Still accepting valiant praise

I don't know why I do this, but whenever I'm reading adult blogs-- as in, like, blogs written by those who get paid in part or whole for their writing and are generally rather talented people I admire quite a lot-- I scan their blogroll, as if one day I will miraculously appear as some beacon of hope for other young writers out there. Or something.

It's a fantasy of mine that reminds me of when I was twelve and secretly hoped that Rider Strong would quit "Boy Meets World" and move back to Sonoma County because he was completely in love with me. Okay, so the chances were a little better than average since I used to jump on his trampoline when I was three, but still.

Yeah, this is just like that, except for the in love part.

In other news, the Prog Blog's contest period has ended, which means I'll either start recycling favorites here, or stop bugging all three of you about reading it, or both.

Yaman emailed me his objections and approval to my Alter Ego's post about his case, for which I am grateful because at least it was worth reading for someone. I have a feeling that my minute and his 15 minutes of fame on the issue are rapidly coming to a close, but at least we're moving on.

SLAPP in the face

I've written a rather lengthy piece on the Kaplan/Salahi debacle over at the prog blog (Alter Ego link on right). Read if you wish. If you know the breakdown of events, the first and last couple paragraphs are really the only interesting parts; middle is just outline of events.

I'll publish it here after the Prog Blog contest period is over, so I can encourage as MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE to read it OVER THERE. AT THE PROG BLOG. WHERE I GET MONEY FOR MORE PEOPLE WHO READ (or fewer people who read often).

Hint, hint.

It shouldn't be this hot before noon.

It's got to be at least 85 outside already, and it's barely 10AM.

In other news, I've been approved to go to the Netherlands next spring, which is very exciting for my roommate who had feared he would have to jump off a cliff if I, in fact, were sharing a room with him for the whole year.

Oops, I did it again

I forgot to announce Isabel's birthday.

Happy birthday, Isabel!

At least I remembered to wish her well on Facebook.

Give me money, or just read my blogs

Reminder:

For those of you interested in me being able to afford college by winning a scholarship, the contest period for my Alter Ego blog ends in four days!

You can help by reading that blog, found in the Procrastination Station. That link takes you to my user page, which has my most recent blog entries. Don't worry, I'll be posting more soon, hopefully tonight.

I get "points" for how many people read it, so feel free to skim around and return to the ones that interest you, or even join and comment (don't worry, they haven't spammed me yet). Topics are usually current events, and I encourage you all to explore the site as thoroughly as pleases you. If you hit the "track" button on my user profile, it shows what other blogs I've participated in recently. Every once in a while, one of my posts ends up in the highest rated posts column, which is a convenient way to see what topics or posts are most popular to other users who rated them.

Once the contest is over, I imagine I'll merge that blog with this one, so I'm not stretching myself too thin or writing the same things twice.

But enough about me. Happy reading, and thanks!

This coffee mug

So I have this coffee mug I bought at Honk's $1.05 (this is the name of the store. I kid you not. Everything is $1.05), and beneath the condensation collecting in front of the cheap plastic insulator is the phrase, written on an equally cheap camoflauge paper background in block letters of varying degrees of bold, "Work is for people who don't know how to hunt."

And how true that is, this coffee mug.

Because if I were to hunt, I would probably accidentally hunt myself.

At least I probably offend everyone equally

I've been doing some research on the Yaman Salahi/Lee Kaplan thing, because, apparently, glossing over it simply wasn't enough.

An anonymous commenter posted on "First Amendment, blah blah" with two links to show me just how awful Yaman Salahi really is. Unfortunately, presenting me with Lee Kaplan's websites defending himself doesn't gain Kaplan or his anonymous defender any sympathy from me, especially since many points conflict with what I've already read. Not that I'm picking sides, but there are clearly gray areas which cannot be resolved by either Kaplan's or Salahi's websites.

So I spent half an hour downloading at least a hundred images of documents from the Alameda County Courthouse. Skimming the terrible images (thanks, Alameda County!) doesn't entirely explain to me why judgment favored Lee Kaplan twice-- once in default, which I understand, and once during the appeal, which is the source of the hundreds of poorly-scanned documents I am planning to edit for legibility sometime this week.

Look for updates, but for now, the commentary by each party on these documents is at least on par with Student Action's magic chalk. Though Kaplan's commentary is equally unprofessional, Salahi's sarcasm has made my day:

From Yaman Salahi's Attachment B, page 1 of 2, refuting claims from stoptheism.com:

-In response to "Salahi has not condemed the so-called Iraqi resistance for mutilating and beheading US soldiers in Iraq":
"Neither have I denied the existence of leprechauns," and

-In response to "[using the Internet for personal attacks] is a less violent form of terrorism to silence exposure of the ISM":
"Mr. Kaplan would consider it terrorism if I farted in his presence."


Update:
Missed one, one page after the aforementioned quotes:

"Mr. Kaplan engages in so many logical fallacies, not to mention his distortion of the truth, that I cannot mark every detail here without developing migraine headaches."