Mackenzie's Weblog

Carrel

And just to even things out, we just had our carrel lottery (to see who gets one) and naturally did not get one. Them's the breaks, I suppose.

Called into the office

Well, I've just returned from being called into the Assisstant Dean's office. She had me close the door and sit down before 'hitting me with it'.

I've been selected to receive the largest scholarship available to 1Ls in the school. I believe its the Lloyd N. Hagood Scholarship if I remember right, though my memory is a little scattered at the moment.

I'm happy and floored. Not really because of the money, though that's very important and good, but primarily I feel honored that the scholarshop committee felt that I was strong enough of a candidate and that my record was good enough that they selected me. Interesting, isn't it, how the recognition of being selected matters more than the compensation itself? I know a few people (ok, one in particular) who manage personnel and could improve themselves by learning this lesson.

Well, I suppose I now have to actually get back to the books so that I can fulfill the trust that the endowment has placed in me. I'm going to make sure I don't make them regret their choice.

Feel free to leave a comment of congratulations!

The Week

So, here we see that the first week is done. Not that I don't have homework-type-things to do tonight, but not as much as you'd think as some of my professors have been going a little slower than expected and I purposefully got a little bit ahead.

So I saw Shaolin Soccer last night. I really liked it; truly funny. For those that aren't familiar with it, think of it as a combination of Enter the Dragon (with Bruce Lee) and Amelie.

On a sadder note, it appears that my betta, Milo, isn't getting better from his bout of dropsy. He's extremely bloated and despite several rounds of various treatments, he seems to be getting slowly worse. As a consequence, we've elected to give it a couple more days but if he doesn't seem better by then, euthanasia will be performed to spare him the additional pain of being killed by the disease.

I'm saddened by this as he was a birthday present from the GF last year, but it happens, I suppose.

Return of the Guest Blogger

Now, I always thought it would be really cool to take a week off from the world and just sleep and sleep and sleep. That pitiful little fantasy has been crushed like a tiny bug under the heel of mono. I was diagnosed with it about two or three weeks ago. Basically, at the beginning of August. I am slowly emerging from my apartment to find that it's the 26th of August. How surprising.

Today is my first day back at work. I'm doing a half day, and let me tell you, it's killing me. Who knew that library work could be so draining?

One nice thing about mono, though. My boyfriend brought me flowers...twice. I love flowers. I don't know about the rest of you, being law students as you are, but there's something life affirming about flowers. Even when they're dying. I think it has to do with the colorful petals, or the ingrained cultural significance. Seriously, whoever that first person to pick a flower and put it in his girlfriend's hair, I thank you. I'm sure that countless males, however, wish the guy had just left the darned thing in the ground. Let me just say, though, that if you remember to take her some flowers without being prompted or without doing anything wrong in the first place, you are going to be a much happier man in the long run. Just in case you're wondering, those kinds of things really do mean a lot.

Enough about flowers. Let's talk about Swift Boats for a moment. How the heck did this get to be such a big controversy? Is it just because the republicans are, in fact, incredibly stupid that this has to go on and on and on?

Forgive me, I've been stuck at home without much ability to move around. I haven't been able to escape this ridiculous problem. It's as if GW is so afraid that he's going to lose that he has to get his cronies to lie for him. Sad thing is that it's effective. What was that saying? No one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American masses. That puppet that's in the White House is going to ride this all the way to November. It's too bad that more people don't vote.

Ah, the righteous indignation portion of the program is over, we'll now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

The city cat and the country cat

So here's one of my planned posts and it involves, of all things, the nature of stray cats.

You see, I recently found myself petting a stray that came right up to me while I was waiting for a friend to get to her house, where I was waiting and that's when it really hit me.

Country cats are friendlier than city cats.

