I love Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone!

I really do love this holiday, it's probably my favorite after Christmas and only really because Christmas means seeing family I don't get to see very much. Why do I love Halloween so much? I love Halloween because I love the lifting of all concern and inhibition for one day and night.

Kids can only take candies from strangers on Halloween. In fact, strangers that DON'T give children candies can be expected to be harassed later that evening. Schools get egged and the next morning those in charge say "freaking Halloween...oh well." I don't attempt to say that it's a total free pass to any and all behaviors, but one cannot deny that things that occur on Halloween night get far less scrutiny than any other night. People are even encouraged to watch movies designed to make them nervous, disgusted and uncomfortable all for the cathartic release of knowing that it's "just a movie"...but I'll be damned if a lot of them don't take any extra look over their shoulder or in the back of their car on the way home. Anything that takes us that far out of our social norms and lets us explore the hidden parts our tendencies, desires, and psyche, even for a day, just makes me happy.

And to me, the costume is one of the best parts. Halloween means anybody gets to be anyone. Dorks can dress up as their role playing characters. Good girls get to dress as sexy as they like and the only thing anyone says is, "oh it's Halloween." You can be a princess, or a hero, or a bad guy, or dead, or anything else anyone can imagine. There is something very cathartic about knowing that, no matter what else occurs the rest of the year, on Halloween I can to put on anything I want and (assuming I'm not actually breaking any laws :P)be what I want answering to nobody who I don't want to. How freaking cool is that?? [note: i know the best philosophy is to never feel like anyone must be answered to, but think practically here; how often is 100% true other than Halloween? Wear this suit, use that uniform, etc. etc.]

This year myself and several friends will be experiencing the West Hollywood festivities. I've never been, but have been told it is quite an event and is something worth seeing at least once.

Oh, and what will I be this year? Well I'm going to be a chubby little boy in droopy overalls who loves a certain burger stand's food. And, lucky me, I've found a young girl with a favorite uncle who runs a burger stand. But it's odd, all of their burgers are square. Regardless, it's a match made in ground beef and bun heaven.





Happy Halloween everyone! Do something totally out of character today. It may be your last chance for the next year. :D

I love the internet

http://www.wholesaleclothingblog.com/slquiz/quiz/vfight1.php

I really do love it.

How I'm voting

How I’m voting

One week before the elections, I thought I’d write out what I’ll be voting this election and why. Now I realize that some may have already voted and I don’t really expect to influence anyone, but I enjoy writing out reasons behind decisions. Call it the burgeoning lawyer in me. So here we go.

Prop 1A: High Speed Rail Bond

Voting: Yes

Why?: I was actually pretty torn on this one for a good long while. What ultimately swayed me to a yes vote was the timeline. I was concerned about a 9 billion dollar cost in today’s economy. However, spreading out bond payments in 30 years softens that effect. It’s time American joins the high speed rail party as alternatives to costly and notably un-green effects of air travel. Now I’m happy to vote yes.

Prop 2: Farm Animal Treatment

Voting: No

Why?: Here is one where I’ll probably be at odds with many of my leftist brethren. Probably the only one for that matter. Here is my take on it: I love animals, really, I swear, I do support animal rights. I greatly enjoy my meat products, but it would make me happy to know that they were raised and treated in humane ways. The problem: I love people more. I’m not expert and I can’t fully determine the full economic impact of the prop, but logic only dictates that this will increase the costs of producing eggs and other farm animal products. It will be fewer animals in the amount of space they have or having to purchase and upkeep more space. That space may have to be taken from other animal pens, maybe even crops on a small family farm. Without knowing the economic implications for absolute certain, I can’t give my support to a measure that might raise the cost of eggs even a penny for a family barely making ends meet as it is. When the economy is stable, food prices are rising so quickly on their own, and the poverty levels have shrunk, I would be happy to move on to animal issues. For now, though, I can’t back anything that will make impoverished life even harder than it already is.

Prop 3: Children’s hospitals

Voting: No

Why?: This one sure sounds great. I’d love to give sick kids more money. But, I’m trusting an old friend on this one who is heavily into many aspects of politics. Apparently, the dirty details of the prop only give 20% of the cash to the public hospitals. The rest go to rich private institutions. If it all went to the uncared for public places great, but as it stands, I don’t like it.

