jswhite's Journal

4:59pm: Phooey.
My pro se jury trial is off, since the Defendant pled guilty.

Bah! Looks like I have to wait a week for the gold star.

11:23pm: Gogo St. Louis!
ST. LOUIS: Warm beer led to killing, police say

12/04/2006

A St. Louis man was shot to death Sunday night over a warm beer, police said.

St. Louis police say a woman shot her husband, who was about 70 years old, four to five times in the chest after he tried giving her a warm can of Stag beer.

Police said the wife admitted shooting him about 5:40 p.m. in the kitchen of their home in the 5100 block of Terry Avenue. Police said the home had no electricity at the time.

Homicide detectives would not identify the man. The woman, whom police also did not identify, was taken into custody.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/laworder/story/21A0F729496ED22D8625723A0015A7EB?OpenDocument

7:59am: Hell jeah.
Probably most of you won't get this, but I don't care.

GSP! GSP! GSP! GSP! GSP!

4:03pm: God Bless America
Here were the top headlines on The Drudge Report when I woke up:

"VA Senate...
MT Senate...
LAWYERS DISPATCHED"

Brings a tear to me eye, it does. Democracy in action.

10:27am: The exercise gods hate me
So I broke down and bought a bike last week. About $300, not too shabby. It's pretty decent. I noticed that I had to air up the tires a couple of times after buying it, which seemed a bit strange. When I came out to the garage on Sunday, the tires were completely flat. I then found approximately sixty goat's heads implanted in each tire. Ye gods. Gotta go straight back to the bike shop for new tires with slime tubes in them. Blech.

Then, today, my jump rope snapped in half at the gym.

Bah.

10:17am: Fun and Games
Robin will find this funnier than most of you, since she knows what I'm referencing:

ROFLCOPTER!!!1!!11!one: http://www.rofl.name/roflcopter/

3:33pm: Stephen Colbert
...fucking rules.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UANi2TApmuY&search=colbert

6:26pm: Is it REALLY so hard????
Idiot: "Hi, welcome to Taco Bell, how may I butcher your order today?"
Me: "I'd like three steak soft tacos, meat and cheese only."
Idiot: "..."
Me: "That's only meat and cheese on the tacos."
Idiot: "..."
Me: "So just a tortilla, some steak, and some cheese."
Idiot: "So....no lettuce?"
Me: "No. Minus everything except the meat and cheese."
Idiot: So that's three steak soft tacos with no lettuce. Anything else?"
Me: "MEAT AND CHEESE ONLY. NOT NO LETTUCE, MEAT AND CHEESE FUCKING ONLY!"
Idiot: "Sir, I think I know what I'm doing here. I heard you the first time. $5.37 at the window."

********JEFFY ARRIVES AT THE WINDOW AND RECEIVES HIS TACOS*****************

Idiot: "Is there a problem, sir?"
Me: "Yes, these tacos have tomatoes and a bunch of lime sauce crap on them."
Idiot: "Isn't that what you wanted?"
Me (reaching for a gun): "No, I want ONLY MEAT AND CHEESE on the taco."
Idiot: "So...it's not what you wanted?"

Repeat this EVERY SINGLE TIME I GO TO TACO BELL. Is my order seriously that complicated?

4:50pm: Another map
Because we all can't get enough of the maps of the ruined areas. At least this one is interactive, so you can request/look at information on particular areas of town.

Clicky.

To my fellow Tulanians, terrible news: Das Boot is under four feet of water!

10:56am: Some decent news
I was looking around today and found a website with satellite photos of New Orleans, both before and after the flooding. It's certainly a real eye opener, especially the large shot that shows a big portion of the city (WARNING: LARGE PHOTO, LONG DOWNLOAD):

New Orleans, post flooding.

For those of you who aren't readily familiar with the geography of New Orleans, the photo seems to show that my old house, my neighborhood, and Tulane have escaped with little or no flooding. If you look at the left side of the map and follow the river south, you'll see an area on the east side of the river with large dark spots. That's Audubon Park. I lived southeast of the park, and Tulane was directly northeast of it (St. Charles Avenue is the border where the park ends, Tulane is on the other side). That entire area seems to not have much water.

Granted, I don't know exactly when these pictures were taken, and the water level could have been higher or lower at any time before or after the shots, but that's at least SOME encouraging news from this whole thing.

