evildave

Absolutely shameless self-promotion

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 08:55:47 GMT

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 21:44:44 GMT

Does anybody in Seattle still bother to read this? I guess that's a silly question, since there hasn't *been* anything to read on this for ages.

Anyway, the real question is, is there anybody in Seattle who reads this and wants to play softball at 6PM-ish near Greenlake on Friday? I'm just trying to recruit warm bodies... no real or claimed softball skills are required.

Even if you don't want to play, come on out! It's a double-header, so there's sure to be "refreshments" in between games. And during the games. And whatnot. Anyway, who really needs a better excuse than this to hang out in the park, drink beer, and chase bunnies?

Input needed

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 23:11:24 GMT

Hey, y'all.

I need to chat with someone who plays or has played Magic Online as well as regular card-based Magic: The Gathering. I'm looking for info for a paper I'm writing. If you could leave a comment here or drop me an IM or email if you could answer a couple of questions, I'd appreciate it.

Go Sox!

Sat, 22 Oct 2005 22:55:52 GMT

I am frantically trying to finish a paper before the WHITE SOX WORLD SERIES game starts. However, I felt that I should take these final few minutes before the WHITE SOX start their first WORLD SERIES game in over 40 years to blog about how incredibly excited I am that the WHITE SOX are in the F'ING WORLD SERIES. Can you believe this is happening? I cannot believe this is happening.

Anyway, I felt it was important to blog about this excitement now, before Jose Contreras gives up three runs in the first inning and it all comes crashing down en route to a four-game Astros sweep. Because, really, I have dealt with enough White Sox postseason disappointment over the years to know that I should expect the absolute worst at all times. And, anyway, being a White Sox fan is not about eternal optimism. That's what being a Bears fan is about. Being a White Sox fan is about being cynical and grumpy and hating them for making you that way.

Hot NIN ticket-swapping action

Sat, 27 Aug 2005 06:08:15 GMT

All right, this is really sad, but yes, the first time I'm updating my journal in months is to attempt to find concert tickets.

I'm looking for one floor seat for the Key Arena show. I have four reserved seats I'm looking to get rid of. I don't care about making any money on the deal, but I'd like to break even on everything, so if I have to scalp the reserved seats to afford a scalper floor seat, I'll do what I gotta do. But I'd much rather find someone else who is is in a similar but reversed situation so we can both break even.

So, here's the deal. If you want to trade your floor seat for a reserved seat straight up, you've got a deal. If you want to trade your floor seat plus cash for more than one reserved seat so that it comes out even, that's a deal too.

My seats are pretty good... Section 106, Row 20. In front of the stage, high enough to see over/around the sound booth, but in the lower bowl. Let me know if you're interested.

Sun, 15 May 2005 00:58:08 GMT

An additional comment about being outside the Star Wars premiere: I was standing right next to the photographer who took this establishing shot as he was headed home. This explains why I saw Mark Hamil and the immensely tall Jimmy Smits, but missed out on seeing Nikki Six, Robert Guillaume, John Ratzenberger, Christopher Lloyd, and a whole bunch of other people I don't recognize.

I find this group of stars very strange. I mean, shouldn't some of the people who starred in the movie have been there? Also, Babyface? Dave Winfield? WTF? This world of movie premieres is very strange. And stupid.

Fri, 13 May 2005 04:25:38 GMT

So, I had my last difficult final today. Woo!

More interestingly, though, after the final I went to the CPK in Westwood with some folks from class, and guess what happened to be going on across the street? The Episode III premiere! I'd never stood outside a premiere like a fanboy before, and really, what better opportunity would I ever get to do so? So I did!

I was across the street from the theater, so I couldn't really see too much of what was going on. I did manage to make out Jimmy Smits and Kelsey Grammer (for some reason), but I didn't see all that many other people of note.

I'll try to post the crappy pictures that I got on my cell phone at some point, but the main takeaways from the whole experience:

Mark Hamil is the only person who actually enjoys those things. He seemed very excited about going around and shaking hands with the fans.

Nothing much interesting happens at movie premieres.

