Mackenzie's Weblog

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It’s a difficult time to be a clerk.  As a result of my job, I’m not comfortable commenting on any of the recent Supreme Court opinions that were published last week.  That’s difficult for me because I have opinions, I just can’t say anything about them.  Suffice it to say that I love watching the Court and reading all the commentary.  It’s interesting to see what my opinions look like next to those who have studied the particular topic.

In other news, Jupiter is crazy for the moths.  This morning he was in my bathroom trying to go after two of them at the same time.  It’s fun to see a cat go nuts while on a slippery surface.  At one point, he ended up with a moth trapped against the floor while he was lying splayed out on his stomach.  I’ll try to get a photo if any more of the little buggers manage to get in.

Incidentally, all of this moth talk reminds me of why I really don’t mind spiders in the house.  They’re much preferable to moths.  Spiders, for the most part, tend to stake out their space in a corner somewhere.  They pretty much keep to themselves.  Moths, on the other hand, have some sort of cat-maw death wish fantasy.  And they’re irritating, constantly flying around and surprising you when you open things or turn on lights.

Given that the spiders, in addition to being more polite and dignified, eat the irritating moths, you can see where my sympathies lie.

It’s Miller Time

Cheyenne is full of Miller Moths right now.  When I was in Laramie, there weren’t nearly as many as I have here.  My mailbox had about half a dozen in it when I opened it today.  That was fun.

At least it entertains the cats.

Friday Catblogging!

Featuring Jupiter.

I’m still running, which is good.  It’s difficult to get started in the morning, but I always feel good when I get back to the house.

I’m also making my way steadily through my veggies, which is cool.  I added a bunch of cilantro to one of my favorite crock-pot dishes, a black bean soup.  It was great.  I haven’t used a ton of the cilantro, so I’ll probably make some cilantro pesto this weekend.  If I freeze it into blocks, I can add it to all sorts of things until I run out.

This week is a literary oddity.  I finished my prior book, but I haven’t started anything new quite yet.  There’s a list, but it’s not in any particular order.  Also, I’ve got a few New Yorkers and Scientific Americans to catch up with, so I may not choose a new book for a while.

Have a great weekend!

It’s Back!

I’m happy to report that tech support finally got everything going again.  It turns out all they had to do was increase the memory allocation, and everything works.  Not only did it solve the “no publish” problem, it also solved a different non-critical, but annoying, error.

With my new increased memory, let’s hope things run smoothly from now on.

Tomorrow, I’ll be back with what should have been last week’s Catblogging entry.

Blogging Issues

No, I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth. I'm having some significant problems with the back end of the blog. It seems to be a result of some server-side problem, but support is somewhat less than helpful. Non-responsive is about the nicest thing I can say. There are many other less nice, yet strangely accurate, ways to put it.

I was all set with last Friday's catblogging post, and it just wouldn't work. I involved tech support immediately, but to no effect. The only reason you're reading this now is that I know enough html to go in and edit the web page myself. There are no comments, though.

I'm happy to report, however, that the CSA is going well. I made a rhubarb-apple-custard pie with the rhubarb, and the radish soup I made from the radishes was quite delightful. We got more cilantro this week, and I'm not done with last week's take, so I'll be making a cilantro pesto and freezing it.

Back to work. I'm hoping the site will be up in time for catblogging on Friday, but past behaviors of my host do not inspire confidence. You'll know that it's working when a post appears that has comments enabled.

Getting Healthy

Yesterday I started the One Hundred Pushups program.  In theory, I’ll be able to do one hundred pushups in six weeks.  We’ll see, but if nothing else, I think it’ll be good to have a set schedule/program to follow.  I’m fairly sore today, which is a good sign.

In other news, after starting in on my week’s worth of farm-fresh veggies, I’m pleased to report that the quality is excellent.  I wish there were more radishes and rhubarb, but what I do have is really excellent.  I hated salads growing up, partly because I thought they were just tasteless.  It turns out, it was just the available greens that were the problem; this was long before the whole organic/foodie movement took hold in any of the places I lived.

Tonight I’m having one of my favorite black bean soups (with fresh cilantro), but it’ll be supplemented by a large serving of lettuce and spinach.  Tomorrow it’s fried rice, with garlic scapes instead of onions, and a lot of greens added in.  This weekend I’m planning on making radish soup, which includes the greens.  I’m into eating the greens of just about everything.