9:47am: A sad thought...
Jenny and I were just discussing out current job situation, and we realized just how many "jobs" we actually have. It's a bit frightening:

Me:
1. Contract attorney work for Ron Christian;
2. Contract attorney work for Richard Himberger ("The Boss");
3. Contract attorney work for Shane Bengoechea;
4. Computer work for Shane; and
5. My own law firm (ha!).

Jenny:
1. Her "new" job (with the free trip to SF, for which she sucks most mightily);
2. Web design; and
3. Smocking.

Between the two of us, we have EIGHT JOBS. And yet, we still have trouble paying the bills!

At least we know it's not from lack of trying...

10:30am: New Posts
I'm probably going to be posting most everything as "Friends-only" from here on out. I've noticed that most of my posts tend to discuss work, clients, and other idiocies that probably shouldn't be made COMPLETELY public, so I'll probably be locking up quite a bit. Not that anyone I've worked for/with has the vaguest knowledge of the Internet to even be able to find this journal, but better safe than sorry. So, if you're interested in reading anything, drop a comment here and I'll add you to my friends list. Also, if you're a lurker who's finally gotten around to getting a real live LJ account (I'm looking at YOU, Clagett!), let me know so I can add you.

Unless you're ugly. I don't like ugly people.

9:01am: Twiddling my thumbs...
How sad is it that I finally start regularly updating my journal because I have a job? E.g. I shouldn't have this much free time???

So, I finished up with all the work I'd been assigned yesterday at 3:00. One of the unfortunate drawbacks of working for a very small law office is that there's only one person I can speak with to get more work when I'm bored. When that one person (The Boss) is busy, I'm bored instead of working. It would be one thing if I was on salary, then I would at least be getting paid to be bored. But when you're working on contract, and only get paid for your billable hours...

Work is going well so far. It's interesting to see the differences between a real law firm and the 8th Street office I previously worked in. Their refrigerator is absolutely STOCKED with soda, water, and other drinks. The freezer also has a ton of food in it for lunch and to feed clients. In the 8th Street office, however, we were lucky if we had more than a dead bug in the back. I learned quickly not to bother putting any food in there because Jared (being the nice guy that he is) would root through the fridge to eat everyone else's food. Apparently, it was just to be a dick.

I spoke with the City Attorney's Office yesterday. I have an in now, since Kim spent an evening in a hot tub with the Chief Deputy this weekend. Draw your own dirty conclusions from that. He said they don't have any positions right now, but I should check back in a couple of weeks since they were interested in me. That means that, starting around the middle of June, I'll need to be checking up with Ada County, Canyon County, Boise City, and a couple other private firms because they all might have openings for me. Also, my contract work should be mostly finished by then, meaning I'll be sitting down with The Boss to discuss coming on full time.

This could be an interesting month.

9:24am: Grrr...
This was Friday:

Me: "So, you guys are going to be here on Monday, right?"
The Boss: "Yup. I've got tons of stuff to do before Tuesday, so we'll absolutely be here!"
Me: "What time will someone be here, given that I have no key and therefore can't work unless someone is here?"
The Boss: "Oh, we'll be here by 8:00. 8:30 at the latest."
Me: "Okay, see you Monday!"

Yeah, so it's 9:30 on Monday. I swing by, and the parking lot is empty...

Why did I bother getting up this morning???

12:26pm: First day on the new job...
Since I actually seem to be working again, I thought it would be nice to drop in a little update on where things are at, along with a description of the new job and where I'm going from here.

Basically, as Jenny mentioned earlier, I'm doing contract work for the new firm ("firm," as in "one guy," but he's been doing this for like 15 years). I get paid $25/hour for everything that I bill that he can collect (which should be most of my day). The plan, as we discussed it a couple of days ago, was essentially a "try before you buy" arrangement. It gives me a chance to evaluate them and what they have to offer, and it gives them a chance to look at me and decide whether or not my work is up to snuff. In the mean time, since we're not truly "committed" to one another, I can continue to pursue other job possibilities. I can feel free to leave at any time if I get another offer. We're supposed to reevaluate things in about a month, and if we like each other this will become a full-time, permanent job.

Friday was my first day of work. I didn't get a tremendous amount accomplished for him, but that was mainly because I had already committed to running all over the damn city for my existing clients all day long. I was happy that no one seemed to mind this. I had some concerns because he'd complained about the poor work ethic of some of his more recent associates, but nobody said a word to me when I left for hours on end. That was a good thing.