The hardest working man in showbiz? The Billy Corgan-looking publicist of Billy Dee Williams. He spent a good half an hour dragging Billy Dee around and making him sign autographs.

Lightsabers with neon inserts that actually glow brightly and look like lightsabers instead of cones of plastic with a light bulb in the bottom are the Coolest Thing Ever.

The "10 things I've done that you probably haven't" meme

Fri, 25 Feb 2005 07:37:11 GMT

Let's see if I can come up with ten...

1. Travelled out of the country to take a standardized test.
2. Carried around blades of grass from Soldier Field in my wallet.
3. Could be considered personally responsible for bringing down millions of email servers at the same time.
4. Drove from Seattle to LA on two tanks of gas.
5. Beat the Xbox version of Ninja Gaiden.
6. Put a window in the side of my computer. And neon inside. (i realize some of you are computer folks. I'm just assuming you care more about the function than the look.)
7. Finished Infinite Jest. (As I start to rely almost completely on things I can see in my living room.)
8. Ran the Chicago Marathon. Three times. (Not, like, in a row. Different years.)
9. Attended a triple-overtime NHL playoff game between bitter rivals.
10. Climbed Mt. St. Helens.

Well, that's ten. I suppose it could've been more clever, but damn, I'm tired!

Research Week

Sat, 22 Jan 2005 10:11:59 GMT

Research Assignment #1: Save B-Fest From The Communists
Word was going around that What is Communism? wasn't going to make it to B-Fest this year. So, I did some searching in the UCLA Film Archive to see if they had a copy. Lo and behold, they do! However, they don't have a circulating copy, so I'm not going to be able to get my hands on it. This led to me berating librarians to silencius for their taunting of me. However, my further searches led me to discover that they *do* have copies of all of the episodes of I Led 3 Lives that I would be able to go and watch, so perhaps I will be able to get my Herbert Philbrick fix nonetheless.

I also poked around UCLA to find someone associated with showing films on campus to ask if there's any good stores that sell film shorts in the area. I was able to find someone, but she wanted to talk about it on the phone so of course I haven't bothered to call her yet. We'll see how that pans out.

Research Assignment #2: Ed Wood or not Ed Wood?
I was poking around in the bios on Lexis and found that the common wisdom seems to believe that Ed Wood attended Northwestern University! I was curious to see if there was any other documentation for this, so I fired off an email to the university archivist. He provided me with all sorts of good information, but I haven't come to a conclusion yet. I will reserve posting more about this until I get the results of my FOIA request back from the Marines about Ed Wood's military records.

Another amusing point of my exchange with the archivist was that he knew who I was, and asked if I had any of our campaign materials and stuff that he could have for the archives. I can't help but see a Yakoff Smirnoff joke in there somewhere.... ("In Russia, librarian asks you for historical documents!")

Research Assignment #3: Excessive Force or Resisting Arrest?
I got my first research assignment for the semester, which has to do with a hypo where an arrest was made at a protest. This was the only one of these research things that I definitely had to do, and so is of course the only one of these that I didn't touch yet.

Research Assignment #4: Has Anyone Heard of Ring Fingers?
I found it a little strange in Fellowship of the Ring that when Isildur cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand, Sauron had been wearing it on his index finger and not his ring finger. Then, when Frodo put on The Ring, he also put it on his index finger. This seemed very odd to me, so when I watched The Two Towers and Return of the King one after the other today, I kept an eye out for this, and went back to FOTR afterwards to double-check.

The results: Elves and Wizards wear Rings of Power on their middle finger, while Hobbits, Men, and the Dark Lord wear the One Ring on their index finger.

It is strange that no one in Middle Earth wears rings on their ring finger. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to develop theories as to why the One Ring has to be worn on the index finger.

Sun, 12 Dec 2004 06:41:29 GMT

So as not to make it seem like crim didn't have any amusing quotes whereas all of my other classes did, here's my favorite thing from crm, which I just ran across again in my studying. From Pope v. State, 284 Md. 309, 396 A.2d 1054 (1979):

"As we have held that the crime of misprision of felony does not now exist in Maryland, Pope may not, of course, be retried on a charge of that crime. Pope moved that we strike from the State's brief and appendix a selection from the Year Book of 1484 written in Medieval Latin and references thereto. The State provided no translation and conceded a total lack of knowledge of what it meant. The motion is granted."