Home-Grown Goodness

The other day, I decided to dive into my new garden.  This is a photo of the very first meal I’ve ever had that was completely grown by me (not counting the balsamic vinegar that I added after I took this photo).  It’s just a simple salad with lots of radishes.

It was delicious.  I’ve been half afraid that that my veggies would pick up something noxious from the soil, and I’m glad to report that my paranoia was unfounded.  I’ll have more radishes and lettuce coming, and a few other things are on their way.

In other news, yesterday I got my first weekly share of veggies from the local community-supported agriculture (CSA) program.  It had lots of lettuce and spinach, onions, radishes, celery, cilantro, and garlic scapes.  It’s still early in the year, so pickings were a bit slim, except for the spinach and lettuce, but that’s fine for now.  That’s eating seasonably.  The nice thing is that it’s all organic, harvested (literally) yesterday only 40 or so miles away.  That’s about as close as I’m going to get as far as large-scale food goes.

Now, to close out a couple tabs.

First, check out how clean your power is at this EPA site.  I was very surprised to learn that most of my power (49%) is hydro.  That’s compared to a national average of 7%.  Very cool.

I also really enjoyed this feature from gamesradar.com on the consoles of the 1970s.  I fondly remember the first console system in our home, which is described in this article as particularly powerful.  Of course, we didn’t actually get it until about 1985 or so, but I still have some fond memories.  That’s mainly because I had no idea that it was that outdated, and the NES came out not too long after that.  I also remember my little handheld blockbuster player that the article describes as a “console [that] didn’t deserve to live.”  Very harsh—I enjoyed it.

Unseen Victims of Gas Prices

With all this talk of increased gas prices, there’s a segment of the population that I think has been overlooked: domestic violence victims’ programs and the people they serve.

For those who aren’t aware, gas cards are a critical part of client emergency relief at DV programs.  They are an easy way of giving a client multiple tanks of gas when fleeing, and they also can free up money for a financially struggling mother who is having trouble making ends meet.  Keep in mind that money is often a huge issue for someone trying to leave a violent partner, who is often the “earner” in the family.  Providing some of that financial assistance can help enable someone to make that choice of whether to leave free of financial coercion.  Obviously, there’s more to the dynamic than the finances, but every road block removed helps to empower a client.

But gas prices have a major impact on that.  The money just doesn’t go as far.  With prices about doubled since I worked at a DV program, I imagine that either not as many clients get served, or those that do just don’t get as much help.

These programs generally receive a fair amount of public funding, but I know from experience that it’s simply not enough to meet the needs of any particular community.  Even at the best of times, it was never enough to help our clients as much as we would have liked.  We relied heavily on the generosity of the community which was considerable.

So, as you plan where you’ll be doing your giving in the coming year, please consider your local DV program.  Many of them are United Way agencies, so you can designate your donation and get it taken directly out of your paycheck.  It’s money well spent.

You Can’t Take Me Anywhere

This morning, while running at 5:30 a.m. or so, I ran into another lawyer in town, one who happens to have been my first legal employer and my first mentor.  (We’ve seen each other around and chatted before, but we have never had much time to sit down and chat for a bit.)  It was really nice.

In Laramie, I’d lived there so long that I pretty much couldn’t go anywhere without seeing someone I knew, at least by sight.  It was a little disconcerting.  I’d lived there for about 13 years by the end, and I’d met a lot of people through my pre-law school job.  I thought that I’d get a certain amount of anonymity back when I moved to Cheyenne—after all, it had been more than a decade since I’d lived here, and even then I was only a high school kid.

It turns out I still meet people I know everywhere I go.  I’ve seen everyone from my old band director, someone I used to work with in Laramie, and other lawyers.  (Actually, I think other lawyers are the most common sight.)  I used to think about my (anticipated) new found anonymity with relief and anticipation, but it is actually rather nice to randomly see people around town.  It makes me feel like I’m a more active member of the community than I probably am at this point.

Friday Catblogging!

It really feels like this week has flown by, and I didn’t take any new photos, so here’s a little reprise:

Sleepytime.

I’m Currently Reading:

What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank Read more about this book...

Already?

