November 29, 2005
If i Had A Blog
by annika b.
If i had a blog i would write about only shiny things
like my hair, or your nose
If i had a blog i would post naked pictures all the time
but of you
i would also post drink recipes,
and then drink them while blogging
If you had a blog you would name it after my cat, if i had a cat
If i had a blog i would write stupid free verse while listening
to my professor, and the boy with slightly wavy hair
who only raises his hand when he has something funny to say
Having a blog would be like being a superhero
but without the costume or the cool powers
i would wear boots and my underwear would be on the outside.
Posted by: annika at
10:20 AM
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1
Nice.
Because you have a blog and you are wimsical
I assume your poem is autobiographical.
Posted by: Jake at November 29, 2005 12:03 PM (r/5D/)
2
Does this chick post anything that matters?
Posted by: Orion Testaclese at November 29, 2005 02:14 PM (ydXf+)
3
Law School has finally gotten to you.
Take your meds.
Take a break and do something that resembles exercise.
Stay away from the computer.
Posted by: shelly at November 29, 2005 02:18 PM (6mUkl)
4
Oh man.
Now I wish I had a blog!
I would compose posts consisting of a single letter, repeated over and over again. And people would marvel at my neurotic genius.
Posted by: The Law Fairy at November 29, 2005 02:33 PM (XUsiG)
5
Tee Hee Hee! you are so silly! But I like it.
Posted by: Kyle N at November 29, 2005 02:42 PM (Pkt/I)
6
You doo have a blog Law Fairy, so let's get them nekid pictures up there. I wanna see some tits.
Posted by: Casca at November 29, 2005 03:16 PM (qBTBH)
7
The shouts from the floor are "Take down his words; retract the award."
That is what football frustration will do to a grown man.
Posted by: shelly at November 29, 2005 04:29 PM (6mUkl)
8
I am glad, at least, that you listen to your professor!
Posted by: Hugo at November 29, 2005 06:05 PM (Yu24L)
9
Doesn't Madonna already have the underwear on the outside bit covered?
Posted by: MarkD at November 30, 2005 04:18 AM (oQofX)
10
Drinking while blogging?
Are you blogging when reading or writing?
I don't spel very good if writting while drinkking.
Posted by: Eddythedancingbear at November 30, 2005 05:32 AM (LR0Ls)
11
Why did I come here? I should have heeded their warns.......my friends warned me I would catch the dreaded Asian Blog Flu.....now my body is covered with blogspots. Great just great!
Posted by: Wm H at December 11, 2005 05:59 PM (c59X1)
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November 22, 2005
Shout Outs To The New Lawyers In The Blogosphere
Congratulations are also in order for
Law Fairy,
The Angry Clam,
Chris Cross, and
GirlGoneMil, who passed the California Bar Exam. And i should also mention that my roommate Megan is the smartest, sexiest and most relieved new lawyer in the Golden State. And on Saturday, she was the most hungover too.
i know it's bad form to mention it, but good luck to those of you who didn't pass. i know you'll get em next time.
Posted by: annika at
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1
Congratulations to all of them.
Posted by: Mark at November 22, 2005 07:10 PM (Vg0tt)
2
You're making the assumption that the rest of us are going to take it again...
Posted by: KG at November 22, 2005 07:52 PM (eRMCR)
3
Thanks so much annika! It feels as good as cold beer on a warm day, wrestling in a tub of jello, or well...you can come up with your own similes :-)
Posted by: Girlgonemil at November 22, 2005 09:30 PM (Q+K0o)
4
thanks, annika!
in true lawyer fashion, I've already switched from "ginormously indescribably relieved" to "now where the hell are my business cards??"
Posted by: The Law Fairy at November 22, 2005 11:26 PM (bzLvk)
5
Welcome to the Dark Side. You fools . . .
Posted by: Matt at November 23, 2005 08:41 AM (10G2T)
6
OK kids, I want to tell you what my mentor told me when I passed the bar. He said "Are you a lawyer now?".