I was also quite happy when we got into a tech discussion. I was quite elated when I got to my computer and saw a Firefox icon on the desktop. This lead (somehow) into a larger discussion of how much my boss hates Microsoft, and specifically Windows. With no prompting on my part, he said that he'd really like to dump Windows entirely and go with Red Hat GNU/Linux instead. This, of course, gave me the perfect opportunity to point out my swank laptop running SimplyMEPIS GNU/Linux. Who knows, maybe if I decide to remain here, I can actually put some pressure on them to make the switch? Nothing would make me happier than being able to work in an office where I can (gasp) actually USE Linux.

So, things are going well now. We'll see how it goes next week.

4:01pm: Corporate Lawsuits: ROUND 2!
Friends may remember the adventures we had with Cingular a few months ago. Well, it seems another corporation has now decided to piss me off: Sony.

Anybody who's had a PS2 for any real length of time knows about the infamous "Disk Read Error." The PS2 contains some pretty cheap hardware, and after time the laser in the DVD drive becomes improperly seated. The system has difficulties reading your games & DVDs, and will often return a "Disk Read Error" instead of actually letting you play. Depending on how the laser becomes unseated, it could move so close to your game that it actually touches it. This will scratch the shit out of your disks and quickly transform them into coasters.

Given that this is extremely common, Sony is now being sued over it. To get out of everyone on the planet suing them, they decided a couple of years ago to start offering free repairs to people. All you had to do is call a number, explain the problem, and then you mail it in and they fix it for free. They'd also replace your game for free if it was damaged.

I called about it in December, and several other times, and they were supposed to send me the right addresses to send my stuff to. Of course, they dicked around about it and never sent it. I then got forgetful, and time passes. I got motivated today to call them and let them know they still hadn't sent stuff to me. The moron on the other end of the line muttered something about a vague "90-day warranty" on the information they supposedly gave me (but didn't), and said I was screwed on the game and would have to pay $75 for a repair of my system. I politely reminded her that I hadn't sent them anything because THEY NEVER TOLD ME WHERE TO SEND IT, but she insisted that there was nothing they could do.

Monday morning, when I file my complaint, we'll see just how true that is...

11:15am: Lucas is going to be PISSED.
Excellent news for downloaders today, as "Star Wars, Episode III" was released via BitTorrent. Allegedly, it's a very high-quality rip.

Not that I'm downloading it now, or anything. That would be illegal. And stuff...

9:19am: I passed.

4:16pm: I love MEPIS.

Just thought I'd share.

11:37am: Boredom...
So I just finished up the MEE (Multistate Essay Exam, for those of you who aren't lawyers and therefore don't have to suffer through the nightmare that is the bar exam). Our rule is that if you finish with less than 30 minutes to go you are not allowed to leave the room. In other words, you have to sit here BORED TO TEARS. Naturally, I finished up with about 29 minutes and 59.99999999999 seconds left.

Thankfully, I have WiFi. Did I mention that I love my computer?

1:06pm: Let the fun begin...
It's almost 1:15 (Boise time), so we're getting ready to begin the Idaho Bar (the hotel has free WiFi). Rock on.

Yes, I am screwing around on LJ when I could be cramming at the last minute...:)

5:25pm: Chase = SHIFTY
I'm getting more annoyed with Chase by the day.

I got one of their 0% interest credit cards earlier this year because Jenny and I are trying to consolidate our CC debt & pay it off without interest. They've been shifty from the get-go. First, they won't allow you to do immediate online payments without paying their ridiculous extortion fee (I think it's like $18). That's irritating enough, and I don't buy their lame ass excuses for a second about why they "have" to do it. If other CC companies can let you pay today for free, then so can fucking Chase.

To make matters worse, if you don't pay the extortion fee then you get to do the "pay and pray" method. You tell them when you'd like to schedule the payment to go through, minimum of two days from today. Then, your payment will get posted within a 2-6 day window of that time. They won't tell you WHEN they'll actually bother to post the payment, just that it will happen "within 2-6 days." Utter and complete horseshit, since they jack your interest rate through the roof if you miss a payment because they chose not to go through with it when you tell them to.