It's hard to believe it's Thursday already.  It feels like this week has flown by.  Part of that is that I've been pretty productive at work this week, and that always makes work days seem short and so the rest of the week is short, too.  Plus, I don't really keep track of what day it is other than Monday and Friday, so I don't see the week marching past me.

After my running experience the other day, I've had to take a couple days off to let my legs recover.  This will probably be the last two-day gap, though it's possible I'll need another one.  After that, I'll alternate days for a while, then I'll be ready to move to my preferred everyday schedule.

No Good at Being Bad

This is sort of another Mass Effect post.  Bear with me.

One of the things I like about Mass Effect, and other games by this same publisher, is that you are able to make lots of choices about how your character behaves.  Every problem to be solved usually has at least two solutions, one "saint" way of doing things, and one "asshole" way of doing things.  For example, if there are hostages, you might have your character talk down the hostage takers.  Or, you could have the character just shoot everything in sight, which would result in the hostage's death, but the situation would be resolved.

Mass Effect also has "achievements," where you get a little in-game medal, and sometimes mild power or ability boosts, by accomplishing certain tasks in-game.  For example, there are achievements for using certain powers a particular number of times, and once you get one of those achievements, new characters can use those powers regardless of class.  One of the achievements is to gain 75% of the "renegade" (read: asshole) points available in the game.  So I've been playing through the game, making my character a total jerk.

Even though it's just a game, this play style is deeply disturbing to me.  It's just not fun.  I've managed to alienate other characters--ones that you fight alongside throughout the game.  My character is nothing more than a sad, bitter, misanthropic man.  Thankfully, I've reached the 75% renegade goal, so I can ease up a bit.  I'm not sure what it says about me that I'm so uncomfortable playing that type of character--is my sense of fairness and civility so ingrained that it's that difficult for me to explore the other side of it?  Is there something about an interactive media that makes it more difficult to explore that aspect of human nature in a game than in literature or a movie?  That has interesting implications.  Maybe I just don't like playing a character that I just don't like.

From a development standpoint, I think playing in that way affects the focus of the game.  When your characters attitude is, "kill 'em all," the interesting storyline (to me) is how he got to be that way, not what's going on now.  I'd love to see a game that, when you chose to play "evil," or even just "naughty," part of the game became exploring your character's past.  The theme becomes how your character got to be the way he is, not what's going on now, except as that reveals who your character is.  When your character is more "good," or even normal with assorted foibles, that character's interactions with other members of the party and with the world at large become more interesting independent of who your character is.

Maybe this shows a certain evolution in games as an art.  We'll always have mindless shooters and casual games (dogs playing poker), but games will also have a few exceptional titles that reveal something about the human condition, our Citizen Kane or Schindler's List.  I don't know that we're quite there yet, but it's just a matter of time.

Run Away!

I've been getting up at 5 am every morning for a while now, and I've been promising myself that I'd start running again.  Also for a while now.

I'm happy to report that I finally did that this morning.  It was a short run, barely 30 minutes, but it's a start.  I'll work up, slowly, to a longer run.

I had pancakes for breakfast to celebrate.  No syrup, though.  I usually have them with plain yogurt, maybe with a little fruit, but I don't have any yogurt or fruit, other than apples.  So I had plain pancakes.

Wow, my life is exciting.

Friday Catblogging!

It's been cold and rainy lately, so the cats have been a little less shy about showing the world their true feelings for each other.

In other news, I discovered that my new AmEx interest rate was lowered even more than I expected. I called my bank, but it is unwilling to lower my rate on my other card, so it looks like I'll be transferring its balance to AmEx. This should result in substantial savings, and speed up my repayment plan significantly. Once that's paid off, I'll reapportion a bit more income toward savings, while my debt payment money will go toward some of my higher-rate student loans (like my Bar study loan). It feels nice that things are coming together there.

I'm currently reading:

Have a great weekend!

No Chickens Allowed! Or Gorillas!

So, I've thought for a while that it would be cool to keep a few chickens in my back yard.  They don't require too much space (as long as I keep their numbers to a reasonable level), and there are all sorts of food things I can use them for.

Being a responsible person, I checked the city ordinances to see if chickens were prohibited.  Unfortunately, they are.  But what really caught my eye was the language of the ordinance:

Except as provided within this title, no person may keep or slaughter within the city any cattle, cows, horses, swine, goats, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, guinea fowl, nonhuman primates or other livestock.