To which I replied "Yes, I passed the Bar Exam".
He said "No you're not, you are just a member of the Bar. Call me after you have put a witness on the stand, after preparing him for testimony for weeks, and he testified just the opposite of what you expected, and on the spot you've had to adjust to that and try to put your case back together. Then you can call yourself a lawyer."
It happened about six years later.
So I say to your pals, happy to have all you unguided missiles join us to pay your dues, work for starvation wages all days and nights and weekends, whilst we take the bows and the money, but wait a while 'til you call yourselves "lawyers" and just stick to "Member of the Bar" for a while.
Posted by: shelly at November 25, 2005 03:01 AM (6mUkl)
7
Shelly,
Do you feel a little taller slamming people's achievements?
Posted by: Mark at November 25, 2005 11:29 PM (v4fyP)
8
Nope, not slamming them, just giving them some honest reality check advice.
Anyone who survives the torture of a tough Bar exam is entitled to respect for their intellect and perseverence; law school is a arduous ordeal and six months or so of studying and relearning the material, then three days of testing and months of waiting for results are mind boggling.
But, having survived that experience often creates what I call unguided missiles, and the first few years can be painful experiences for young people who think they know it all, but get pantsed by old geezers who know all the tricks of the trade.
It is so painful that many leave the practice within five years of so to do something else with their education.
The practice of law is very competitive, and young lawyers need to understand that they are just beginning the process, not ending it by passing the Bar.
So I do congratulate and welcome all who have passed, but caution them to heed my words, as did I many years ago listen to my mentor.
I may be speaking at some of their swearing in's, seeing as Annie does attend a California School of Law and she was talking about the California Bar; I'll say the same thing there, if I do.
Posted by: shelly at November 26, 2005 03:01 AM (6mUkl)
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November 11, 2005
November 10, 2005
Comments Problems
i have been frustrated with the comments being down, too. For some reason, the whole of Munuviana has been hit hard recently. Pixy is on it, as he always is, but as you know he's only one man. Superhuman yes, but still only one man. Here's some interesting facts that might shed light on things or at least help us all to be patient:
We got 1.3 million trackbacks over the past 30 days, and 550,000 comments. About 99.8% of trackbacks and over 90% of comments were spam. Over 99% of the spam got blocked, but that still left a lot of cleaning up.
. . .
Massive amounts of comment spam coming in right now - several thousand a minute. Busy upgrading Fluffy's armament. Back soon.
Ugh. Seriously ugh. We're talking over a hundred comments a second here.
Update: New super doom-Fluffy installed. We'll see how we go with that.
Update update: 75,000 80,000 85,000 spams from a single source in under 90 minutes. It would have been more than that except that the server ground to a halt under the load. It's sped up significantly now that it's all being blocked immediately.
Update update update: Out of 90,000 95,000 spams, four actually got through. Congrats to Ted, Linda, Daniel and Lawren, who won the prize.
Update^4: 100,000! It's now 104 minutes since the flood started
Update^5: Looks like it's leveled off at a steady 1500 spams a minute. I wonder how long they'll keep up this futile exercise?
Update^6: Just past the two hour mark and it seems to have stopped. 123,111 spam attempts, four of which got through, for a success rate of 0.00324%. I shall now delete those four spams... And done.
. . .
We have to move off Movable Type; we have no choice in the matter. However, no-one will be forced off MT before they're ready. The new servers will be able to cope with the existing users just fine; the problem is that further growth will bring serious problems. We're already the largest MT installation in the world, and worse, we are stuck on version 2.6 due to licensing issues.
Posted by: annika at
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1
This is precisely the reason I moved platforms. When I realized that every morning I was waking up to stave off a new spam attack--and that if I
didn't do it, the spammers were able to take down the server
every morning--I realized that I simply couldn't stay with MT.
As much as I had enjoyed the ride, I hated having to spend so much time fighting the spammers.
Posted by: zombyboy at November 10, 2005 09:59 AM (1yNBe)
2
Yes. Come over to the dark side of WordPress.