Many years ago, during my Jr High years, I lived in a suburb of Chicage. This is not an area I would call 'the big city' by any means, however it was significantly more urban than anywhere in Why?-oming. Now, I did have occasion every once and a while to come upon stray cat's here and there. I don't believe that I actually petted any of them, for reasons that will become clear to you momentarily.

A typical encounter: I turn the corner, not expecting any surprises, and suddenly the world stands still. There, about 20 feet in front of me, sits a garbage can. On top of the garbage can is a ferile, mangy creature that I can only call a cat. For that split second I can see every characteristic of the cat, from the paw reached out in mid-pry to the impossible twisted tail, indicating a run-over by a car of some sort. When time begins againg, the only thing left to indicate that there was a cat is the crash of the garbage can the cat knocked over in his haste.

Typical encounter in Wyoming: Hear a can meowing and look around. Oh, there it is, looking at you from around 10 feet or so away. It meows again. Perhaps it wants to be pet? you approach slightly and it doesn't move. You meow back and click your tongue. It looks around for anything looming forth and takes a few hesitant steps forward. This continues until the thing is nuzzling your leg, hand, and anything else it sees, including rolling around on the ground itself. Don't get me wrong, he's still skittish, but extremely friendly.

Big difference? I'd say so. I could get a cat anytime I wanted, if I didn't already have two that keep me busy as it is.

Well, must get ready to go back to law school now, today's line-up: Contracts, Writing and Criminal.

Observation

Well, I have a whole backlog of interesting intended posts (does that mean that I'm 'substantially certain' that I'll be posting them?), but I haven't been able to write them on account of my extreme business. I just wanted to leave a quick note that no, I haven't forgotten about my nifty blog.

I have noticed, while studying, that things are starting to get a little easier. I think that my mind is adjusting somewhat to the demands I'm placing on it. I didn't get done until 9:45 tonight and while I was fatigued, I think I took a few less breaks and it was a little easier than yesterday. The facts of cases seem to be jumping out more than before and the issues seem easier to spot. I didn't expect this to happen quite so soon; I was figuring maybe another week or three.

Something else: I love reading cases. I love figuring out what's going on and when I'm writing my analysis in my case briefs, I love talking about the various hypos. This is truly a great time. I think it might actually be somewhat hard to take Saturday off from studying. I just want to learn more. I'm sure that will pass when I reach my saturation point.

Anyway, I'm nearly caught up through Friday (just my criminal class to prepare for) so that I can spend some time with the GF tomorrow for her birthday.

Must take break

from the crushing weight of Contracts. Prof. Welle described the first year as a marathon, and I really think that's true. I've been working on her assignment for Thursday for about the last hour and a half, and I'm not even done yet. I'll tell you, she may not be a Kingsfield, but she'll be tough. She's already made that abundantly clear.

On another note, I finally met my new Criminal teacher. He wasn't around at orientation or yesterday because of a family emergency. He seems pretty nice. He's the first prof so far to actually jump right into the material and leave the syllabus for later. Considering that I'm interested in practicing criminal law, it was pretty cool.

Ok, that's all the break I'll allow myself for now, and however long it took you to read this, double it and that's how much of a break I probably took typing it. Answer: not a lot.

Back to finish Contracts.

Real Classes

Well, I finally have had actual real classes. It was not grueling at all. In fact, my only complaint is that the wi-fi in the class is a little flaky. Of course, access in the classroom is more of a convenience than anything else, but it's still annoying.

So now I have about an hour to work until the lunch speaker and then my research class. Then more work.

Oh, Tony asked if I pretty much have zero free time now. That's basically true, though I can make room for various other things on occasion (that's why I watched a movie last night).

Oh, and there's lunch provided for a club meeting tomorrow that I plan on attending. Free food, here I come!

