EDIT 1:56pm: I've sent the family the forms to apply for help from the Innocence Project and Governor's Office anyway, on the theory that trying doesn't hurt. I've also sent them a form to apply for help from the ACLU, and a link to the San Diego County Bar Association's lawyer referral program, so they can find a new attorney.

I'm still scared to death of this corrupt system, but at least now I feel like I've done something at least moderately useful.

To follow up on this post and the comment from neo_tanuki, I've investigated the California Innocence Project and the Governor's Office pardon application process. In the former case, they probably won't take the case because of the focus of their mission. In the latter, while it might work, I suspect the D.A.'s office would do something to block it, because it's a legal requirement to inform them of the intent to apply for a pardon before actually sending the application to Sacramento.

The fact of the matter here is this: the San Diego District Attorney and her staff are corrupt. See this article, this article, and this blog (which is specifically about her attacks on the medical marijuana community, but it still underscores her willingness to circumvent the law in pursuing a personal agenda).

Someone I know has been the victim of this corruption—a witch hunt that has scarred a person and a family for life.

The family is trying to fight it, but since the demands of keeping the family together and healthy have fallen on one person's shoulders, progress is slow to non-existant. And the attorney, apparently, doesn't give a rat's ass, or has given up, or both. I find myself being one of very few who are trying to make anything happen . . . and it's killing me.

I am more scared now than I have ever been in my entire life about anything. Taking on "the system" is the job of younger, more vigorous people with less to lose. And yet, I cannot walk away. I want to talk away, but if I did, I'd never be able to live with myself.

So I'm going to continue to fight a battle that I'm 95% certain I'm going to lose, and 65% certain will get me in severe legal hot water because of who I'm going after . . . because I can't abandon my friend. The idea of throwing someone to the wolves like that is so repugnant to me that I quite literally would rather be killed than do so.

Does anyone know a good civil attorney who's not afraid to commit career suicide by fighting the D.A.?

Over the weekend, I watched my girlfriend teri1337 play Avatar: the Game to completion. I didn't watch her play the whole story line, but what I saw of it looked fun. The graphics were gorgeous, and the story (not the same as the movie story) was engaging.

The ending, on the other hand, was ass. Pure, grade A, 100% ass.

I will not be playing it myself. Nor do I recommend it, after that ending.

EDIT, 2/1/10: Hold the presses! It turns out that HostBaby may allow me to install a custom shopping cart after all. Thank you for all your input, however. If it turns out that HostBaby can't actually support my needs despite what the customer service tech told me earlier this afternoon, then I'll likely use one of the solutions you've suggested here.

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. . . but this time I really need it. Like, yesterday!

I'm having to move web servers from Hostbaby (a service of CDBaby) to BlueHost because Hostbaby won't let me install my own shopping cart (they want you to use CDBaby to sell your stuff, obviously, so why would they let you bypass that?).

Unfortunately, the calendar application on Hostbaby is really awesome, and I have been completely unable to find anything that I can use on my BlueHost site that is anywhere near as easy to use and which does everything I need. I've found very simple scripts that will display a calendar, but I can't put the info into a format I like; and I've found good event-management software that will do what I want, but a) it's expensive, b) it's complicated, and c) it has a whole blortload of bells and whistles that I don't need.

I just want a calendar application or script that will do three things: 1) Allow me to easily input new gig/event data into a database using a web-based or similarly simple interface, 2) display those gigs/events on my website in an easily read format, and 3) not display events that are in the past!

You can see an example of what I'm talking about on the band's calendar page. That's not just hand-entered HTML, that's a PHP script pulling events out of a database and displaying them. The script only displays events that are in the future, ignoring anything with a date and time that is in the past.

I am not a programmer. I'm not even a scripter. I'm extremely good at markup languages (HTML and XML), but markup languages won't solve this problem. I need at least a good script that can interact with a database, and I have no idea how to create one.

So if anyone reading this knows either a) the location of a good script or program that will do this for me and that won't cost the earth (in either money or time spent using it), or b) how to quickly and easily create something like this for a modest fee, please let me know. I really need to get this going, because I'm already months overdue for launching the new website.

Thank you.

They say it's not what you know, but who you know.

So, with that in mind . . . if anyone reading this can help me get in touch with the Governor—and I mean the Governor himself, not his office, staff, flunkies, etc.—I would be greatly appreciative. A great injustice has been done, and I want to see it undone.

Thank you.