Cheyenne, WY City Code 6.08.020(A).

Seriously?  Nonhuman primates?  What makes this particularly remarkable, for you non-lawyer types, is that statutes that list things are usually construed so that if something later comes along that may or may not fall within the listed items, the courts will look at the things that are in the list to see if it belongs.  So if a statute deals with "transportation vehicles, such as cars, busses, and motorcycles," that statute probably doesn't include passenger jets because the things listed are of a different type.

The funny thing about this list is that, other than "nonhuman primates," everything else you might expect to find at a farm.  But I can't think of any farms I've seen that include baboons and lemurs.  (Yes, lemurs are primates--a particular variety called "prosimians.")

Additionally, there appears to be a statute that would otherwise cover nonhuman primates:

No person shall own any wild animal or exotic pet within the city limits, except that this restriction does not apply to the keeping of small cagebirds or aquatic, amphibian or nonpoisonous reptilian animals or small rodents such as hamsters, guinea pigs or gerbils kept solely as pets; nor to any zoological garden, theatrical exhibit, circus, legally incorporated college, university or school.

Cheyenne, WY City Code 6.08.060.  Now, call me crazy, but I would think that any nonhuman primate would qualify as "wild animal[s] or exotic pet[s]."  While I've heard of people eating monkeys, I've never heard of anyone raising them as livestock.

Very odd.

Credit Report

I just got my free credit report from one of the major bureaus.  I got a great idea from another site (I don't recall where) that you can actually get a credit report three times a year by staggering your requests to the various companies.  So I got one yesterday, and I'll get another in four months, and so on.

I'm happy to report that my record appears to be clean.  Nobody seems to have opened up accounts or taken out loans in my name, so it all looks good.  On top of that, I have zero late payments or other negative information.  It irritates me that Hertz checked my credit report when I rented a car during a job interview in Seattle a year and a half ago, but that's what happens when you rent a car.

The only negative thing is my debt to available credit ratio.  My mortgage* and student loans are always going to be at 100% and, though I've been paying them down, my credit cards are fairly high.  But because my mortgage and student loans take up such a high proportion of my overall debt, they really skew my total debt to credit ratio.  I'm pretty sure, however, that the distribution is taken into account.  Most people's highest debt is a mortgage, and a lot of people have student loans, so it wouldn't make an overall sense to put too much stock in this measure without accounting for the kind of debt.

Overall, the report is as good as I can hope for given how much I owe.  I'd better get on that.  We're getting our state annual increases in a month, so the majority is going toward my debt payment allocation.  I'd put it all in that direction, but I also want to step up saving so that I can easily pay for a few end of the year expenses, like going to New Orleans in December.  It's going to feel so good to pay for that with money that I've saved rather than with credit.

* I'm perfectly aware that a mortgage is a property interest in land, while the promissory note represents my promise to pay the debt, but I'll just use "mortgage" because it's easier.

Couple Gaming

Ok, so I'll make this the last gaming post for a while.  I recently saw this Feministe article on feminism and gaming, with a focus on one particular Salon.com article.  The Salon article describes (superficially) the writer's coping mechanisms when her husband was gaming a bit more than she'd like.

The Feministe article does a good job of treating the article in the right way, I think, but the whole thing did fondly remind me of my own couple gaming experience.  One ex-girlfriend and I used to play together.  I was mostly the one who was actually at the computer, but she was there making suggestions and we collaborated on what to do next in the game.  It was fun, and I've still got a soft spot for Clive Barker's Undying.

Side Benefit

Though I missed out on an estimated 14 hours of game play trying to get it to work (though I made an admirable effort to catch up the rest of this weekend), there was one side benefit to all the troubles I had.

Vista has a feature that optimizes your boot files and programs.  It learns what to do every time you boot, and changes accordingly.  The result, ideally, is a much faster boot once it learns what to do.  In my case, that feature never really amounted to much because I don't reboot very often.  Mostly, I leave the computer in Sleep mode--that allows me to have a nearly instant-awake PC, it sucks very little power while I'm not using it, and it can still wake up periodically to perform scheduled maintenance or other tasks.

In the last week, though, I've had to reboot around two dozen times as part of my troubleshooting process.  While it's a bit of a pain, the great benefit is that it gave Vista a chance to optimize my boot times, and now it's really fast.  I now go from power button to web browsing in half the time.