Posted by: Robbie at November 10, 2005 12:50 PM (lbWbV)
3
Ordinarily, I would think of a male named "Pixy" as being more well versed in show-tunes than in being a Warrior King, I have to give him credit there.
Posted by: skippystalin at November 10, 2005 04:21 PM (ohSFF)
4
As you know, Annie, someof the other blogs have these weird distorted letters you have to match before it will allow a comment to be sent.
I think that effectively blocks the spammers....
Maybe they should use that system???
Posted by: shelly at November 10, 2005 04:40 PM (6mUkl)
5
One advantage annika has in Munuvia is everything is free. Server space, tech support...all kindsa shit. It's perfect for a starving law student: No money down, no montly payment...heck, tell me who couldn't afford that!
Posted by: Victor at November 10, 2005 05:33 PM (l+W8Z)
6
Definitely can't beat free.
I believe the tool shelly is referring to is called 'captcha,' where you have to type in a random combination of a word and numbers. I've heard other bloggers say it's highly effective; but I've only seen that on Expression Engine blogs...
Posted by: Amy Bo Bamy at November 11, 2005 07:31 AM (Wz2Gp)
7
I stand corrected; the captcha tool is also available from Pmachine Pro...
Posted by: Amy Bo Bamy at November 11, 2005 07:33 AM (Wz2Gp)
8
Of course, pMachine and EE are from the same company. We use EE, and the captcha thing really does work. Comment spam went from ten or twenty a day to zero immediately. Then, the trackback spam started...
Posted by: buckethead at November 14, 2005 11:02 AM (ztNrs)
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Money Quote Of The Day
Or,
yesterday, rather:
For several years, these people have been testing the water, trying to gauge the size of the lies they can get away with. Unsurprisingly, they’ve come to realize that, if they all simply insist on the “truthfulness” of a given lie of their own creation and marketing, that little piece of the greater war narrative will, with the help of a compliant media, slowly ossify into “fact”—or at the very least, will dig beneath the skin of settled history and fester there, constantly picked at by the conspiracy theorists and fantasists who stroke their own egos by pretending to know more than the surface reveals.
Yes. Yessssss!
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November 09, 2005
November 08, 2005
Essential Riot Reading
i know everybody's been pimping the
2002 Thomas Dalrymple article on the Parisian suburbs. i found it via
A Nation Of Riflemen. If you haven't yet read it, believe the hype. It's one of the most interesting things i've read all year.
Kevin Kim links to it too. But Kevin has much more on the riots, including English translations of some French sources i had seen elsewhere. Not knowing French, i'm thankful to Kevin for doing the work. Just keep scrolling down on his blog. He'll like that.
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1
Kevin says that there are constant police surveillance of the Muslim people. Every source I have read over the past few years says that there is no police presence in Muslim areas and that is one of the main reasons for the riots. The area has been in violent chaos for years.
Where does Kevin get his information?
Posted by: Jake at November 08, 2005 07:59 PM (r/5D/)
2
If you go to here, you will see a great map of the areas under attack in France.
http://timblair.net/ee/index.php/weblog/splendid_integration/
Notice how concentrated the attacks are along the Riviera in Southern France. I have been there a number of times and I have rarely seen a Muslim there. The Al Qaida types must have moved a number of troops there with the purpose of scaring the hell out of the tourists and devastating the tourist industry.
I was in Nice last May (I had no choice). The hotels seemed empty. I talked to a hotel manager and he says the Americans are staying away. That was great news to me as it showed that our boycott of France is working.
Muslim attacks on resort towns combined with the ongoing American boycott could be a deathblow to thousands of hotels and cafes in France.
Posted by: Jake at November 08, 2005 08:18 PM (r/5D/)
3
Jake,
It's not my own claim; it's very likely something I translated from an article. In my translation of the Laurent Mucchielli interview, I did add the following note:
[NB: The sociologist is blaming the police, at least in part, for the electrocution deaths of the two youths. I disagree. While the sociologist may have a point about how a community might curdle under excessive police surveillance, we have yet to establish that the surveillance in the French banlieue has been excessive, given the banlieue's nasty, decades-old reputation. Perhaps it was the police's fault; perhaps it wasn't. I'd need to do more research before coming to my own conclusions.]