Sun, 12 Dec 2004 00:43:57 GMT

So, I'm done with my civ pro final, and am now sitting around wasting time before I start studying for crim. I'm glad that they're spaced out and I don't have to study for more than one thing at once, but this whole having to study for two solid weeks is getting a bit tiresome.

One comment about what I've learned so far, though: it has shown me that an incredible amount of what happens in our country revolves around railroads and cows. What's the deal with that? We had cases about people suing the railroad company for lifetime passes, people suing to get their cow back, people suing the railroad company for discrimination, people suing the railroad company beacuse they fell off a train and died... it's crazy!

My favorite, though, was the one where the people sued the railroad company because a train killed one of their cows. See, it all ties back together!

Anyway, I think I have been studying for too long. When you read a case that starts out with the phrase, "Replevin of a cow," and you bust out laughing, there is something wrong with you. Also, when you start looking for pictures of the locations in cases that you're reading, you seriously need help.

Hockey in LA is weird sometimes

Thu, 18 Nov 2004 08:02:57 GMT

Today at my hockey game, I discovered that the center on my line helped produce a Labatt's commercial that featured our goalie. Unfortunately it was not the one where the bear was making all these ridiculous saves, because that's the only one I could remember.

I also discovered that the grumpy german guy who runs the pro shop at the rink was the basis for Hans, the wacky German skate sharpener guy in the Mighty Ducks. Unfortunately I have never seen the Mighty Ducks. Also, Real Life Hans cannot sharpen skates for shit.

Either way, LA is weird.

Sports is Good.

Fri, 12 Nov 2004 18:59:16 GMT

Patricia and I went to the UCLA-USC hockey game last night. Let me tell you something: that was good times.

First of all, it was my first real college rivalry game in any sport. I realize this was Division II, and so not exactly a couple of big-time programs, but still, it was UCLA-USC. The rink was full, with about 300 people in the stands, but it was split about 50/50 between UCLA and USC fans. They were undergrads, they were drunk, and they were Spirited. It was pretty awesome. I had never been to a sporting event with such a rivalry where a group of the opposing fans came over to the home team side with the express purpose of starting shit. Fearing for one's safety while watching a game always adds a certain excitement.

Second of all, I'm excited that I now have good reasons to hate USC. Now, I've of course hated them ever since the Rose Bowl, but now I got to see some USC undergrads up close. I was reminded of all of the things that I really hated about Northwestern undergrads, but these people were like asshole NU undergrads with an OC edge. Yuck. My hatred only grows!

Oh, also, the hockey was pretty entertaining. Traded goals a bit, but UCLA led the whole game. Go Bruins!

Another great reason to vote for Kerry

Tue, 02 Nov 2004 05:57:49 GMT

From an interview in a clearly relevant news source:

Q: Who's your favorite athlete?

Kerry: It really depends on the sport. I mean you go to hockey and I love people like Wayne Gretzky and Jaromir Jagr and Cam Neely. You go back in time, Bobby Orr and you look at the great Bruins team and obviously I was raised with the Bruins. I mean there are some great, great role models. People who are extraordinary in a way in which they set a standard.

Always right to hockey. You gotta love that.

And even more, with these engineers!

Mon, 01 Nov 2004 20:24:42 GMT

It seems that the Votemaster, who I have been checking in on about twenty times a day, is Andrew Tanenbaum. Yes, the Andrew Tanenbaum who wrote our Operating Systems textbook and MINIX, among other things.

I always figured it'd be some statistician guy. Well, I guess I have always figured that CS people tend to be able to be particularly even-handed and rational about things even when they don't agree with them.

First a completely smooth surface on Titan, now this.

Fri, 29 Oct 2004 06:20:32 GMT

Here's what happens when they let scientists use their skillz for other things:

NASA photo analyst: Bush wore a device during debate

My choice quote from the first day of law school

Tue, 24 Aug 2004 00:06:14 GMT

GUY NEXT TO ME: "Wow, you type fast. Let me guess... used to be a programmer?"
MY RESPONSE: "Yeah, but that was like a whole week ago."

