Glory to the King

I was just thinking to myself, self, I wonder if Ace can read comments posted on his blog, what with the great firewall and all. It is 333 am, I just walked home from the law school and it was very pretty. I am screwed re:classes. I don't think my paper is going to get published. I think new zealand is a common law system. that's different from america. or else it's different from asia. I was also thinking about memories. I have lots of them. Ken is in asia. I was thinking I miss getting drunk on new years. I was also thinking I miss axis and allies. And Boto breakfasts

I leave you with this ancient hindu proverb:

Old man here...
sitting on a log...
wasting our time

food hangover

so last night i ate so much that i still feel nausceous this morning (i'm nausceous ... i'm nausceous - is that from the turtle in rocko's modern life?) i decided that one monsterous quesedilla was unecessary and that i would need to make two - meaning that i consumed the ingredients: 3 eggs, 3 strips of bacon, half a red onion, 3 green onions, some olives, half a can of refried beans, and monsterous amounts of shredded cheese. typing this now is bringing back scaring but delicious memories.

further more i will be in DC for the last thursday and friday to attend the equal justice works career fair - as the first step in my plan to live my life under stupifying amounts of debt begins! yay low paying public interest jobs! Anyway - tom if it is at all possible i would really like to crash at your place in DC that friday night - the 28th. perhaps i can get my parents to take us out to dinner to make up for it? that is of course unless your wild partying precludes such a possibility - i know how you like to "get down."

musically: i've been listening to the unicorns alot - i think they are pretty cool. deerhoof came to raleigh but i couldn't watch them because i was sick. architecture in helsinki is also pretty damn good. and i have yet to make up my mind on animal collective and of montreal. i am pretty sure that "clap your hands say yeah" is awesome. Lastly it seems that the new sigur ros album is a distinct improvement over (). only like a month and a half until feast for crows. winter is coming.

Highly Recommended

"Dub Side of the Moon" the album, in particular, the track "Money" by Gara "Nesta" Pine and Dollarman. It's a dub of the Dark Side of the Moon by a bunch of Reggae Bands.

Replacing the sound of the cash registers with the sound of a bong and someone coughing is particularly creative.

Given my taste in music, it's pretty remarkable that I continue to steadfastly refuse to use that particular illicit substance.

Mass Replication Technique? Killer Pigs on the Loose?

In the great tradition of web comics:

If this is too small to read, check out: http://cheston.com/pbf/archive.html "man with no penis"

Coincidentally, I had a dream with Erem in it the other day. We were at the docks examining various crates when we happened upon one full of Coronas. Needless to say, Erem could not resist and pilfered one. One of the dock cops saw, and went after Erem who proceeded to escape at full speed while knocking crates and trash bins to delay the authorities. I, however, was not as bright; one of the more desperate cops started to chase me -- a fat man who was afraid of losing his job over the stolen beer. This quickly turned into a cartoon chase scene, with us running full speed down a sidewalk in the suburbs. Eventually, I think we ended up driving cars. And, clearly, the dream ended up on some desert island where a scientist is prying up something from the ocean. Oh ho -- it is an enormous refrigerator full of beer and liquor! I love when I remember my dreams.

It's before 7 in the morning here. Why am I up again?

My Family

Right, my sister Emily had her second baby the other day -- Zoe Sparks Hiller. She's cute as a button. I'm not really sure about the origins of that phrase, but admittedly buttons are pretty cute I suppose.

I really like my nephew, Charlie (almost three years old), as well. He enjoys coming over to my parent's house and stealing my mother's wedding ring and hiding it. Other than that, he behaves well. He's also a lot smarter than I was at his age, or even three times his age -- in fact I'm pretty sure he's smarter than I am now. As an example, at the age of two, he can correctly point out the make of each parked car we pass as we walk down the street.

According to him, a large tribe of pigs lives out in my parent's lawn. Whenever he talks about the "pigs," he gets very solemn and I can almost hear the horror movie soundtrack in the background. He seems fearless in all things, but these pigs -- that apparently only he can see, or knows about -- are a quiet source of primitive fear.

Kayne West

Ace put up a link to this on his blog. He also provides some excellent analysis. If you haven't seen it, well you should. It is a powerful piece.

