Saturday, March 25, 2006

Let us not forget that

UW lost tonight as well...

Would someone....

Teach the Heimlich Maneuver in Spokane? There was some serious choking going on. How can you go from a 17 point lead to losing the game? At the very least, the lesson we should learn is that you should never quit. Especially if you're down by 17 in the NCAA tournament.

A note to actors....

If you're going to be in a film about Gay Cowboys, make sure of two things:

1. The gay cowboys aren't eating pudding.
2. If you play the person who hires said gay cowboys, dont do it for peanuts. You'll regret it.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

More on the Big Dance, and Work.

OK, I've been working open-to-close a lot (basically, I started work at 4:00pm on Friday, and worked all the way to 4:00pm on Monday). I should do this more often, as the UW Huskies made it to the Sweet Sixteen. I am again scheduled to pull the weekend marathon again this weekend, while the Huskies play their game. Go Dawgs.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

March Madness, The Big Dance, blah, blah, blah...

The UW Huskies are currently leading Utah State 44-53.  Go Dawgs.  Perhaps this could be the one sports team from the Pacific Northwest that could amount to something.  Not that the Seahawks are bad, mind you (they’ll be back next year).  The Mariners, on the other hand, well…. I’ve already written off them as a bunch of weak, pathetic, overpaid bunch of losers.  The New World Order, Mind-Control Division, should be ashamed of itself.  Even with the players doing steroids, it still can’t make the game any less boring.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

More fun from the Anti-Christ....

More fun from the Anti-Christ…..


I just found out how to make FS 2004 make nice with IE7.  When I last tried it, FS 2004 would load, I would get the ‘splash’ screen, and then nothing.  The initial solution was to simply uninstall IE7 on my Windows XP box (which version if internet explorer is moot to me, since I use Firefox).  Some looking around led me to here, which got this little gem from here.  Nutshell is, if you’re running windows xp or 2000 with IE7 installed, and you want any hope of playing FS 2004, you’ll need to delete the OLEACC.DLL located in the root folder of your flight simulator installation.  I myself backed up the file first (hey, I just did a complete system rebuild on a dual-boot system, and I don’t want to hose it completely just yet).  It does work.  I tried it myself.

Newsflash!

Will Ferrell is still alive. How Tragic.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

What's on the Boob tube tonight?

There have only two episodes of Late Nite with Conan O’Brien that I have gone out of my way to watch. One was the one with U2 as the exclusive guest (gotta love the Edge doing the ‘in the year 200 sketch). The second one is tonight’s episode, featuring his trip to Finland. Who knew that in addition to being a late night talk show, that he was also a president of a Scandinavian country?

Friday, March 10, 2006

Michael Jackson is in trouble again.

The state has shut down Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch.  Whether or not he molested children is irrelevant (he did get a trial by jury, and was found ‘not guilty’), but still, when you have people on your payroll, you’re required to pay them (that’s the law, not my opinion).  Having had issues last year with one of my employers not wanting to pay my wages, I have to agree with the state on this one.

BTW, the quickest way to get your employer to make good on an NSF paycheck is to leave a message on your district manager’s voice mail not to contact you, your attorney (or the state labor department) will contact him.  He came by my shop with cash the next day.  IANAL and YMMV, but he couldn’t fire me at the time for two reasons:

  1. Most states (and the Federal Government, if memory serves me correctly) consider that to be retaliation, and if you don’t sue, they will.

  2. Since they were making no effort to make good on it, had I been terminated for it, I would have also been able to press charges.

  3. The two previous one were really moot, as they had already sold the location I was working at anyway, and I could basically tell him to go fornicate with himself.

NASA pulls another one off...

For once Mars didn’t eat another space-probe.  The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter successfully put itself into orbit.  Among the instruments it carries is a camera that can resolve 1 meter sized objects.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Monday, March 06, 2006

The Flying Spaghetti Monster really does exist!

Yes, I know that this is an old article, but it's still proof that The Flying Spaghetti Monster created the earth 4,000 years ago. Ramen.