And that is my "Get Kicked In The Gut By The Fact That That My Life Has Totally Changed Moment" for the evening.

Hockey Week, Game 2: Maple Bars 4, BLU-82 3

Thu, 05 Aug 2004 18:04:29 GMT

Ah, an exciting game! This was on the olympic-sized ice where we always play well, so I was hoping we'd win. Everybody skated pretty hard and we mostly played good defense... One of their goals came on a 3-0 breakaway, but other than that we covered pretty well. Peter had another goal off a slapshot from above the circles, Ljubo had another goal on a breakaway... so, in other words, a pretty standard Maple Bars game.

I didn't have too many great chances, but I think my toughness level was up where it needs to be. There was one play where I was clearing people out from in front of the net, and instead of playing the puck when it came by I just pushed the guy out of the way, which was pretty cool. Also, I've learned in the past few games that when you're my size it's really, really easy to get people to take penalties. On another play down by the net this guy was cutting across into the crease so I gave him a little shove, and he lost his balance. He was still sort of in the crease, so I decided I'd try to push him out of the crease while he was still trying to get up. Seems he didn't take too kindly to that, and the guy (who, realize, probably has a whole foot of height and 80-100 pounds on me) cross-checks me half-way across the ice. Penalty for you, son! Sucker.

The Outkasts were playing before us and so Patricia, Kelly, and Akira stuck around to watch our game. Afterwards I was talking to Patricia about stuff that happened in the game and she seemed to miss both me getting cross-checked into oblivion *and* the big slapshot I blocked with the top of my skate (that still hurts today). I guess I need to be more consistent in doing things that I hope impress her so she'll actually be paying attention. :)

Game 2 Summary
Win, 4-3
Goals: 0
Assists: 0
Penalties drawn: 2 min, I think. Possibly 4 min. And if you count the guy after the game who told the referee that he "fucking sucked" and got a game misconduct, maybe 14 min!
+/-: Even

Hockey Week, Game 1: Maple Bars 5, Stingers 6

Tue, 03 Aug 2004 20:46:39 GMT

I don't know how things worked out this way, but they did. I'll be leaving for warmer climes in about two weeks, not knowing when I'll next catch on with a regular hockey league. To send me off, this week ended up being The Most Insane Hockey Week Ever. Eight games in seven days (one Monday, one Wednesday, one Thursday, three Saturday, and two Sunday). I figure this might all be worth documenting, so here we go.

Game One was last night, with the Maple Bars narrowly losing out to the Stingers, 6-5. There was no reason we should've given up so many goals, and absolutely no reason we should've lost this game. It was our first game without Doug, who was our best defenseman and one of the top scorers on the team, so that probably had something to do with it. But the Stingers defense was easily the weakest we've seen in a long time, so the fact that we didn't score more was a big disappointment.

As for me, my game was pretty horrible. I had a couple of decent plays, don't get me wrong. I got a couple of one-timers on the net and I managed to draw another roughing penalty (funny how that works... when I play a little more physical and the huge guys throw a little elbow that would normally hit someone in the shoulders, it hits me in the back of the head and they get called. Suckers.). But I also whiffed on a bouncing puck in the crease, inexplicably fell over at the blue line and caused a turnover, and took a pretty weak penalty (yes, I sat in the box alone and felt shame). The worst part, though, was this play in the third period. I was trying to chase down a puck that went into their end, and I was clearly going to get there before the defender, so the goalie came about 20 feet out of the net to try to freeze it. Well, I guess I stopped paying attention for a second, and all of a sudden I was behind the goalie and the puck was still in front of me. I tried to change direction to get to the puck, and I tripped and Fell On The Puck, with nothing but ice and an open net in front of me. And with another teammate right behind me who could've picked it up if I didn't Fall On The Puck. That would've tied the game, too. Mother Fucker! I'm a little bitter.

So, anyway, I'll try to parlay some of that anger into Wednesday's game.... I know that after I fell on that puck I went out and had a great shift because I was so pissed. I've just gotta learn how to play that way all the time.

