anyone still without gmail?

i have so many invites sitting around, and i don't know anyone who doesn't already have an account. So if any of you or anyone you know wants one, lemme know.

Last week's Time Magazine touted The Cloud as one of the best new inventions in America.

Um, pardon me if I'm being terribly unsophisticated, but isn't this a $5,900.00 inflatable tent that's shaped like a blob?

And isn't this a $99.00 overturned red plastic tub?

And this one cracks me up. Yay, I put the keys in a friggin hole and they disappear, and because there is a mirror behind it, it's magic???!?? And it costs two hundred dollars?

Granted, the site does have some things I like, such as this, this, and these.

But to each his/her own...if you like sitting on $99.00 buckets, who am I to judge? *snicker*

done!

30 pages and 184 footnotes later, I am done, finissimo, with the erstwhile bane of my existence, my term paper for Comparative Corporate Law.

My sleeping habits have gone to shit. It's 5am but I think I'm going to draw myself a hot bath and attempt to sleep for 3 hours before turning the monster in.

Tomorrow: work on my OTHER term paper. *sob*

crapping camels

I had the most bizarre dream last night about malcontent camels that were holding a grudge and would crap on people. My friends and I kept leaving some kind of book or notebook behind the camel, and when we went to get it, the camel would take the opportunity to crap all over us.
I decided to wash the crap off by taking a bath (eeeewww), and sitting in the shit water, I realized that I was in some kind of military hospital bathtub, and there was a clear brown square sign shaped like a cube in the corner of my bathtub that said "This doctor specializes in diabetes."

Strange huh?

Then I was taking a nap earlier today and I dreamt that I was telling people about my crapping camel dream.

So I decided to look up "camels" and "defecation" in an online dream dictionary.

CAMEL: Portraits of endurance. To see this beast signifies great financial gain, perhaps inheritance. First there will be hardship and obstacles to overcome.

To see a camel in your dream, denotes that you need to be more conservative; you are carrying too many problems on your shoulders. You tend to hold on and cling on to your emotions instead of expressing and releasing them. You need to learn to forgive and forget. Alternatively, it represents your potential for handling big problems, responsibilities, and burdens.

DEFECATION: Release, purging, getting rid of things, etc. etc.

I had no idea that camels and crap were related on any level but apparently my dream is telling me I need to release something. And it's interesting that in my dream the camels crapped on people because they were holding a grudge. But then, what is the significance of the fact that the camel was crapping on me? And on my friends?

Any interpretations?

great restaurant deal--get $25 gift certificates for $4.00!

i had to tell everyone about this:

Restaurant.com has a promotion going on right now that gives you 60% off of their already discounted restaurant certificates. I've been using them for the last few months and I LOVE them! All the certificates I bought are for SD restaurants but they have deals on restaurants in LA and other cities too.

The coupon code is 66980. You enter it at checkout. $25 gift certificates usually go for $10, so with the coupon code you can get them for $4.00!!! Get some to give to your friends, you can print them out on nice paper and nobody will know you spent four bucks on them. Except me.

Watch out for the restaurants that require a minimum purchase or that only work for parties of four or more. Celadon, where I went tonight, does not require a minimum number of people, nor does Seven-17. Oh and most certificates only work on weekdays.

Here are reviews of restaurants I've bought certificates for:

Celadon
Thai Restaurant in the heart of Hillcrest, gorgeously decorated, attentive staff, great food. I would totally be impressed if a guy took me to a first date here (also there is a flower stand a block away on the right that sells bouquets for six dollars, so you can take a stroll after dinner and buy her flowers to cinch the deal). I especially appreciated that when we ordered the jungle curry, our waiter kindly told us it's more like soup than curry, and that he personally doesn't like it, saving us from ordering something we probably wouldn't like. You choose the spiciness of your food from a scale of 1-10. We chose 7, which for me was not too spicy all (only induced mild sweating), so next time I think I'll try an 8. The green papaya salad was excellent, and only six bucks--the prices here are very good for a restaurant this fancy and well-located. The chicken tom yum soup was also delicious. We also had red beef curry and a whole fried striped sea bass in sweet and sour sauce. Total bill came to $45.00, so with a $10 tip and the $25 certificate we only spent $30.00 for soup, salad, and 2 entrees. I liked this place so much that when I got home earlier today I went online and bought 4 more gift certificates, and my roommate bought 2. So sorry if you try and they're out of stock, heehee.