Please enjoy:

http://media.putfile.com/Kanye79

It's Pandora's Box, bitches.

Well, I flew to Atlanta to be with Kiki Monroe for two weeks. I wanted to demonstrate the fact that she is 4'11'' and I am 6'4''. So here she is standing on a couch. Now I am in New Zealand again. I have a week to write a 50 page draft about the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol. I am discouraged that I have inherent dissagreements with my father about the dangers of GE crops, yet he is knowledgeable and I am not. It gives me a strong feeling of being wrong. My father says we turned wolves into dogs over a period of 5000 years (read: extreme genetic pressure) and yielded unstable creatures a la dalmation where 1 in 4 is near-deaf. Whereas with GE we are more scientific, just changing one gene. Hey! Magic! But I say with the wolves to dogs we were evolving an entire organism, and so many genes changed with time allowing, if you will, checks and balances, such that the organism still functioned well as a whole. And still there are problems. W/ a GE crop, you add a new gene, but don't change the framework around it, so even if you think you know what the gene does, you cannot have a complete idea of what will happen when the organism as a whole is exposed to different environments. DNA->RNA->Protein just isn't the whole story anymore. Try to grow the same GE plant in a new soil in a place with 10degree higher average temperature and more rainfall and the whole expression profile changes, and those changes may affect or be affected by your new gene, and man, that aint accurate at all. But maybe I have let my logic become marred by strange fear-mongerers, and I've become... you know... a big fat white guy who's afraid of change. Still, it's very neat to see how opinion is devided by field of study. Microbiologists like my father tend to say there is no risk at all, we're gonna feed the world! It's like their dream come true, the teacher has finally called on them and they are gonna give her the best answer ever. Ecologists all say "danger!"... "high voltage!" ...Anyway, I like the Biosafety Protocol. It's all about letting the state decide what level of risk or potential risk it is willing to accept. Unlike GATT which considers GE crops "equivalent" to non-GE crops and so fines the EU up the wazoo for continuing to dissallow their import.

naruto on cartoon network

just a quick note on the dub on cartoon network. They have changed most of the technique names to english. so no kage bunshin no jutsu. now naruto says mass replication technique. or mass replication jutsu. occasionally they say jutsu. they edited out the blood - and the bloody noses. Konoha is now called the hidden village of the leaf. at least the hokage is still hokage. haven't gotten to meet sakura or sasuke or kakashi yet. Luckily i have like a year to prepare for what they will do to rock. there is no way they will understand that he is the real star of the show - and i am certain they will just make him completely ridiculous. indeed. oh yeah and the ravens blow and our quaterback has already gotten injured! GRAND!

Overview of people places and fishes

I figure the last time you saw what was going on in my life (read: stomach) it was a rack of ribs. I figured I'd hold a pictorial here. First, the people who I spent most of my time with over the summer. (Top) The black guy in the front is Kevin, who made those ribs in the picture earlier. The guy in the back is Eric, who I caught fish and ate them with last weekend. But that story later.

(Second) The lady is Jas, who I sexually harass in my off time (lunch breaks...tea time...second breakfast). She's cool welllll...she's nice welllll...she's nubile (throwback to Mr. Rog).

(Third) Next is my house, where I like to take her body after knocking her out with chloroform at the end of a city alley. Which reminds me that you guys have to see the family guy episode where quagmire tries to date rape a girl on reality television. Laughs all around.

(Fourth) Anyways lets get to the point: here are dead fish.

I'll post more on the fish later. But until then... (Fifth)

yup so this is my life

it is friday at 11:45. i am reading supreme court cases about the 11th amendment (citizens of one state cannot sue another state in federal court) needless to say the justices decided to get into a big fight about what this really means - all well and good. but the saddest part is the highlight of my friday night was finding a passage in the dissent where one of the justices quotes a justice in the majority (souter quoting the late rehnquist) basically like a DAMN! he told him. it was great. i will now disembowel myself.

Hey Ken

Hey Ken do you have work yet? What're you doing in Japan?
_PLEASE_ tell me that you just go fishing for a living =)

Conquering Japan, one fish at a time...