Game 1 Summary
Loss, 6-5
Goals: 0
Assists: 0
Penalties taken: 2 min
Penalties drawn: about 4 min... they can't stop me!
+/-: Probably about -4
Really good blown chances: 2

Tue, 03 Aug 2004 20:24:20 GMT

So, for those of you not paying attention, Doom 3 released today. There's a couple of copies floating around work, and I got a chance to play the first level, albeit on a sub-standard graphics card and an LCD monitor. So, here's my impression so far:

Holy Fucking Shitballs, this is the Best Game Ever.

Ever! I played it before lunch, and now it's after lunch and I'm still buzzing about it. The graphics were stupid good even on the not-so-great machine I was playing on, the spookiness was Incredible, the level of detail on the levels was astounding.... I'm all a-flutter!

I had been planning on trying to play some [name of game deleted due to NDA] tonight, but if I can get my hands on a copy of Doom I think I'll have to hook \\molly back up to the TV and the surround sound and scare the shit out of myself.

Fri, 30 Jul 2004 17:09:45 GMT

I'm sure this isn't interesting to anybody but me, but here it is anyway:

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/30/1516257&tid=217&tid=109

The search technology being presented is partially what I had been working on for the past two years. The UI portion of the search app is being written almost completely by my friend Steve. I already told Steve that I was very jealous, since the only time stuff I worked on got into CNet was when I broke Exchange.

Internet-based encouragement

Fri, 16 Jul 2004 21:16:12 GMT

The internet is apparently trying to make me feel better about leaving beautiful summertime Seattle to move to LA. From The Sports Guy and Jimmy Kimmel:

Q: Sports Guy, why are you still living in Los Angeles? Why would a Boston sports fan live in L.A. when he has no reason to? You used similar logic when you suggested that Ben Affleck can't be a real Red Sox fan because he dated a girl from the Bronx. What is the attraction in L.A.?
-- DJ Junior, Haverhill, Mass.

BS: I can't decide on an answer between "Um ... it's 80 degrees every day?" and "Every woman out here dresses like a hooker." So I guess I'll say both. But yes, I do miss Boston. Very much so.

JK: Here's a little secret I probably shouldn't let you in on, but I will: Wherever you're living right now, L.A. is nicer. In nearly every category, we win. No reasonable person who has ever spent any amount of time here would argue this -- and those who do are in denial. Our weather is better, we have more to do, more to see -- our gardeners charge 50 bucks a month -- and, as a group, the women here make yours look like livestock. L.A. is to cities what George Clooney is to men. Better. And those "earthquakes" we have once every 10 years? Spielberg, Lucas and -- starting next year -- DeVito produce them to scare people away who might be thinking of moving here. Please don't tell anyone.

Heh.

Meme time

Fri, 16 Jul 2004 18:36:44 GMT

Geez, harrchenone, you really do need to catch up:

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IMDB's Top 100 Best Movies of All Time
generate this HTML for your own page at ObeytheFist.com