Happy Birthday to me

List of things I've done on my Birthday:

• Up at 8am (sleeping in for me)
• 2.5 hours of Torts study (including a nearly incomprehensible case from 1850 - I'm sure you legal types are familiar)
• 3 hours of Property, mostly theoretical
• 2 hours of Legal Research, mostly telling us how we'll be bench-slapped if we step out of line
• 1.5 hours of Babylon 5: A Call to Arms.
• Call from my best friend to tell me that she found my birthday present when she and her husband were unpacking. More glad for the phone call than the present, really.
• Birthday pizza from Domino's, courtesy of the Girlfriend
• 2 hours of Contracts, including a cursory overview of the insanely boring history of the Uniform Commercial Code. Still not finished.
• Bed; I have class first thing.

Unbearable fun.

Done

Well, I did it. I survived Law School. Well, ok, the first day. Well, ok, the first day of orientation. But the important thing was that I had a major headache all day because I forgot to plan for caffiene after the gym. Oh well, I'll have some sort of delivery system.

One speaker on the subject of Legal Analysys (who is also my contracts prof) already started calling on students. They didn't seem prepared for that; they sound a bit flustered. I don't know if they just weren't expecting it this early or if they haven't read all their law school survival books. I'm sure once we all get practiced, things will be a bit easier. At least we'll know it's coming (though maybe not when!)

Anyway, I actually have a little homework for my case briefing session tomorrow, so I'd better get to it. Later!

The final moments

Here I am, in the Law School library. Orientation will begin in about 45 minutes, so I'm really down to thast bit of not-being-a-law-student.

I'm very excited. I had a difficult time falling asleep last night, but I figure I got a good 5 or 6 hours in before I woke up before 6am to go to the gym. Had a good workout, aside from forgetting a towel and having to go back home to shower, and here I am. It's hard to believe, but I'm listening to the distant sounds of the staff setting up for orientation even now.

I've noticed that a lot of the schools seem to do their orientation earlier. On other blawgs, the reaction has ranged from excitement to cynicism to boredom. I'm glad I'm on the former end of the spectrum, otherwise how boring would life be?

I also happened to uncover a blog of another person who is in my class. I won't reveal it because I don't know if he wants it to be truly anonymous or not. I can't help but try to figure out who this person is, though, as the year goes on. We'll see how long that takes.

Well, must check up on the news before the day starts, so I'll post next when I'm a law student.

Lovely!

Well, I've spent today reading and looking through my books and whatnot. I picked up Stupid White Men at the library yesterday and finished it this morning, so I spent the day perusing my new law books.

I think my favorite will be the Lawyer's Craft (mentioned below). It seems to have a wealth of great information all extremely well written. It may end up being a volume that I'll refer to repeatedly, even after school.

So now I go to pick up my last bit of financial sustenance from my erstwhile employer. I'll be getting that month's salary and off I go.

One more free day.

Finally!

Today has been (and I expect it will continue to be) a good day. I'm sitting in the Union of the university as I type and taking advantage of the wireless network here. I love it.

This morning I leisurely got myself together (a day off, I get to sleep in!) and went to the bookstore at the law school to get my books. Unfortunately, they don't make your charges to one's university account, but they do hold checks until the middle of September or so. So, a few minutes and a check for $415 later (I already had my criminal books), here I am.

On top of that, my friend took me out to lunch for babysitting last week, or the week before, whenever it was. We went to the new cajun place in town. It's only been open a couple weeks, and it shows. The food isn't too bad, but the service was awful. We were there about an hour and were still rushed to eat.

I had a crawfish po' boy. I found it interesting that they were served dressed, but I suppose you have to in a place in Wyoming or people would start wondering why their sandwiches didn't have any fixins.

J ordered a club sandwich, but it looks like the server heard cobb salad instead. She liked the cheese (I think it was feta or something) and the chicken on it, but she was really looking forward to having that club sandwich. Oh well, Perhaps I'll try it out in a while again and see if they've improved.