Seven-17
Swank place in downtown, across the street from Horton Plaza. Well decorated but feels a little stark--I liked the more intimate bar area a lot more than the restaurant area. I ordered the fish of the day, and T had the duck breast. Both were really good, especially the duck, which melts in your mouth--yummm. The only thing I didn't like about this place was that it was in the middle of downtown yet completely empty, which struck me as strange. This detracted from the ambience quite a bit. Some friends of mine went here and ordered lobster ravioli and steak, and they said it sucked, steak was dry and lobster ravioli too creamy--so stay away from that. This place a little expensive, but not too bad. I think we ended up spending $65 inclusive of tip and certificate, for 2 entrees and a bottle of wine.

sick

i haven't been this sick in years. my wonderful bf, in the spirit of sharing, gave me a virus that has rendered me completely debilitated. i feel like crawling in a corner to die. my room has that gross sick-person smell to it, and my friends cringe and lean back a few inches whenever i speak or cough (probably a good idea).

but the good thing about being deathly ill is that nobody expects me to be of any use whatsoever, and i can lay in bed all day commandeering herbal tea and blankets, and soliciting head-pats and sympathetic cooing.

however the good does not substantially outweigh the bad, either on an objective or subjective standard. ha. ha.

i'm sick and reserve the right to make lame law jokes.

my brain is mush

I have just spent the last seven hours (with one hour break to watch The Apprentice) working on my brief for international commercial arbitration moot. Interesting but not too fun. If we get the funding, I will get to go to Vienna in March to argue, and that would be an amazing reward....so it's all worth it really. It's just right this moment, there are ten million other things I'd rather be doing than pondering the intricacies of Article 79 of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

Yuck.

My favorite picture: My hand on the Door of Judgment, Notre Dame, Paris, 2001 

thwarted democracy

Here in San Diego, a lot of people really dislike the mayor (Dick Murphy). Neither do they like Murphy's challenger, Ron Roberts. Given the choice of two sucky candidates, last Tuesday a full 35 percent of San Diego voters, 181,544 people, wrote in a third-party candidate (amazing, huh). Turns out that Murphy got 34% of the vote and Roberts got 31%. Although it hasn't been determined yet who the write-in votes went to, it's a virtual certainty that they are for Donna Frye, who ran an extremely successful grass-roots campaign.

There have been write in spaces on ballots in SD mayoral elections for years, and the city has always recognized this method of voting in the past. The municipal code expressly allows write-in candidates. BUT yesterday, a supporter of Roberts filed suit to declare the election results ILLEGAL, because a provision of the city charter appears to limit elections to two candidates.

I am dismayed beyond belief at this unfortunate turn of events. Do the other candidates think that if Frye were to be thrown out, that the 35% who wrote her name on their ballots would take this lying down? They are trying to disenfranchise 35 percent of the city! Shameful, shameful.