Rank	Movie	Didn't See It/ Started It/ Finished It/ Hated It!
1	Godfather, The (1972)	Finished It
2	Shawshank Redemption, The (1994)	Finished It
3	Godfather: Part II, The (1974)	Finished It
4	Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003)	Finished It
5	Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002)	Finished It
6	Casablanca (1942)	Finished It
7	Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001)	Finished It
8	Schindler's List (1993)	Finished It
9	Shichinin no samurai (1954)	Finished It
10	Star Wars (1977)	Finished It
11	Citizen Kane (1941)	Finished It
12	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)	Finished It
13	Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)	Finished It
14	Rear Window (1954)	Finished It
15	Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)	Finished It
16	Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)	Finished It
17	Memento (2000)	Finished It
18	Usual Suspects, The (1995)	Finished It
19	Pulp Fiction (1994)	Finished It
20	North by Northwest (1959)
21	12 Angry Men (1957)	Finished It
22	Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le (2001)	Finished It
23	Psycho (1960)
24	Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
25	Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966)	Finished It
26	Silence of the Lambs, The (1991)	Finished It
27	It's a Wonderful Life (1946)	Finished It
28	Goodfellas (1990)	Finished It
29	American Beauty (1999)	Finished It
30	Vertigo (1958)
31	Sunset Blvd. (1950)
32	Matrix, The (1999)	Finished It
33	Apocalypse Now (1979)	Finished It
34	Pianist, The (2002)
35	To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)	Finished It
36	C'era una volta il West (1968)
37	Some Like It Hot (1959)
38	Third Man, The (1949)
39	Taxi Driver (1976)	Finished It
40	Paths of Glory (1957)
41	Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001)
42	Fight Club (1999)	Finished It
43	Boot, Das (1981)
44	Double Indemnity (1944)
45	L.A. Confidential (1997)	Finished It
46	Chinatown (1974)	Finished It
47	Singin' in the Rain (1952)
48	Maltese Falcon, The (1941)	Finished It
49	M (1931)
50	Requiem for a Dream (2000)	Finished It
51	Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957)	Finished It
52	All About Eve (1950)
53	Se7en (1995)	Finished It
54	Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)	Finished It
55	Saving Private Ryan (1998)	Finished It
56	Cidade de Deus (2002)
57	Raging Bull (1980)	Finished It
58	Rashômon (1950)	Finished It
59	Wizard of Oz, The (1939)	Finished It
60	Sting, The (1973)
61	Alien (1979)	Finished It
62	American History X (1998)	Finished It
63	Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)	Finished It
64	Léon (1994)	Finished It
65	Vita è bella, La (1997)
66	Touch of Evil (1958)	Finished It
67	Manchurian Candidate, The (1962)
68	2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)	Finished It
69	Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948)
70	Great Escape, The (1963)
71	Wo hu cang long (2000)	Finished It
72	Reservoir Dogs (1992)	Finished It
73	Clockwork Orange, A (1971)	Finished It
74	Amadeus (1984)
75	Modern Times (1936)
76	Ran (1985)
77	Annie Hall (1977)	Started It
78	Jaws (1975)	Finished It
79	On the Waterfront (1954)	Finished It
80	Braveheart (1995)	Finished It
81	High Noon (1952)
82	Apartment, The (1960)
83	Fargo (1996)	Finished It
84	Sixth Sense, The (1999)	Started It
85	Aliens (1986)	Finished It
86	Shining, The (1980)	Finished It
87	Strangers on a Train (1951)
88	Blade Runner (1982)	Finished It
89	Metropolis (1927)
90	Duck Soup (1933)	Finished It
91	Finding Nemo (2003)	Finished It
92	Donnie Darko (2001)	Finished It
93	General, The (1927)
94	City Lights (1931)
95	Princess Bride, The (1987)	Finished It
96	Toy Story 2 (1999)	Finished It
97	Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)	Finished It
98	Great Dictator, The (1940)
99	Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957)
100	Lola rennt (1998)	Finished It

Which movies have you seen?

I count 67/100 for me. I think my score on the bad movie list was under 20, though. I'm very disappointed. It's a pretty old list, though... Last time I checked, You Got Served was sittin' pretty at #2.

Thu, 08 Jul 2004 18:53:47 GMT

OK, so, I'm still really busy, but let me at least post about a couple things:

First of all, I was amused by the Tiger posters that said things like, "Introducing: Longhorn" and "Redmond, get your copiers ready". However, I saw this on slashdot which lists some of the new and exciting features in Tiger, and I think they no longer have any right to claim superiority. One of them is web-based help integrated alongside local help, and one of them is search folders for Mail. Exactly how long have Windows and Office/Outlook been doing these things? Because it's a non-zero amount of time.

Now, let's get to movie wrapup. Saw Spider(dash)Man 2 at Cinerama on opening night... good stuff, that. I loved the tentacle effect, and the "Hi, I'm remaking Evil Dead again" surgery scene. The Bruce Campbell cameo was a little weird, though... I mean, I felt like his talent was a bit wasted, yet it felt like the scene dragged a bit and they tried to milk it just to get Bruce some more screen time. But, whatever. It was still cool.