If you have the time tomorrow at 12 noon (and you're in the San Diego area), please consider coming to a one-hour rally in front of Representative Susan Davis' office at University and 43rd.

You can learn all about the event here: http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=100804

And if you're not in San Diego, you can find an event near you here: http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/index.html?action_id=202

I'm writing a book, and several of the characters have interactions and dialog in Japanese. I want to, at least in a couple of places, actually have the Japanese appear on paper (in Romaji, of course), so I need someone who is either a native speaker or a very good non-native to help me out with this.

Does anyone in my friends list qualify? If so, please let me know. You'll definitely get an acknowledgement for it. Thanks.

I just wanted to thank everyone who donated cash for Haitian relief at Allison's and my show on Saturday. $29 was sent to Doctors Without Borders this morning.

DWB has had a presence in Haiti for many years, which makes it much easier for them to get aid efforts mobilized than it would be for another organization coming in from the outside. I also happen to think DWB is one of the best disaster relief and medical response charities out there.

According to the news this morning, in the U.S. alone over $21 million has so far been raised by various charities to help Haitian earthquake victims. That makes me very proud.

I know that this has been going around a lot, but I wanted to do my share to disseminate this information:

• You can donate $10 to the American Red Cross' efforts to help the earthquake victims in Haiti by texting the word "Haiti" to 90999. The $10 will be added to your next cell phone bill.

• If for whatever reason you do not trust the American Red Cross (and I understand if this is the case), you can instead donate to:
  • AmeriCares' Haiti relief effort
  • Medecins sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders
  • CARE's Haiti relief effort

Thank you.

Why, for the love of Ceiling Cat, have I had "King of Pain" playing in my head for the last three days?

I need a new earworm. >:(

EDIT, 9:41am
There's a little earworm in my brain today
It's the same old shit as yesterday
Like a broken record when I first wake up
It's a skipping track that just will not shut up
I have been here before amidst the teeming throng
With the music inside me coming out so wrong
I guess I'm always hoping it'll end 'fore long
But it's my destiny to sing this STOOPID SONG!

"It never ceases to amaze me that, in times of amazing human suffering, somebody says something that can be so utterly stupid." —Robert Gibbs

Suck it, Pat Robertson!

One of the hardest things about political debate is realizing that good, kind, loving, and highly intelligent people often have opinions very different from our own—and that the reasons they hold those opinions are just as valid to them as our own are to us.

It was a hard lesson for me to learn, certainly, and I still occasionally struggle with it, but I have at least begun to accept and internalize this idea. It is why I can count amongst my friends at least three staunch Libertarians, two Republicans, a Trotskian socialist (I call myself a socialist, but to Trotskians I am but a poseur), a Marxist socialist (ditto, and then some), and at least one true nihilist (though that state may be temporary—the nihilism, that is, not the friendship). Of course, all these people I mention have also learned this lesson to one degree or another, which is why they are able to be friends with me.

But don't get me wrong, it is not easy. Not by a long shot. The hardest part for me is when I know, deep in my core and with every fiber of my being, that my friends are wrong. And I'm not talking about just "misguided" or "not fully informed" or "idealistic" or any of that claptrap. I mean dead, flat, 100% wrong! As in, if the world worked the way they say they want it to, it would mean the end of civilization as we know it.

Of course, knowing that I feel this way, I also know that they feel this way about what I believe—and yet we can still be friends. Why? Because we know that we are all good people and that, no matter what our individual ideologies may be, what we truly want is for all people to be happy, free, and prosperous.

And so, even though I personally think Libertarianism (for example) is entirely wrong-headed, if it were to work—that is, if a Libertarian government were to come to power and actually make all people happy, free, and prosperous without throwing anyone under the bus to do so—I would be delighted. And I am confident that my friends would be equally delighted if a Socialist government were to be able to do the same, because we all know that our ultimate goals are identical: happiness, freedom, and prosperity for all, without anyone having to die, be marginalized, or otherwise "cease to exist" to make it happen.

Unfortunately, there are people who don't get this. In fact, I would say most people don't get this. Most people are in it for themselves and assume that everyone else is too, and so when they find an ideology that they can't agree with, they assume malice. For example, Republicans often believe that Democrats hold a huge "sour grapes" attitude towards those who are successful in business and who make lots of money, calling them "whiners" and "welfare brats" when they say that the rich should be taxed more to help the poor—when, in fact, Democrats often believe that it's part of the social contract for those who are well off to help those who are not, and that this benefits all of society. Democrats, on the other hand, often believe that Republicans don't care about people at all, only business, calling them "callous" and "self-serving" when they say that the marketplace should be free from restriction—when, in fact, Republicans often believe that a free market can more easily and efficiently distribute wealth throughout society than taxing and spending by government can.