So, for the rest of today's schedule, I plan on hanging out here at the union for a while (I'll have to feed the meter a couple times to stay longer than an hour) and read a bit before I go to Kinko's and pick up my new cards, plus the cards for the Yahoo Group. I have some made up with the web address to use at orientation to get the word out. In the mean time, I'll be reading Stupid White Men and maybe a little bit of Lawyer's Craft. I'm getting pretty durn excited.

First (and last) weekend

Well, as my first and last free weekend before law school starts, I've been enjoying it. Yesterday I pretty much did nothing except start the most recent Harry Potter book, which was recently released in paperback (that's what I've been waiting for). Today all I've done so far is finish it, about a half hour ago or so.

I enjoyed it a great deal. As I'm sure I'm just about the last person in the world to have read it, I'll spare the finer points, however I did enjoy the much darker tone of the book. I found myself wishing that the boy would just get over his teenage angst, though. I also am looking forward to the time when HP and Snape are reconciled, as I expect they will be given the current circumstances. I don't think it will happen for some time, though.

Overall a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Now it's getting up and moving for the two parties we must attend tonight.

Free!

Notice: As of 2:00pm Mountain Daylight Time, I am no longer employed by Albany County SAFE Project.

Woo Hoo!

I am unbelievably happy about this, despite missing the clients. I don't think, though, that it has really hit me yet. I suspect that it won't until I go to Orientation next Thursday, though possibly not even then. It might take the first day of classes to really hit me.

I did find out that the boss is going to get my PDO (Vacation Time, about a months salary) check to me Tuesday. That's good because I wanted to get my books bought before orientation and if I weren't getting my check until Friday, I wouldn't be able to do that.

Last Day!

Now is the last day of my discontent. My last day at work, and I'll get to loaf off at that. The boss is doing an open house type thing today to introduce people (mainly board members and volunteers) to the new staff and to say goodbye to yours truly.

While I don't want to write about it before it happens, I have been tipped off to an interesting little surprise plan to be executed by a couple people. It'll be great if it goes off as planned.

When next I blog, I'll be a free man!

Meaningless Drivel

So I'm at Wal-Mart today (I know, I know...), and I saw the 'self check-out' line. For those that have options other than Wal-Mart, these are the lines that one can go through and ring up oneself and pay via one's own credit card.

Specifically, I was looking at the one person who is responsible for making sure that no one rips off the corporate mega-retailer. Think about this for a minute and probably the same question will occur to you: How does one score such a cake assignment? Really, all she had to do was stand there. After all, what did she care if someone stole a $2.99 block of cheese?

Of course, the self check-out makes good business sense. Wal-Mart only pays one person to run five check-out lines. Still, I have to wonder: What's the appeal? Do consumers think that they're getting a deal? Personally, I don't presume to think that my own speed at the register even comes close to that of a skilled register technician. Man, those cats was fast as lightning! Really, I think it's some kind of scam, making consumers think they can scan faster than the pros. It's some kind of scan scam.

Free Movies Galore

For some reason, this seems to be the era of free movies. Friday night, the GF and I babysat for a friend who had rented Cold Mountain. Because their TV had a couple issues (we were tossing around the idea of a Law and Order marathon), we simply pulled out the trusty laptop and watched the movie.

This star-studded southern epic was really great. Besides all the interpersonal stories woven into the movies (more than just the primary characters), the film really brought home the economic devastation that the Civil War brought to the South. Knowing already that Reconstruction tended to exascerbate the effect, well, I have a great deal of sympathy for those caught in the middle, i.e., most of the population of the South. Rating: Discount Theatre (it has some great visuals).

The second free film came about because of my Best Friend renting it last night. We went to the place where her and her husband are staying and finally saw City of God. This movie had been recommended to me for some time (you know who you are) and I have to agree. City of God is a complex Brazilian film that shows, in simplified terms, the lives of several people and events around the slum of Rio de Janiero, the name of which the movie takes as a title. The film succeeds in showing the cutthroat survival of the streets and the difficulty that people in the area have in choosing their own destiny, something the main character struggles with throughout the film. I just wonder if the poor chicken made it. Rating: See in theatre new. It's worth it.