Went to go see Fahrenheit 9/11 on the Fourth of July, which I figured was a good use of my time, hating Freedom as I do. The movie served to solidify my views of Michael Moore, if nothing else. I am glad he's making movies, and I'm glad that he's inciting people to action, and I'm glad that he's possibly opening peoples' eyes to what is going on. Also, I think that he is a very good instigator and very good at recording documentary-type moments. However, I think he's a lousy filmmaker. There was no coherent thread that ran through the movie from beginning to end, and there was no coherent argument being made. There was a bit that talked about the Florida vote count being screwy. There was a bit that talked about Bush's reaction on 9/11 being lousy. There was a bit about Bush going on vacation a lot. There was a bit about the Saudi plane. And there was a bit about war being hell. There was nothing that tied all of that together, other than showing pictures of bush. I think that Moore gets too tied up in how he's going to present things to think about how he's going to get people to draw conclusions about them. His presentation of the 9/11 attacks, like his presentation of the Columbine shootings, was very original and moving. And he had great footage of Bush reading to those kids while it happened, and mentioned great things like John Ashcroft losing to a dead guy. But once again, what ties them all together?

Last night, we went to go see the original Godzilla. It got a little slow in parts, but it was still pretty awesome. 1954 Godzilla's fire breath looked a whole lot like a fog machine spray, and apparently back in the 50s people just didn't see it when strings were holding things, but still, pretty awesome. I was amazed by the fact that Godzilla was definitely killed in the end, but I guess the whole "ending the movie with Godzilla Stomping Tokyo" thing is a more recent innovation. Also cool about this: displayed in stunning 4:3! It was amusing to see trailers letterboxed in a movie theater. The moral of the story was also pretty well communicated... perhaps Michael Moore can learn something from this. It seemed like the only point of one of the main characters was to sit around saying, "But Godzilla came from H-Bomb tests... how can we possibly stop him?" or "Godzilla is dead... but if we don't stop H-Bomb tests, how do we know another Godzilla will not arise?" Not exactly subtle, but effective!

Tue, 29 Jun 2004 21:43:08 GMT

One more post to clean up my desktop:

I got back from Vancouver and caught up on my friends list. There was this post on the Seattle community from this girl telling a story about how there was a Mercedes parked on the sidewalk on Queen Anne, and how it pissed her off so much that she kicked it until she put a dent in it. There were an awful lot of comments, so I checked out the thread.

Almost all of the comments were egging her on, and were telling her that she was totally right to have done that. One guy even posted this....

http://www.pan.ci.seattle.wa.us/commnty/judkins/crime/parkord.htm

...which is a page detailing the parking ordinance that the guy was violating.

Well, I had a feeling that putting a dent in a Mercedes wasn't exactly legal behavior, and I figured it might be a good chance to try doing some research. So after a decent amount of effort, I found this!

SMC 12A.08.020 Property destruction.

A. A person is guilty of property destruction if he or she:

1. Intentionally damages the property of another; or

2. Writes, paints or draws any inscription, figure or mark of any type on any
public or private building or other structure or any real or personal propertyowned by any other person.

B. 1. It is an affirmative defense to property destruction under subsection A1
that the actor reasonably believed that he had a lawful right to damage such
property.

2. It is an affirmative defense to property destruction under subsection A2 that
the actor had obtained express permission of the owner or operator of the
building, structure or property.

C. 1. Property destruction under subsection A1 is a gross misdemeanor if the
damage to the property is in an amount exceeding Fifty Dollars ($50); otherwise,
it is a misdemeanor.

2. Property destruction under subsection A2 is a gross misdemeanor.

...and this:

SMC 12A.02.070 Punishment of crime.

A. Every crime without a specific penalty provision, and every crime designated
as a gross misdemeanor, may be punished by a fine not to exceed Five Thousand
Dollars ($5,000), or by imprisonment for a term not to exceed one (1) year, or
by both such fine and imprisonment.

So, she had committed property destruction punishable by a $5000 fine and/or one year in jail. And had posted about it in a public community where she was readily identifiable!

Unfortunately, by the time I found all this info someone had already deleted the post. But I was pretty proud of finding that stuff regardless!