***UPDATE***
This just in, from my overcaffeinated rambling incoherent roommate (she has a point):

anyhow, about donna frye, something
interesting: apparently, the mayoral race this time around is a run
off, which means that the two candidates were the ones who survived
the first round and since none of them had the majority vote they had
to do it the second time. given this new info, it makes a lot more
sense why they wouldn't allow write ins, since that would defeat the
purpose of a run off altogether. it would be like 5 people playing a
game and 2 tied and in the sudden death round a 3rd person springs up
to play and wins. that's not really fair. So I guess now that i think
about it i do see arguments against it, and at this point, they are
pretty convincing... on a completely unrelated side note, i broke out
in hives today, must be something i ate during dinner that triggered
an allergic reaction, that's nice. I also haven't studied, but I have
watched a movie, half a tv show, and some of the country music award..
*sigh* we really need that big desk out there so I can glue my butt to
it... wow, i am so random right now, maybe i shouldn't have taken 3
zyrtecs? oh and guess what??? caffeine might prevent women from
getting type 2 diabetes!!! YEAH BABY! see, i'm drinking to my health,
i'm not off the wagon...
now just waht do they mean by "don't operate heavy machinary" on
medicine bottles? what is a heavy machinary per ce? is toilet a heavy
machinary? cuz i can operate a toiler. is teh stove a heavey
machinary? cuz it's heavy, it's machine, and its ary, and i can
operate a stove without burning it down, maybe. is the computer a
heavy machinary? what is heavy? if you're superman, does that mean the
rule doens't apply to you? what is machinary? if a tree falls in the
forest and no one is there, does it make a sound? things that makes
you go... hmmmmmmmmmmmmm... ponder away my frined, ponder away...

Any takers?

Marry an American.... pretty pretty please?

because i'm that mature.

[mat, in his defense, is a med student]
MatTrix700: you're still up?
Baby61212: yah
MatTrix700: i'm really tired of studying the penis right now
Baby61212: wow, i never thought i'd have an im conversation that involved that statement
MatTrix700: the penis sucks
MatTrix700: haha
Baby61212: i beg to differ
MatTrix700: yeah i've just had about enough of the penis already
Baby61212: penis penis penis
MatTrix700: exams coming up?
MatTrix700: no school tomorrow?
Baby61212: penises are great, i wish i had one
Baby61212: i do have school, i have that presentation. ew. i would much rather be studying a penis
Baby61212: oops
Baby61212: the penis
MatTrix700: no you wouldn't
Baby61212: you know in crim law they have something called the penis rule?

theories on the inner workings of the universe

Instead of corruption levels, here’s an interesting topic for social scientists to conduct a study on:

Has anyone else noticed the direct relationship between the level of happiness in a relationship and collective weight gain? It seems when I was in relationships where I argued and cried and shouted all the time, I would neglect to eat and therefore lost weight. But over the last two, blissfully argument-free years, I have gained FIFTEEN pounds.

Coincidence? Perhaps not:

Is happiness quanitifiable as a coefficient of the amount of weight you gain? And if weight gain reaches a certain threshold, after which it causes partners to find one another mutually unattractive, would the phenomenon then self-rectify, causing the couple to break up, resulting in weight loss and restoring previous equilibrium?

Could we solve America’s obesity problem by making everyone miserable, like forcing each and every citizen to date Anna Nicole Smith?

Another unrelated observation: I have discovered this week that the dishwasher eats medium-sized glasses in very much the same manner that the dryer eats one of each pair of socks.

This observation reinforces my yet-unproved hypothesis that the inertia of certain household appliances causes disruptions in the time-space continuum through which small but select items are sucked.

Somewhere in another dimension exists a universe comprised exclusively of mismatched socks and medium-capacity glassware.

My Evidence flashcards are so funny sometimes.... and for those of you unfamiliar with the Rules, yes, the evidence is admissible. FRE 404(a)(1)  

Disgruntled

I am a little put off by this paper, released very recently by two Harvard profs for the Harvard Institute of Economic Research (H.I.E.R.)

Here is the abstract:
We use a data set of federal corruption convictions in the U.S. to investigate the causes and consequences of corruption. More educated states, and to a less degree richer states, have less corruption. This relationship holds even when we use historical factors like education in 1928 or Congregationalism in 1890, as instruments for the level of schooling today. The level of corruption is weakly correlated with the level of income inequality and racial fractionalization, and uncorrelated with the size of government. There is a weak negative relationship between corruption and employment and income growth. These results echo the cross-country findings, and support the view that the correlation between development and good political outcomes occurs because more education improves political institutions.

Now I’ll admit, I have not read the paper in detail, but I have read most of it and looked at the data.

And I’m no Harvard professor, but the assertions the authors make seem to me just a tad elitist.

