how he would have voted either; it was hard to tell based on the evidence.
Hard to tell based on the evidence we were allowed to see. Had we known that the reason the state was prosecuting such a ridiculously petty crime with the same vehemence normally reserved for cases where the victim was rich and attractive was because the defendant had so many priors that he was sort of a career three strikes criminal, we probably would have found him guilty on the first day of deliberations, but then I would have had to go to work today, and it's still really cold and windy. So, it's an ill wind that blows no good, after all.
By now, of course, this is no longer an inexpensive bike at all. Paying the judge, the two attorneys, their assistants, a court clerk, a bailiff, a guard,  twenty five dollars a head per diem to the jurors, parking for the jurors (except for the smugly superior juror that biked) two days worth of lunches for the jury, and flying the victim up from Seattle where he now lives; this bike has probably cost more than my car. Well, I don't really have much of a car, but it probably cost more than your car.

After the prosecution wrapped up, last Thursday I thought that it would take a pretty bad defense case to make me think the defendant was guilty. They must have thought so too, since they didn't put any on defense at all.

Since the entire case rested on an illegible scrawl on a pawn ticket, I couldn't say that I was convinced "beyond a reasonable doubt". I was sort of convinced, but given that my handwriting was the despair of Mrs. Gwinn, my first grade teacher, and that it isn't much better than that now, I couldn't really vote, "Guilty". Apparently half of us could, though. The standard of proof in a criminal case is even higher than in a custody case, so I asked one young lady, "Would you be willing to give up your children?" based on this evidence. It would have been really compelling, except that she didn't have children.

So back we go tomorrow.