Jury Duty

I did a stint as a juror in Pierce County recently. Here's a breakdonw of what happened:

Your mileage may vary, but in Pierce County, when juror summons' are issued, jurors are assigned to groups (usually from 1 to 25), and during the two week term of jury service, your group will not always be required to even show up at the court house (but if your group number has been called, you are required to be there). This was my third time serving as a juror.

Day 1:
Normally they bring in 6-8 groups at a time. This day they brought in all 25 at once for orientation. There were so many jurors (350+) that orientation had to be split in to two groups, and one judge got to take the morning off while her courtroom was 'borrowed' to get the jurors oriented. There is a whiteboard at the front of the juror assembly room showing how many trials were slated to start for the day. Normally, there would be only 2-3 superior court and about 2 district/municipal court trials starting that would require jurors. Today, there were eight superior court trials (each one of those requires a pool of 35-50 jurors for the voir dire process), and 4 district/municipal court trials). Anyway, right after orientation came the first jury call. 50 jurors were called. I wasn't among them. My turn didn't come (initial selection prior to voir dire was done by lottery) until the very last superior court trial to begin that day. Out of 35 jurors, I was #20 (they identify you mainly by number). The judge gave us the overview of the case and then sent us home for the day.

Day 2:
Jury selection began in earnest. In Peirce County, this is done 'Oprah' style, where the Judge or the Attorneys ask the entire panel general questions, and you indicate your answer by raising your number. Follow-ups are then directed to individual jurors as appropriate. This was a simple case of possesion of stolen property. After the attorneys were done questioning the jurors, the jury was seated. Twelve jurors were seated, plus two alternates. I was the second alternate. The trial began. During the recess, I was very popular among the other jurors. Apparently, I'm the only one in the Court House aside from the Judical Assistants (you may know them as baliffs) who know how to operate the coffee brewer. Justice runs on caffienne.

Day 3:
The trial wrapped up. The prosecution only called two witnesses, a Washington State Trooper, and another person who lost her wallet (whose cards where the stolen property in question). The Defense's only defence was to cross examine the state trooper and the other witness. After closing arguments, and juror instruction, the jury was sent to deliberate. Being an alternate, I was excused, and sent back to jury administration, who sent me home. But not before the Judge sat me down by myself in the jury box, thanking me for my service. I was not needed the next day, and this was the end of my service for week 1.

Day 4:
The beginning of my second week of jury service. I noticed one of the others jurors form last week's case that I was one, and she told me that they had reached a verdict on three of the four charges that were presented (BTW Guilty). Right before lunch, I was again selected for a district court trial. I was sent to the court of Judge Margaret Ross. One of the customary questions to be asked of all jury trials is if any of the jurors knew anybody in the court (be it any of the parties involved, or the judge). Two years previously, I was also a juror in her court, and she said that I had looked familiar when I answered the question. This was a case of DUI. I was seated on this jas a juror, not an alternate. Basically, if you're stopped for eratic driving, and you're asked to submit to a breathalyzer test, dont tell the State Trooper to, ummm, 'fornicate with himself'.

Day 5:
Trial wrapped up today (actually today was most of the trial). We were given our instructions, heard arguments, and were sent then home.

Day 6:
We began deliberations at 8:15. We went through all the testimony (we were allowed to take notes in the trial), and we came to a veridict of Guilty. We then reached a verdict that the defendant was given the opportunity to submit a breath sample and refused (in Washington state, that itself will cost you license for a year). This was by 11:15 am. We were them sent home for the day.

Day 7:
I was picked on the first jury call (dont I just have all the luck?). The case I was selected for would've gone into the following week, and my employer isn't paying me for this (they're not required to pay you, theyre just required to not fire you). I indicated this to the judge, and he mercifully excused me. JUry administration then sent me home, and said that my term of jury duty was done.

All in all, serving in a jury is a severe financial hardship for me, but I will always answer the summons and due my duty. Because, if I was accused of a crime, I would want a jury trial, myself. Ramen.

Kirby Puckett, R.I.P.

Heaven just became a little bit better.