First, I have a problem with type of data from which the authors derive their statistics: convictions of federal corruption offenses. The contention is that more education makes better political institutions and therefore results in less corruption. Can’t one also conclude from this data that smarter people get caught less, can afford better lawyers, and therefore don’t get convicted in the first place?

Second, using the number of convictions as a measure of corruption neglects to take into account the degree of severity of certain federal offenses. Under this analysis, convictions of one Enron exec, whose crimes deprived thousands of people of their entire pension funds totaling in the billions of dollars, count just as much as the conviction of a small-scale federal violation. Directors of large corporations are almost always highly educated and extremely wealthy individuals. These people’s crimes have a larger financial impact because their shady dealings probably involve a lot more money. So even if there is only one conviction at Enron Towers in Houston, Texas, that one conviction has more of an impact than a hundred smaller convictions in a less-educated region of the country.

Further, the authors point out that the more racially diverse an area is, the more corrupt it is. Especially if the area has a lot of black people. There are so many other factors that would affect the “corruption rate” and also cause an apparent direct relationship between racial diversity of an area and corruption. The authors’ point seems almost to imply that white, well-educated areas are better places to do business, while racially diverse areas (especially black communities) should be avoided until their people get some learning in them. Is it just me or have we just regressed a few decades in political correctness?

And guys, nice acronym. “H.I.E.R”…are your family estates owned in fee tail, too?

Not that I'm against education...I just think it's erroneous to assume that educated people have a lesser propensity to want to take advantage of the system, and this has never been more apparent than after the Enron/Arthur-Andersen scandals.

Wow.

Illusions, an Audi commercial inspired by MC Escher. Awesome.

Saw this link at Cipango.

I was a cat for Halloween :) 

Baby61212: dammit!
CNN: No Canada safe haven for Democrats
T i IVI IVI y: i know a couple ppl in canada tho, i can have them adopt you?
Baby61212: oh great, email them this: Up for adoption. 24 year old disilllusioned American. Quiet and friendly, will work for steak.
T i IVI IVI y: or I could sell you into canadian slavery?
Baby61212: Slightly alcoholic, but friendly when drunk.
Baby61212: You mean the Emancipation Proclamation didn't apply to Canada???
T i IVI IVI y: clearly, no
T i IVI IVI y: and i'm sure I could find something in the Bush Doctrine to support it
Baby61212: I wonder if we could sneak over if we repeat "Ey? Ey? Aboot!"
Baby61212: but given my latest border patrol experiences, it might serve me better to refrain
T i IVI IVI y: i read that on your blog :-P
Baby61212: yeah i'm still laughing, and for that matter so is everyone else i know

election

I'm so sad. I don't think I have it in me to write.

Loving exchange...

Typical morning conversation. Yes these are verbatim quotes:

SCENE: Karen's bed, 7:30am
{T, thrashing in his sleep, hits K in the right eye socket with his forhead. K is awakened by the POP sound of her eye being pushed rapidly inward, and the blinding pain that follows.}

K: FUCKING IDIOT!
T: Wha...ZZZzzzZzzzz *turns over*

K waits five minutes for the pain to subside, then repeatedly pokes T, berating and reminding him that she is in PAIN.

T: Well none of this would have happened if your stupid eye didn't keep getting in my way!
{T then falls immediately asleep, leaving K sputtering, "My....stupid..eye....you...horrible..person...this...hurts..."}
T: Just kill me now.

I need a bigger bed or a smaller bf.

Top 5 Unexpected consequences of having Tim over as a houseguest for four days:

5. Being the target of silent hate-filled stares in the morning (I wake up before he does)
4. When the stares don’t elicit response, not-so-silent cries of “I HATE you and your lumpy bed!” This makes me laugh uncontrollably, annoying him even more.
3. All the cookies have disappeared
2. Ashes in all sorts of strange places
1. I just found a large pair of white briefs lying on top of my desk, next to my water glass. Am too scared to perform the smell test on them.

All this is mitigated, however, by the fact that I sometimes catch him kissing me on the forehead when he thinks I’m asleep. Sigh.