At this point, I have no clear impression as to how much or how little police surveillance there is in the banlieue, so I've made no claims about it.
If you read Dalrymple's article, you get the impression that the police dip into the banlieue only to knock heads on occasion; it is, otherwise, a lawless zone. If you believe Mucchielli, however, you get the impression that disaffected French youths are constantly on the run from the police, though it's not clear whether Mucchielli is referring only to the Paris banlieue, or to minority-heavy locales all over France.
I'm still forming impressions of the situation, so please offer me some interpretive charity, as the philosophers say. When I make some definite factual claims, I'll be sure to make them loudly. Heh.
Kevin
Posted by: Kevin Kim at November 08, 2005 11:39 PM (1PcL3)
4
Oh, yes: thanks for the shout-out, Annie.
Kevin
Posted by: Kevin Kim at November 08, 2005 11:40 PM (1PcL3)
5
Kevin:
OK. Here is what I think Muccheilli is referring to.
Whenever Muslim youth leave the Muslim area and come into the "white" areas, they are under constant police surveillance. And from this surveillance, the conflict arises. Especially, since the youth control the streets in their own area.
Posted by: Jake at November 09, 2005 02:12 AM (r/5D/)
6
Jake,
Thanks. I forgot to answer your question about sources. It's only one source, for the moment: I've been reading and hastily translating articles from the online version of L'Express, which is found here:
L'Express
Kevin
Posted by: Kevin Kim at November 09, 2005 03:16 AM (1PcL3)
7
Do you know about Dalyrmples online magazine? it is great, here it is: http://www.city-journal.org/
The French, and the low countries are screwed. The only way to get their nation back would be to round em up and deport them wholsale. Or at least break up the enclaves, make them live all spread out. and deport any Iman who calls for seperatism or violence. Or, they could all become Nazis, that would work too.
Posted by: Kyle N at November 09, 2005 03:24 AM (KMYax)
8
Jake is pleased that the American boycot of France is working ! What a ludicrous and petulant response. Just because france did not want to go charging into George bush's persoanl war with no plan for re-construction hardly means the economy of the country should be targeted and several ordianry frenchies put out of business. This is just another example of bullying American foreign policy pursued by narrow-minded reactionary fools blinded by patriotism. If a country does not agree they must pay the price.
Posted by: Chirac and roll at November 09, 2005 06:09 AM (ZW3Pf)
9
Blah blah blah zzzzzzzzzz clunk.
Posted by: annika at November 09, 2005 06:21 AM (406JA)
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Chirac:
France is an outlaw nation and should be boycotted by everyone who believes in freedom. Here are the reasons:
1. There is a real possibility that Saddam would not capitulate because he was confident that the countries he had bribed, France, Germany, Belgium and Canada would have stopped the US.
2. Saddam was selling a large quantity of oil to ELF, a French-government controlled oil company, for 30 cents a barrel. And ELF was reselling that oil for $30 a barrel. This in return for blocking UN action against Saddam.
3. Saddam had signed contracts with ELF that gave them exclusive right to Iraqi oil production. This would have made ELF one of the largest companies in the world. Those contracts would only take effect when France got the sanctions against Saddam lifted.
4. France was selling weapons to Saddam all during the boycott. Anti-aircraft missiles were found that had a ship date 3 months before the liberation of Iraq.
5. Many French government officials took bribes from Saddam to keep him in power.
6. French journalists took bribes from Saddam for favorable news articles.
7. France has practiced apartheid against their own Muslim citizens.
Anyone who believes that France should not be boycotted for these actions has no humanity.
Posted by: Jake at November 09, 2005 07:09 AM (r/5D/)
11
Saddam went to the brink because he was sure that France and Russia would not let America attack him under any circumstances, a miscalculation that was well fed under the Clinton Administration.