The third and final movie I haven't seen yet, but it was rented by my friends and we have it to watch and will return it to the rental place. I was skeptical of it when I originally saw the trailer, however I'm hoping that Touching the Void is a quality flick. It looks to be so from the IMDB rating and the metacritic score. Here's hoping.

It's amazing the things that sort of pop up online. I recently discovered that one of my favorite writers Neil Gaiman has his own weblog. Better yet, it has an RSS feed. This is yet another blog I'll follow, and you can to from the new link on my blogroll.

Finally, I've just discovered that something I've been waiting for for years is finally coming. The cinematic release of the classic Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy now has a release date. Apparently, we can expect to see it in June 2005. Want to see a teaser?

Help Make Weblogs More Visible!

There are by some estimates more than a million weblogs. But most of them get no visibility in search engines. Only a few "A-List" blogs get into the top search engine results for a given topic, while the majority of blogs just don't get noticed. The reason is that the smaller blogs don't have enough links pointing to them. But this posting could solve that. Let's help the smaller blogs get more visibility!

This posting is GoMeme 4.0. It is part of an experiment to see if we can create a blog posting that helps 1000's of blogs get higher rankings in Google. So far we have tried 3 earlier variations. Our first test, GoMeme 1.0, spread to nearly 740 blogs in 2.5 days. This new version 4.0 is shorter, simpler, and fits more easily into your blog.

Why are we doing this? We want to help thousands of blogs get more visibility in Google and other search engines. How does it work? Just follow the instructions below to re-post this meme in your blog and add your URL to the end of the Path List below. As the meme spreads onwards from your blog, so will your URL. Later, when your blog is indexed by search engines, they will see the links pointing to your blog from all the downstream blogs that got this via you, which will cause them to rank your blog higher in search results. Everyone in the Path List below benefits in a similar way as this meme spreads. Try it!

Instructions: Just copy this entire post and paste it into your blog. Then add your URL to the end of the path list below, and pass it on! (Make sure you add your URLs as live links or HTML code to the Path List below.)

Path List
1. Minding the Planet
2. Luke Hutteman's public virtual MemoryStream
3. Mackenzie's Weblog
4. (your URL goes here! But first, please copy this line and move it down to the next line for the next person).

(NOTE: Be sure you paste live links for the Path List or use HTML code.)

The other day...

Sometimes, as I wander through my own, I wonder about other people's lives. There are so many interesting stories out there lurking beneath the surface from the checker at Wal-Mart to the pizza dude. Everyone has their own lives with their passions and lives behind the facade that the rest of us every day.

The other day I was driving somewhere and I happened to see the driver of a car I was passing by while turning. The driver was a young woman, probably younger than me, and she was crying and sobbing. Clearly she was very upset and just as clearly I had just glimpsed a flash of one of her private moments.

Why was she crying? Was there a death in her family? Was her pet injured? Did she just break up with her partner? Perhaps she was just fired from her job or found out that she won't be getting financial aid for the next academic year.

Whatever the real reason, I will never know what it is. All I can do is imagine and be grateful and humbled to get that peek into another's life (which isn't the only time that such a peek has occurred recently, but that's another story - one just for me). I hope that whoever and whereever this anonymous young woman is, she's doing ok.

It's Working!

Today I hit the 'Down by 10 Pounds' mark. I'm at 1/4 of my goal weight, which is a lot in just 2 months. I think I look more than 10 pounds better because of the exercise, too. Yay for me!

Now for a note for those (I hear it constantly) who tell me that I don't look overweight or that don't think I should be going on a diet or whatever.

No, I probably don't look overweight to most, but according to my Body Mass Index, I am. Yes I'm confident in myself, I'd just like to be more healthy and in shape and, I cannot deny it, look better. I have another 10 pounds to go before I'm officially no longer overweight, then we'll see. You also have to consider the fact that men aren't scrutinized for being overweight in the same way women are, so I can be 10 pounds overweight and have it not as noticable as if I were a woman.