Prop 4: Parental notification

Voting: No

Why?: How many fucking times can they put this on the ballot? By no means should anyone tell a woman that they’re required to have parental notification for their own medical care. That’s right, medical care. Imagine a teenager couldn’t go in for a test without their parents being in the loop. It’s just a ludicrous and to think it wouldn’t cause lots of problems is just blind to reality.

Prop 5: non-violent offender rehabilitation

Voting: YES

Why?: Because this is ACTUAL prison reform that I’ve been wanting since my days as a sociology student. Treatment and rehab for non-violent drug offenders, probation and treatment for offense rather jail time, shorter parole to return the person to normal life where they can actually improve rather than just leaving in jail where they learn how to be a better drug addict. Yes yes yes please. Also, it makes minor possession a ticket rather than a misdemeanor, one more step to the most logical action: decriminalization entirely. This is the kind of program I want states spending money on.

Prop 6: Safe Neighborhoods Act

Voting: NO

Why?: This is the exact OPPOSITE of what I love about prop 5. More money to prisons, trying 14 year gang members as adults, making those getting housing subsidies to submit to yearly criminal checks (because god know rich people don’t commit crimes…), and lots of other increased spending that just doesn’t work. Doesn’t now, didn’t then, won’t ever. These measures let politicians say “look I’m doing for your kids” even though long term benefits are basically nil. Bad news.

Prop 7: renewable energy

Voting: No

Why?: another that sounds great, but actually causes a lot more problems than it’s worth. If anything is so confusing, the safest vote is usually no. The fact that environmental groups and energy companies say no make me confident to say no too. If they can get along enough to oppose something it must be pretty shady stuff.

Prop 8: Elimination of same-sex marriage rights

Voting: NO

Why?: Because there is no valid opposing argument to this. Really, there isn’t. If anyone can give me one good argument for it that doesn’t involve religion (because church and state aren’t great tastes that taste great together), public schools (because anyone can take their kid out of anything by CA law), churches being sued (because the specific court exception was for churches), or the voters being “ignored” (because the Court specifically addressed it and found they were unconstitutional), then I’ll give you a cookie. The fact is, the reason anyone would vote yes for this is because they don’t like gay people getting to have access to the same civil services as the rest of us. That’s called segregation and civil unions are the definition of separate but equal. In other words, its bullshit. If logic truly ruled the world, this prop would fail 100% to 0.

Prop 9: victim’s rights and parole changes

Voting: No

Why?: We have a two part legal system, prosecution and defendant. This threatens to add a third part of the crime victim. Can anyone really say that a jury could enact a fair sentence if the victim got to stand up and plead a case as well? The room for prejudice is really staggering. As far as the parole goes, well refer to my above rant to the failure of the prison system to guess why I don’t support keeping people in it for longer.

Prop 10: CA fuel initiatives

Voting: No

Why?: Another one that sounds great but really isn’t. This one came from one dude who would be the biggest beneficiary if it passed. Let’s get a bigger involvement, far more vetted coalition to propose something this complex and comprehensive. Fuck Pickens and his plan.

Prop 11: redistricting

Voting: No

Why?: I don’t need my districts made a commission I don’t have control over. The dems have control of state government and likely will for a long time coming. I’m happy enough to leave the districting power in their hands. Sure if I was trying to be extremely unbiased it could be their proposed commission. But I don’t care enough to see this done and something about a 14 member group making big decisions like this makes me smell corruption and political favors. No sir I don’t like it.

Prop 12: Veteran’s bond act

Voting: Yes

Why?: We ask a lot of veteran’s; the least we can do is give them money to buy homes, farms and other property. Really, that is the lease we can do.

Measure R: MTA changes

Voting: Yes

Why?: we need some changes made to LA County transit and this appears to be a pretty comprehensive plan. I know opponents say some areas get shafted, but that doesn’t change that something needs to be done about getting around this city and quick. Like I said, it’s time to join the mass transit party.


People: It should be of no surprise that I’m voting for Obama and the other dems up for legislator seats. I don’t follow their careers close enough to trust voting outside the party line. Maybe one day I’ll know enough about judges to actually vote for some, but not at this point I don’t.

So there it is. My November 4th ballot. Just thought I’d put it out there.

[Edit: I'm looking at this again and finding massive numbers of typos and poor grammar. I wrote this in a quick hour break on campus this morning and by the end was racing against my failing battery. I'm now too lazy to actually make any changes. The ideas are there, I trust anyone reading can get the jist :P]

So who remembers...