I believe that if France and Russia (and Germany) had joined the coalition openly and early, we'd never have had to go there.
Saddam would have caved and allowed inspections and we'd still be playing cat and mouse with him, while he got even richer on the food for oil scheme.
Are we better off now or the other way? Sooner or later?
Me, I think we are going to prevail here and that hoistory will show that Bush was the one to stand againt radical Islamofascism.
He's still a hero to me.
Posted by: shelly at November 10, 2005 07:59 AM (6mUkl)
12
The passing fancy may not be with our boy at the moment, however I like to bitchslap non-believers with the Lincolnian fact that it was the REAL Americans serving in the army in the field, who re-elected him in 1864, while the yapping curs/chattering classes were fawning over Little Mac.
Posted by: Casca at November 11, 2005 08:26 AM (qBTBH)
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November 05, 2005
Project Valour-IT
Allow me to quote Beth from
My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy regarding this worthy fundraising effort:
I'm writing to ask for your support for a project sponsored by Soldiers' Angels (click for more information on SA, if you aren't familiar with them) called Project Valour-IT. This project is designed to provide voice-enabled laptops for severely wounded military members. From the Project Valour-IT website:
'Project Valour-IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss, provides voice-controlled software and laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries or amputations at major military medical centers. Operating laptops by speaking into a microphone, our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the 'Net, and communicate with buddies still in the field without having to press a key or move a mouse. The experience of CPT Charles "Chuck" Ziegenfuss, a partner in the project who suffered hand wounds while serving in Iraq, illustrates how important this voice-controlled software can be to a wounded servicemember's recovery.'
Right now there is a major fundraising effort ongoing among blogs, with certain blogs assigned to different service branches, to make it a sort of friendly competition. . . .
In previous generations and wars, all Americans were asked to sacrifice for the overall war effort, but during this war on terror where we are ALL affected, we haven't had to shoulder the burden that our military (active, reservists, and their families) have. May I ask you to sacrifice just a bit for the good of our troops?
i've selected the Army team. Please help out, for those who have given so much for us.
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November 03, 2005
Attention McGoohan Fans
Regarding this crazy secret CIA prison story, Varifrank reaches for the obscure
"Village" reference first. Damn, i should have done that. [i'm such a sci-fi geek, i love that show. Best episode,
The Schizoid Man.]
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1
When I saw Thailand on the prison list; I knew that the MSM had got the story wrong once again. There are a number of countries, Thailand is one of them, that are taking the offensive on Al Qaida. They are not pulling the covers over their faces like the wimpy europeans.
These countries are allowing the CIA to question their Al Qaida prisoners in their local prisons. This allows the CIA to piece together the world-wide operations of Al Qaida. This is important as an Al Qaida technique is to run a terrorist operation in one country from another.
MSM wants you to believe that we are in this terrorist war by ourselves. But there are 103 countries cooperating with us in killing or capturing Al Qaida. Almost all signed on after we liberated Iraq. They realized Bush was serious about going after Al Qaida. They knew Clinton wasn't.
Posted by: Jake at November 03, 2005 04:07 PM (r/5D/)
2
I AM NOT A NUMBER, I AM A FREE MAN!
Posted by: Kyle N at November 03, 2005 04:48 PM (vt0fT)
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I'm gratified that "...rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm." Clearly these fellows need to be kept somewhere, much as we kept the old Nazis, where they could do no harm, and where we might extract information. Torture? These people aren't sophisticates. You isolate them for a couple weeks. Wear them down mentally. Wire them for sound. Spike their OJ with some Everclear, and toss a compadre in their cell. You won't be able to shut them up.
On the other hand, I'm disappointed since this was my screenplay idea for season six of 24. Russian guards are the best. They're preconfigured for cruelty, work for vodka, and they don't like Moslims.
Posted by: Casca at November 03, 2005 04:58 PM (qBTBH)
4
Hmmm....