The best part of this is that I'm getting to the point that I'm feeling icky if I don't exercise. Not guilty or anything, but my body is starting to expect me to use it for more than typing so sit kind of tells me when I need to get out. That's nice, and I hope that to continue or increase when I start school and regain my access to the gym (8/19). For now I've been trying to walk every day.

On another note, recently I ordered these training devices. Let me tell you, they work great, at least for my cats. When they go off, it really scares the bejeezes out of them. It's even better when you get several in this chain-reaction sort of thing. Brilliant!

Another Response

I received via email today another response to my emails supporting equal marriage rights. This one is at least a little bit better. It identifies my position, for one thing:

Good morning Mackenzie . . .

and thank you for sharing your views
regarding Senate Joint Resolution (S.J. Res.)
40, the Marriage Amendment. It is good to
hear from folks like you on this important
issue.

As you know, the Massachusetts Supreme Court
decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public
Health, and mayors in California, Oregon,
Utah, and New York have fueled a national
debate on whether or not the Defense of
Marriage Act will sustain the will of
individual states. As a result, the Senate
recently attempted to consider a number of
different proposals to preserve traditional
marriage, including considering an amendment
to the Constitution which would legally
define marriage as a union between a man and
a woman in addition to a statutory language
proposal. Regrettably, the United States
Senate voted against having an honest and
open debate on how we best go about
protecting the traditional institution of
marriage. I voted in favor of the motion to
proceed to debate. This is an important
issue that deserves to be considered by the
Senate.

While I certainly understand your opposition
to the Marriage Amendment, I support
traditional marriage and my position has
always been that marriage is between a man
and a woman. A constitutional amendment may
be the only way to protect the historical
definition of marriage and I am disappointed
that the Senate passed on the opportunity to
openly debate the issue. Be assured, I will
continue to keep your views in mind should
this issue be addressed by the full Senate.

Thanks again for taking the time to contact
me. I appreciate knowing your views on this
issue.

Best Regards,

Craig Thomas
United States Senator

Here's what my response will be:

Dear Senator Thomas:

Thank you for responding to my email sent 7/12/04. I understand that you and your staff is very busy and it was clear from your response that someone took the time to read over my feedback and determine which side I was presenting.

I must respectfully disagree, however, with the reasoning behind your position and would like to submit a challenge to address it. The primary argument seems to be that marriage always has been between a man and a woman and that is the reason that it should always be so. I have issue with this argument for two reasons to which nobody has provided a satisfactory response yet:

1) There are 1,138 rights that married couples enjoy that same-sex couples would be barred from for no other reason than their sexual orientation. I would like to know how anyone can justify this level of discrimination against a group of citizens. This would clearly be unacceptible if African-Americans or Latinos were not allowed to marry.

2) There have been many things in our history that have changed after previously having 'always been' a certain way. Segregation is the most notable case that comes to mind. Using standard logic practices, I simply can't understand how something that has always been done a certain way cannot change. Change is painful at times, yes, but it is an essential element of progress. Without changing things that have always been a certain way, there would still be slaves, our country would be ruled by the church and free speech would be simply an ideal. I argue that nothing changes for the better if we change nothing at all.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to receiving a response, if one should be forthcoming.

Mr. Mackenzie Williams
Yada yada yada.

We'll see if we get a reply to that one, shall we?

Registered!

Today in the mail I received my PIN and registration information. Students at UW can register online and I'm no exception, so I did so as soon as I got back to my office. It's a nice feeling to know that you've successfully jumped through all these hoops. It may be just my own cynicism, but I keep expecting something to pop up that says that I didn't actually finish all my requirements, that there's some kind of problem. I know that's unlikely as I have been pretty careful, but one never knows.