To respond to E, I too have been facebooked by (isn't-that-right-)Mary. I accepted her request -- something that I don't normally do unless I actually consider the person connected to me in some way--but it was bizarre. She's not even friends with my sister anymore. Perhaps she's seeking revenge against her middle school tormentors. In which case...Erem...and anyone else who has received a facebook invite -- be wary.

Secondly, to respond to Tom, I too have been having fairly vivid dreams, resulting perhaps from the heat, my refusal to turn on the air conditioning, and sleeping on the floor. I dreamt I contracted a sentient computer virus that had become so advanced that it could send physical packages to my friends that looked like they were from me. In these packages were various everyday items that appeared to be gifts, but were actually designed to transmit the virus to people's computers or brains. Anyway, I ended up giving the virus to one of my friends. Suffice it to say, none of you guys got it. Thank the stars. And know that if apocalypse (either natural/human-made disaster or Apocalypse proper from X-men) ever does arrive, I expect to form some variety of fortified base or at least a pillaging horde with you guys. We will rule the wasteland.

And now, without further delay:


The remains of my slain foe. I consumed him, viscera and all. And this is by no means my last victim while I am here.

I don't mean to take away from the gravity of tom's post but I thought I would bring something to our collective attention.

Mary Shawen just requested an add to my facebook. In case you don't remember, this is Mary of
"Isn't that right, Mary?" fame (think Kiyot's sister's middle-school friend)

I always thought it was afraid of us, but I guess not. Is anyone else experiencing this?
-Erem

Google Earth

I'm sure this is old hat for most of you, but as I have not had access to a Windows PC for long this is new to me: Google Earth.

It's amazing. Playing with this thing is possibly equivalent to a meditative exercise taught in certain secluded Budhist monasteries.

I have been having extremely vivid dreams -- remembered possibly because I've been waking up very early. The phenomenon of a major city being submerged under water, and my slack-jawed focus on the resulting media storm, has mixed together in an odd way with the other submerged debris of my subconscious. Visions of the streets of Baltimore, my house, Gilman school, and the other places of my short life being flooded and destroyed haunt me. The dreams are grim struggles of survival, apocalyptic fantasies where emotions run closer to the surface than they seem to in real life. I wish I could remember them better to titilate you with ridiculous stories of beret-clad Tom defending himself from alligators and constructing a raft out of empty cambell's soup cans, but alas. I'm pretty sure 90% of the exciting parts of my life have taken place (and been forgotten) when I was asleep.

a review of some of my most shameful moments so far...

so the first day of orientation - i meet this kid who went to brown and graduated in 03. nice kid. worked in the peace corps. he had some sort of leadership position which brown had left him completely unprepared to deal with. the very idea of attempting to get someone else to do what you want them to do and no what they might want to do themselves is just unthinkable. anyway i've seen him like once since then. However, there is a guy named Sean who looks remarkably like the brown kid. First day I see him I'm like hey brown kid. and he's like no you've confused me with someone else I'm sean. Embarassment no 1. So sean's a pretty nice guy unfortunately i still get confused as to which one is Sean and which one is the kid from Brown (mike perhaps his name is) I then proceed to have a conversation with Sean thinking he is the brown kid and explaining to him that there's someone who looks like him who didn't go to brown. Embarassment no 2. Last Saturday I'm at a law party and I go up to this kid AGAIN thinking he's the brown kid and again make an ass of myself. IT is to the point where i am trying to avoid either one of them to hide from my shame. Also lump crabmeat is really hard to find here and it costs 30$ a pound. ken - please tell us some horror stories about how much food costs in japan. Can you get peanut butter there? I hear it's considered like a special fancy imported food in europe... and hayward those were some awesome boobies.

You just don't mess with a man's fish heads...

Welcome to my dinner. It may not be a half a pig, but it is a small fish. I brought it to my landlady to ask how to cook it, and she took it from me and insisted that she de-scale it and cut it up for me. She took the thing and started sliding her knife down it's body -- scales were flying everywhere. Then she put it in a marinade for me and sent me off with one of her pots. And this was the result. I haven't attacked the head yet (saving it for tomorrow), but you are apparently supposed to eat everything -- eyes and brain and all. Today I consumed part of the fish's body and its internal organs. Tomorrow's breakfast: fish head.