Now I'm even more annoyed. Some of you may be aware of the new "feature" that many CC companies are offering. It's some program where you can suspend payments if you get fired or cancel your debt if you die. Yes, of course you have to pay through the nose for it, which is why I always decline. I've noticed some "888" number on my cell phone over the last week that refuses to leave a message. When I answered it today, it was Chase talking about their "program." Lame enough, and I rarely listen to the description.

However, I became suspicious when they asked if it was okay to record the conversation. The lady then proceeded to talk at me at like 6 billion words a second and I hardly caught what she said other than that Chase would mail me some packet explaining the program. Whatever. Just as we were hanging up, I caught her saying something about "enrolling", at which point I stopped her and wouldn't let her off the phone. I asked her to clarify if she was just sending me information or signing me up. After dancing around the question for a minute, she finally answered that she was signing me up and the burden would be on me to cancel within 30 days or face charges. I promptly told her to fuck off.

Perhaps Chase should talk to Cingular to find out what happens to shifty companies that try to charge me for stuff I don't actually agree to...

3:08pm: All Hail Jeffrey, King of Dwarves!
So, as most of you know, I've been in New Mexico for the last several days. Well, I'm actually still in Albequerque right now, but their winning major bonus points from me because they have free WiFi in the airport and I'm bored to tears with having to sit here for over four hours waiting on my flight. Where was I?

Oh, right, so Taos Aelthing (the proper name for our Viking festival). Arrived on Friday at noon-ish. I had a wonderful feeling when I stepped off the airplane thanks to the wondrous planning of Matthew Fagir (Clagett). About 5 days prior to my arrival, I had talked with him by email trying to coordinate how I was supposed to get from the airport to the festival. We left it with, "I think Rishi might be getting a car or something. Maybe we'll pick you up. I don't know. I'll let you know." Yeah, so I step off the plane knowing nobody's cell numbers and having no idea who is picking me up. Luckily, I remember Rishi enough from the two previous times I met him to find him in the crowd, so it was all good. Not that it was hard, since it didn't seem as though there were too many Arab/Indian looking people in New Mexico. We picked up Matt's friend Dan and we were off.

Friday night was not the best night, due entirely to a minor miscalculation on my part. Things went well enough at first, but then we broke out the mead. For those of you who are not familiar with mead, it's basically honey wine. It's also REALLY fucking good. After downing two large horns of beer, I rather stupidly declared that I would be drinking no further beer until the mead was gone. To understand how stupid this was, you need to know two things: 1.) we had THREE CASES of mead, and 2.) the King's Mead we drank that night was about 17% alcohol. Yes, to answer your question, the Dwarf King fell to the mighty mead.

The next day was the Viking "Great Contests of Skill"/Viking Olympics/whatever. Rock throwing, spear tossing, axe throwing, poetry, broad jumping, and (my personal favorite) wrestling, amongst other things. The wrestling was quite interesting because of my two opponents. First round, I drew Chris's little sister Caty. Caty might be 110lbs. soaking wet. Maybe. Second round saw me facing down Brian Und-Bjorn, who is probably 300-350lbs. Lots of fun was had by all. In the end, I ended up winning the overall competition by a narrow margin over Matt's friend Rishi. Rishi and I have since decided that we must have a rematch, and now this must become an annual event.

All in all, it was great. I got to hang out with friends that I haven't seen in nearly two years, have Viking fun, eat tons of meat (boar, lamb, turkey, and salmon), and finally play Risk again with Matt & Chris. Oh yes, we WILL be doing this again.

10:23am: Cingular = Sued
As Jenny so eloquently put last week, Cingular can eat shit and howl at the moon.

At 9:43 a.m. this morning, I officially sued their asses. Their customer service reps basically told me to piss off when I tried to nicely discuss things. Let's see if I can get someone's attention this way.

1:00pm: Fasunloye spotting
Those of you who weren't in law school with me won't find this entertaining at all.

So, Jenny and I are getting ready to head up to the office to help Ron & Mandi move. While Jenny's getting ready, she's got TLC on (I think she was watching some makeover show). Anyway, the show "Ten Years Younger" came on. If you've never watched it, at the beginning of the show they put the person in a box and interview people on the street to see how old they think the person is. I wasn't paying attention to the show until I thought I heard a familiar voice. I looked up, and I noticed that one of the street interviews was none other than David Fasunloye!

Interesting. I didn't catch where the show was. Anyone know where he is now?