On another plus side, I finally know which legal research/writing section I will be in (there are 4 sections; all other classes are together: approximately 84 students). I'm glad. I've mentioned before my near-obsessive need to schedule things in advance, so it's good for me to know unequivically what my new schedule will look like.

Even better, it's the section I wanted. The section is the one being taught by Professor Bridgeman, who coincidentally is a board member at the non-profit at which I work. It's nice when things work out. Incidentally, for those curious, I was able to opt out of the student health insurance package when I registered online. I probably still have to do a written waiver, but who knows.

Perhaps tonight I'll have an opportunity to share my little cell phone story, though I might be in too good a mood (not only did I register for classes online, but I got an insurance reimbursement check in the same batch of mail as my registration PIN number! Score!) to ruin it thinking about a negative experience.

Good Day

I have two weeks left of work. Nine days, if you're really counting. Yesterday I was waxing nostalgic a little bit because of how busy I was. I was working with clients pretty much all day. I had about three or four, most on the phone. Most were also first time callers with whom I spoke for an average of around an hour, not to mention the hour and a half that I spent facilitating support group.

My point is this: I'm really going to miss this part of my job. I'm going to miss telling clients that they are doing ok, that they are strong people, that they can make it even though it's not going to be easy. I miss showing them that they're not alone and that there's a whole agency out there with the express purpose of helping them out. And I'm going to miss that rush of feeling like I really helped someone, like they are happier, more sure of themselves and more capable.

That's how I felt yesterday. I did some good yesterday, and it's one of the few times that I have come away from work with a genuine feelint that it's the case.

Your Friendly Guest Blogger

Thank you for the warm welcome, Mackenzie. Glad to see your site is back up!

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Mackenzie's friend, Stella. I live in the Baltimore/DC metro area now after spending most of my life in Wyoming. To be quite honest, though, I really live mostly in my car. No, I'm not homeless or apartmentless. I have to drive all over the place, all the time. My car and I have a close personal relationship.

I just got back from a wedding. Which is normally a good thing -- to put on clothes you wouldn't normally put on, listen to a member of the clergy talk about the sacredness of things, watch two people play with jewelry, and then dance with a whole bunch of strangers who are trying to pretend as if they know each other. But let me tell you, this particular wedding happened to be on my birthday. Anyone who knows me will tell you, I have horrible birthdays. This year's wasn't the worst, and in comparison was actually quite mild, but it was still my birthday. Okay, so I didn't accidently flop face-first into the cake or make out with someone who turned out to be my cousin.

Really, the only bad part was the traffic. Being a Wyomingite at heart, I just don't get it. Where are all these people going, and why do they have to be so slow trying to get there? My two hour trip yesterday took three and a half hours because people kept slowing down to look at various spots on the road. I think that they must have fallen in love with the roadside vegetation, either that or their completely unnecessary SUVs ran out of gas ten minutes after they filled up the tank and they had to call AAA on their cells to get more.

On another note... While I was working the other day, I kept seeing at the bottom of my screen "How to Obtain a Nation" as the title of one of my active windows. I was intrigued, but too busy to click on it to see how one would go about obtaining a nation so I thought about it a bit and wondered who the author could be. I figured it would have to be someone like G.W. who's solution would be to make up excuses and attack it. Then I thought that maybe it would be something that Ted Turner would be experimenting in, after all, if he owned a nation he could make sure that the only channels they got were Turner Networks. I started thinking of Napoleon and Hitler and Amerigo Vespucci. Then I started wondering which nation I would try to obtain if I could follow the "How to" guide. But when I finally had a moment to click on the window, the full title was, "How to Obtain a National Parks Pass." The disappointment was terrible. I cried for hours and hours, there was a great weeping and gnashing of teeth. Okay, really I just frowned a bit and went on with my life.

Back from the Green Land

...which is, of course, a reference to Colorado.