Who remembers that stupid joke from...i feel like maybe the early 90s. I remember learning it from my older cousin and brother. It was an index card that said something to the effect of "how to make an idiot waste time: flip card over" and on the other side it said the exact same thing. omg get it?! Like, if you were an idiot, you'd keep flipping it, and it's a waste of your time. It's a burn that breaks the fourth wall.

Well, here is the updated version for the internet generation:

Pretty Funny

Yep. Pretty funny.






















































































































If it makes anyone feel better, it confused me for the first few moments also.

Sports

So the first thing on my mind right now (besides the fact that I should be asleep for my midterm tomorrow) is baseball. Which is odd if you've known for a very long time but haven't talked to me recently. What I mean to say is, I've never liked sports. Like, at all. I played baseball and was an affront to the skills of the game. I gave my all, don't get me wrong, but all of nothing still isn't much. I accept this with no personal disappointment. Until this point, my sports interests really ended with the USC football team and that was primarily because I went there! [At a hell of a time to be a student too. The entire Leinart-Bush era was mine.]

For some reason, starting towards the end of last year, I really started to love the Dodgers. I've been going to see them play since I was a little kid with my parents and brother. I've taken friends to their first baseball game. I've made Elena and out and out fan. And while in my heart of hearts I know that this and other sports are, at best, a distraction of other parts of life...I don't care.

There are not a lot of things I have access to in this that I can truly get entirely silly stupid about. I have the video games I play, but they're interactive and require something of me, which I love at times. Sports, however, I get to just sit back, turn off most of my critical thought process (often in overdrive thanks to law school :P) and enjoy. Sports provide real life dramas that are truly subject to any possible outcome. Unlike TV (even "reality" tv; check how many shows where someone gets voted off have small print saying that producers are often involved with the eliminations; not a true knock, but "real" it ain't), sports are entirely unscripted.

Impossible things happen in sports. USC doesn't make 4th down and long against Notre Dame in South Bend with seconds left. 20 years ago, Gibson doesn't slam a game winning long ball off a future, lights out, hall of fame closer. Moments occur that, if you really let yourself be attached to a group of players, will make you so excited that your only logical response is to scream your head off. Other than maybe a great live concert, how many things can make you do that?

Of course, the flip side is the agony of defeat. [E.g. Vince Young doesn't score a touch down in Pasadena to win a national championship.] Yes, my beloved boys in Blue lost tonight, ending a roller coaster year. But you know what, this is the inevitable otherside of the coin. It's only by letting myself be so excited for a postseason and the possibilities that come with that today I watched the final out with a level of...dejection. Nothing that will actually have a long term impact, but enough to notice. And I'm ok with that, because I wouldn't give up the elation when the team is up to avoid the disappointment when the team is down.

At the end of this season, there is nothing left to do but look ahead. Torre is big on keeping core players together, and he love his young group of up and coming Dodgers. So long as he can keep his sway with the powers that be, Martin, Kemp, Loney, Ethier, DeWitt, Broxton, Kershaw, and others should be names called out in Chavez Ravine for years to come. [And yes, I'd rather keep that group together then sell them away to hold on to one dread headed slugger. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to keep him around, but not at the expense of the young talent that can keep us strong for years after Manny likely becomes a DH.] We had a good year. And with good off season development and a good starter or two to potentially replace Penny and/or Lowe, next year looks to be even better.

In the end, I love the feeling that following team through it's highs and lows give me. That feeling of hope, of anything being possible, of being truly excited for people who are essentially strangers. I love that I can go watch a game that has no real bearing on the rest of the world, but that can belong to me. The same goes for when that game goes the wrong way. I was fan since a kid, and a big Dodger fan starting more recently. And I was a fan opening day, a fan the day they clinched the postseason, and I'm a fan today when they lost the pennant to the Phillies. I'll be wearing my Dodger hat tomorrow. I hope I won't be alone.

Every Once in a While...

I get the urge to make some sort of statement or rambling to no one in particular in a semi-public forum.

Oh hello internets, you'll do just fine.




Also, yes, the title of this blog is a play on the name of a hearsay exception that ties into the fact that I'll use to post my current thoughts on things. I have a mid term in that class tomorrow. huzzah.