What neither side seems to be able to grasp is that they both want the same thing, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'll say it again: happiness, freedom, and prosperity for all people without anyone having to be sacrificed to make it happen.

In any event, I would simply like to thank my friends for being who they are, believing what they believe, and being big enough to accept that those who disagree with them are not evil. Thank you all, very much!

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TO THOSE WHO DISAGREE WITH ME: I welcome any and all reasonable comments that address the issue at hand. However, I will not tolerate character assassination or insults, whether directed at me or at anyone else who participates in the discussion. Comments that contain either will be deleted, and repeat offenders will be banned. Thank you for understanding.

The Supreme Court of the U.S. issued a 5-4 ruling today blocking the 9th Circuit Federal Court from broadcasting the Prop 8 trial on CCTV or via YouTube.

But there's still a way you can get up-to-the-hour (or so) data on the Prop 8 trial: The Prop 8 Trial Tracker.

I've read the last three days' of entries, and lemme tell ya, this is some fascinating reading.

This op-ed piece in the New York Times by Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman is the kind of thing I like to see:

Learning from Europe

Not because I consider Prof. Krugman to be "on my side," or because he generally supports ideas that I support (though both are true), but because he presents his case by examining both sides of an argument and coming to a reasonable and logical conclusion.

The argument in question? Whether Europe has actually stagnated economically because of its socialist programs.

Krugman's conclusion, in a nutshell, is this: Europe isn't quite as economically dynamic as the U.S., but it's nowhere near as bad as most conservatives, and even some liberals, want you to believe. And he believes that the benefits of Europe's social programs outweigh the small penalty it pays in economic output.

That's a far cry from the polarized arguments you normally hear, on any political subject. Whether you watch Fox or MSNBC, most of what you hear is extremism. Krugman, though more liberal than many economists, is still an economist, and he looks for the truth behind the hype, and that's something I can respect him for.

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TO THOSE WHO DISAGREE WITH ME: I welcome any and all reasonable comments that address the issue at hand. However, I will not tolerate character assassination or insults, whether directed at me or at anyone else who participates in the discussion. Comments that contain either will be deleted, and repeat offenders will be banned. Thank you for understanding.

I am a technical writer for my day job. This is the coffee mug I use at work.

This is very weird. But very cool. And no, that's not a pun.

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* Originally posted as "LEGO China". Title changed per neo_tanuki's suggestion.

see more deMotivational Posters

On the way to work this morning, I was thinking about Rock, Paper, Scissors (the game, not the art gallery) and how some people have tried to expand it to more than three categories. This is a particularly silly example.

The problem with most of these is that, with three objects, there are three win conditions, but with more than three objects, the number of win conditions grows beyond the number of objects. How do you arrange Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock so that there's always a win condition for any two objects selected?

Then it occurred to me. The five elements of Feng Shui already have a built-in system of win conditions, the Cycle of Creation and the Cycle of Destruction, as illustrated here:



Perfect! So now all I had to do was think up some hand gestures that go with each of the elements.

As it happens, western alchemy actually has gestures for the elements of earth, air, fire, water, and spirit:

Earth	Air	Fire	Water	Spirit

Fire and Water are fine as they are. I decided that the hand sign for Earth actually worked better as Wood, so that required a new sign for Earth, which was relatively easy to come up with: Rock! So the progression so far would be:

Water	Wood	Fire	Earth

That just left Metal. For a few minutes, I was stuck for what hand sign would make sense for Metal.

Then it hit me:

Metal

I just overheard something at work that has me sitting at my desk fuming*. Two people in the break room near my desk were joking about teasing one of their co-workers and talked about calling him "Mister Taliban" and "Mister Mustafah" because of his large beard and turban.

Leaving aside the fact that the man is probably not Muslim but Sikh, the fact remains that this is hate speech, pure and simple. That anyone would engage in something that vile in the workplace is infuriating.

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*Don't worry. I told my boss, and he said he'd take care of it. It'll just take me a while to cool off.

I'm going to put this behind a cut, because there is a chance that it could offend the sensibilities of some of my friends. Unfortunately, for those of you on Facebook, "behind a cut" means diddly-squat, so if you're an easily offended type of person, simply stop reading now.

( Why some holiday traditions bug the hell outta me )