We got back from our little 2-day trip late last night and I was really tired from driving for approximately 5.5 hours total that day, so I ended up not blogging about the trip, but we had a lot of fun, despite a few (travel-related) hitches.

We got out a little early on Friday, which was good. I was using Mapquest directions to find the venue of the Rasputina show. There was a little hitch in the directions whereby they told me to turn when I really didn't need to. Thus was I diverted from the state highway I was on and sent on a fool's errand. I did manage to find the highway soon enough and was back on track.

We arrived slightly early, so therefore had enough time to walk around some kind of part of boulder that had shops and restaurants and things. We stopped and had a drink at a local establishment. Interestingly enough, we spotted Jonathan (Drummer, center in this photo) walking around the area before the concert. He's sporting a mountain-man style beard at the moment (I think he looks better without it). We also saw Zoe (left in this photo) having a beverage in the local coffeeshop. For future reference, besides being talented, she's also the cutest of the three. Delightful smile.

Anyway, when we were waiting in the theatre bar area for them to open the stage doors, Melora entered and was looking around for something. My GF kindly directed her to the bathroom, thinking that was what she was looking for (she's not quite as familiar with the band as I and didn't recognize her on sight). As it turns out, Melora must have been trying to find something else as she said no and took off, probably trying to get out of there before people started recognizing her and clamoring for autographs.

The show started off with openers Hazard County Girls. HCG is a rock band from New Orleans (I know, someone from New Orleans who is not Funk?). My candid opinion? They have some talent, but most of their songs seem to be stuck on some kind of 2-chord model. The vocals were too low, as well. They did seem really nice when we talked to them after the show and I think they could possibly develop into something a bit better, but as it stands now, I won't go out of my way to see them. I will keep an eye on them, however.

Rasputina was a great show. They had a nice mix of their materials and they had some good energy. I absolutely loved it and had a great time. After the show we had a bite to eat at a local chicken wing establishment (about all we could get into, GF forgot to bring her ID and while we're the same age, she looks around 10 years younger) and it was really good, as well. (Update: It occurs to me to tell a little more about the concert. We were unbelievably close. There was one layer of people on the stage (about waist-level) and we were directly behind them, so basically second row. I know the performers could see us. I made eye contact with Zoe a couple times. She smiled. Really, we were no more than three feet from the closest band member.)

So then it became time to go to the campground where we were planning on staying. It was about 30 miles south of Boulder on a twisty mountain state highway (I didn't know about the twisty part at the time). The big trouble was that apparently in Colorado, they don't put regular signs up indicating which highway you're on. I found the marker in Boulder and started driving. Without signs, you pretty much have to take it on faith that you're on the right road (and it's not so easy to change, either. Unlike a lot of places in the east, out here there might be now intersecting roads, and a lot of areas of deserted space). As it turns out, I was on the right road, which was nice. We camped out that night and went the the Renfest in Larkspur, south of Denver.

More travel problems. It was great from the campsite to Denver, but for some reason, the area between Denver and Castle Rock (not quite to Larkspur) is always glutted with traffic. This is moderately unusual for places out west. I imagine there are a lot of people who commute from Castle Rock. Anyway, we eventually made it through. The first thing we wanted to get to? The Ded Bob Sho! I love it. We checked out a few merchants and ate a few things (only a few, mind you, I'm on a diet!)

We stayed until the fair closed at 6:30 and then took off. As we were going right through, we decided to take the E-470 tollway. Let me tell you, that's luxury. Maybe a total of 15 cars for the entire 42-mile, 70MPH stretch of goodness. Mmmm.

So, now we're back. Next time I blog: the exciting story of how I came to have a new cellphone. I know, I know, but that's all I got. And it's really not a bad story.

Incidentally, I'll be posting a few photos, both fun and nice, in a little bit.

In the meantime, here's Ded Bob with the GF:


Sunset on the way back:


And a little shot from a hike we took in the local mountains: