| (no subject) |
[Jul. 15th, 2009|11:02 am] |
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One day late Happy Birthday to Ozma914. Sorry about the lateness, but I promise to not eat all the birthday cake to make up for it. |
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| Eureka season one episode order |
[Jul. 12th, 2009|06:01 pm] |
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I've started re-watching season 1 of Eureka on DVD. I remember that the original airing order of the episodes was not the intended order. Does anyone out there know where I can find a list of the order that was the intended sequence of episode? |
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| Warehouse 13 TV Show |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|03:17 pm] |
Warehouse 13 review
Caught the pilot episode of Warehouse 13 the other night.
The show is about a government run warehouse in South Dakota which stores strange and exotic items that can’t be stored by normal methods. Two Secret Service agents are transferred to the warehouse to act as collectors of the items after they either perform a feat really well or foul up (Arguments can be made either way). There is a quirky warehouse manager and a sinister (well somewhat) no nonsense secret agency chief. Throw in a bed & breakfast run by a woman who seems incredibly in tune with the world and you’ve got the show.
The items seem mundane at first. The pilot episode revolves around a comb from Italy. However, there is something about the items that really makes them weird. There is a little cart that zips around the warehouse, turns out it is powered from human connectivity. A football that seems to zip around the world and Houdini’s wallet makes an appearance.
The two agents (a female-male pair) are typical for this kind of show. One agent, the woman, is by the book and obsessive about details. She views the assignment as punishment despite saving the President’s life. There is a sub-plot of her and her boss trying to get her back to Washington. She seems to have some sort of major trauma connected with what was a career achievement prior to the start of the show.
The other agent, the man, acts on instincts and hunches, including what seems to be a precognition ability. At first, he thinks the assignment was punishment for what happens to him at the start of the show, but once he gets to the Warehouse he becomes almost giddy at the wonder of what he is presented with.
If you’re thinking that sounds like Mulder and Scully- you’re right. The whole shows seems to me like X-Files, only it doesn’t take itself as serious, is not as dark and there are no aliens (yet).
My thoughts, looks fun. It’s not an earth-shattering show. It’s show you can enjoy watching and not have to worry about much else. Tuesdays nights benefit from having Warehouse 13 shown on that night.
(Please note, I intentionally did not mention the decision of SciFi to change the network name to Syfi, or something like that. Makes no sense to me, but hey I'm not a network suit.) |
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| Smurfs in Court |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|11:02 pm] |
I may be one of the few lawyers in the country who was able to discuss with a straight face in a Federal Court Hearing "Smurfs". That's right those little blue cartoon characters played a role in a hearing of mine and the Judge actually referred to them when writing the order ruling in my favor.
Course, now I keep hearing the theme song to the Smurfs when I walk into Court. |
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| The Road Back |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|11:19 pm] |
Well, I think my mind is trying to tell me something. During my nap today, I was actually dreaming scenes from The Road Back.
Time to finish up part 52. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|11:04 am] |
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Just a quick post to wish everyone a Happy Fourth of July. |
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| Back to the 19th Century |
[Jun. 29th, 2009|01:47 pm] |
Cattle Rustling!
That's right, among the trials I have just been given to try in the month of August, in between the shootings, burglaries and meth cases is a honest to God Cattle rustling case.
It's been about 30 years since I last rode a horse and I don't even own a cowboy hat! |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 29th, 2009|08:53 am] |
I finished re-watching the DVD boxset of the HBO mini-series "From the Earth to the Moon" this past weekend. Very good TV show, I recommend it highly, in particular the episodes about Apollo 9 (the creation of the LEM) and 15 (about the struggles to put a geologist on the moon). Makes me melancholy to see how far backwards we've gone because of the luddite tendencies in our society.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_Earth_to_the_Moon_(TV_miniseries) |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 21st, 2009|11:03 pm] |
With everything going on in the world (Iran, meltdown of the government in the UK, economy bouncing like a dead cat) what am I pondering?
Pink Lemonade.
I don't drink caffeine. I've recently started avoiding carbonated drinks. However, I do like drinking something with a sweet taste, so lemonade it is.
Now, more often than not, when I am out eating and I order lemonade, I get the response "It's Pink Lemonade, is that alright?"
What I am trying to figure out is what is it about me that makes people think I would have a problem with pink lemonade? Do I give off the vibe of being a Lemonade Bigot?
I wonder about the oddest things. |
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| The Wire Season Two |
[Jun. 17th, 2009|11:31 pm] |
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Just finished watching the DVD set for the Wire Season Two. Allow me to say thank you to everyone out there who put me on to the Wire. I love that show. |
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| Odd feeling |
[Jun. 11th, 2009|02:26 pm] |
Odd feeling today.
At work, I'm getting ready to start a new case. It's a rather large case, the police officers originally wanted to charge over 50 people in one swoop. Not wanting the Judge to freak out seeing 50 defendants in front of the bench, for among other reasons, it was decided to divide up the cases and reduce the number of defendants to charge over the next few months, the others would be charged as time went along.
The case carries some pretty hefty penalties for the bad guys (large, and I mean very large quantities of drugs, endangerment of children and presence of military style weapons) with some of them having a minimum penalty of 360 months in prison and a maximum of life in prison (and this Judge really means life when he says life).
So, I had a meeting with my officers today to go down the list and decide who to charge this month. We're sitting there adding and taking names off the list. Some would stay on the list no matter what, some we don't want to add to this list because we want to save them until later. Others we decide to prosecute in another manner, which considerably diminishes the jail time, if any, they would face.
It struck me that for several people, this would be the most important meeting in their life and they didn't even know it was happening. The decisions we were making would literally impact them for the rest of their lives.
A very humbling thought and I'm not sure I want this responsibility. |
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| The Winning of the West |
[Jun. 6th, 2009|11:24 pm] |
I finished volume 2 of Theodore Roosevelt's "The Winning of the West" earlier today. That volume takes the history up through the end of the American War of Independence and mostly covers the settling of Kentucky, Tennessee and Clark's campaign in the Northwest. It also covers the battle of Kings Mountain which has always been of particular interest to me.
http://www.amazon.com/Winning-West-Alleghanies-Mississippi-1777-1783/dp/0803289553/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244319799&sr=8-4
It is a good read, although it was a bit jarring at times in that TR's 1880s attitudes were different from the attitudes of someone from the early 21st century reading the book. For instance, there was the part where TR talks about the French not being suited to liberty as Americans understand it. |
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| A Roman Candle |
[May. 31st, 2009|10:44 pm] |
Well, I got myself into a shouting match with a defendant's family last Friday and I don't regret making them angry one bit.
Allow me to explain.
Kentucky has a crime called "Failure of sexual offender to comply with registration" (Well that's not the official title, but it'll do for our purposes).
What it means if you are convicted of various crimes of a sexual nature you are required to register your address with the State Police and notify them of any change of address. This is then placed in a public record and you can check online to see if anyone required to register lives near you. You stay on the list for twenty years or life.
I must admit, I am somewhat ambivalent on this law at times. Sometimes, you find yourself dealing someone on the registration list for doing something silly when they were much younger. For example, back in April I was prosecuting a fellow who was on the list because he was convicted for indecent exposure back in 1979. The officer who brought me the case and I spent several days trying to figure out if we were prosecuting a guy because he went streaking in college or if had been a more serious charge amended down. We could never find out, you can't imagine how hard it is to try and run down thirty year old court records from California.
Then we have the case on Friday which I felt no ambivalence at all. The Defendant in the case had moved here from Texas where been convicted of two counts of sexual assault on a child victim, age 5, and indecent acts with a child. He had served a fifteen year prison sentence. He registered with the State Police and promptly started staying at another address. That other address was in the trailer park where his girlfriend (now wife) lived, with her three children, all under the age of nine.
The first thing I saw in the file when I was given it in preparation for Court was the letters. Letters from the defendant's family and his girl friend. In the letters, well they diminished/played down everything that had happened in Texas. Said he didn't do it and if he did it wasn't a big deal. He was being picked on. Just because he raped a child and didn't appear to be repentant about it, that was no reason to pick on him. We just didn't understand how hard it was on the defendant.
Just rubbed me the wrong way.
Then during Court I stepped out into the hallway for a moment. The defendant's family, led by the defendant's wife, had cornered my boss. They were tearing into him about picking on poor so and so.
I had my fill of them.
According to my boss, I went off like a roman candle. Told them in no uncertain terms what I thought of anyone who did the things the defendant was convicted of in Texas, What I thought of a mother who placed her children in such a situation and what I thought of people who made excuses for people like that. That the plea offer was set in stone, anything else would have to be done by a jury, because I was done putting up with lip on this case. I even managed to do that without cursing.
About a minute later they were fleeing down the hallway. The rest of the day, they were sitting in the Courtroom, glaring daggers at me. They were upset.
I didn't care and I still don't. |
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| The Public Library comes through |
[May. 26th, 2009|11:26 pm] |
Got a call this past weekend, library said they had a DVD in that I had requested. Went in to pick whatever it was up and discovered that it was "The Wire" Season 2. I had requested it last year, but the info I got was that the Library' copy had been lost. Turns out that they ordered a new copy because my request had been outstanding for a certain period of time. I have to say, the length of time it took aside, I was impressed by the reaction to my request.
I am just finished watching the second episode. Looking forward to the next. |
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| Memorial Day |
[May. 25th, 2009|08:16 am] |
On Memorial Day here in the States, let me quote Robert Heinlein-
"The Noblest Fate man can endure is to place his own mortal body between his loved home and the war's desolation."
Remember Memorial Day and those who made it possible. |
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| The Road Back, Part 51a |
[May. 23rd, 2009|07:22 pm] |
( Part 51a )
It's been awhile since I posted on the Road Back, sorry about that. Hopefully part 52 will not take as long. |
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| Attempted posting of the Road Back. |
[May. 23rd, 2009|06:17 pm] |
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Meant to post part 51 this afternoon, but I'm having formatting issues. I deleted the posts and will try again a little bit later on. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 19th, 2009|11:10 pm] |
Tried a case today. Went through the evidence and closing arguments. Jury went back to deliberations. After about thirty minutes we received a note saying that there was one juror that refused to vote one way or another on religious grounds.
Annoyed everyone, particularly since the Judge had asked the specific question during voir dire. The juror said that he heard the question, but he just hoped that he would not be selected to sit on the jury.
Well that was a day wasted. |
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