The Schizoid Man as the best episode? It's not bad, but there are several that are better--for instance, the ones with Leo McKern as Number 2 (
Chimes of Big Ben and the two penultimate episodes),
It's Your Funeral, and
Many Happy Returns.
Take my comments with a grain of salt; my personal favorite is frequently cited as one of the worst episodes by lots of people: the western
Living in Harmony (mostly because of Alexis Kanner's acting job as The Kid.).
Great googley moogley, I need a life.
Posted by: Victor at November 04, 2005 06:12 AM (L3qPK)
5
i like Chimes of Big Ben, and of course the obvious choices are the last two episodes, but Schizoid Man is all about an elaborate mind-fuck. They bring in another #6 to try and confuse our boy into thinking that he's not who he thinks he is. By the end of the episode even i get confused about who is who and what is what. It also contains a quote that i always think about when i'm at IHOP. "flapjacks are my favorite dish. flapjacks are my favorite dish."
Yes, i bet i'm weirder than you, Victor.
Posted by: annika at November 04, 2005 07:02 AM (Dztge)
6
Schizoid Man is also my favorite episode. I also like the finale. Talk about a mind-fuck! McGoohan had to go into hiding because people were so upset over it. My brother was an extra on the movie
A Time to Kill. He ate lunch with McGoohan one day. As they ate, my brother said to him, "My brother Chris has every episode of The Prisoner on tape. He recorded them from A&E. He's a big fan of your show." McGoohan, without looking up, said, "They're a strange lot, aren't they?"
Posted by: ccs178 (Chris) at November 04, 2005 08:17 AM (B5UVm)
7
cool story.
i feel the urge to write McGoohan haiku.
Victor?
Posted by: annika at November 04, 2005 09:24 AM (zAOEU)
8
Yep, that's a great story. I wonder what Mr. McGoohan referred to when he said "they" though? The episodes, or the fans?
And "Living In Harmony" is more of a mind-fuck, IMHO, for both the Prisoner *and* the viewer. Bet those folks who tuned in a bit late the first time it was ever broadcast were wondering, "WTF?"
Be careful about who you're trying to out-weird, annika. Remember I consort with rats :~)
A McGoohan or Prisoner haiku contest? Sure, I'm in. We can have two prizes: The Annika Prize, which I'm sure will be a date with Annika (all expenses paid by the winner, because you're a starving law student), or something from her store...I'm not sure which...and the Victor Prize, which will be an unopened DVD copy of the Crispin Glover version of "Willard" if I can find that copy my bro mailed to me, not knowing I got a copy the day after it came out. Be careful to limit winners to CONUS--that show has lots of overseas fans who know how to use Google.
Posted by: Victor at November 04, 2005 09:57 AM (L3qPK)
9
how about no prizes except bragging rights.
But McGoohan was in several great things. Silver Streak, one of my bro's favorite movies. he did a couple of really good Columbo episodes. he was creepy as the warden in Escape From Alcatraz, too.
Posted by: annika at November 04, 2005 10:33 AM (zAOEU)
10
Hey, it's your contest, kiddo. Tho you may be missing out on the opportunity to scam a lobster dinner out of some sucker.
I liked Ice Station Zebra, myself, as well as his cameo in The Simpsons.
Posted by: Victor at November 04, 2005 10:34 AM (L3qPK)
11
Dont forget his best movie roll as Longshanks in Braveheart.
Posted by: Kyle N at November 04, 2005 05:07 PM (ivOMb)
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November 01, 2005
Cotillion Ball
i've neglected to link the
Cotillion Ball in a few weeks, so let me remedy that right now. This week's ball is over at
Portia Rediscovered, a fellow Munuvian. i like all the pictures, way cool.
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Oh yeah, that reminds me. Know what Cinderella did when she got to the ball? She choked!
Posted by: Casca at November 02, 2005 06:57 AM (qBTBH)
2
Heh is this thing on? Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. When do they open the bar?
Posted by: Casca at November 02, 2005 03:31 PM (qBTBH)
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