reyonthehill

- California's humble yet photogenic governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has all but secured himself a re-election victory with his moderate-friendly signing of a bill aimed at slowing the effects of global warming, the first of its kind in the nation. Moderates and political neophytes will have trouble not pulling the lever for the Kindergarten Cop come election day if the governor keeps this up.

- States' rights will hopefully prevail as the Supreme Court listens to arguments in a lawsuit filed against the Bush administration's Environmental Protection Agency. Do states have the right to have stricter automobile emissions standards? Yes, yes they do; the EPA limit is a minimum. (This is bad news for car manufacturers as this is a liberal's and conservative's wet-dream -- environmental protection for the lefties, states' rights for the constructionists.)

While perusing through my video archive (an archive that solely exists because of a wonderful gift), I've decided to finalize some smaller projects and publish them under on the hill films. This first video, "Full Of Grace," is a short film starring a friend (at a now former company). [High-quality version; medium-quality version, shown below.]

Background: As I was fooling around with my new video camera, I recorded a few scenes of my then-workspace in what became a quasi-documentary. (This resulted in the idea of a parody of "The Office" and eventually progressed into an award-winning Halloween film). What this video illustrates, however, is that persistent prodding will always garner a reaction.

Full Of Grace
Eric Grace is a man of few words; fortunately, those words were caught on film.

Note: That highly-irritating voice in the background is none other than Mister "War Means Jobs, Baby!!!" who just happens to look a lot like Greg Kinnear, which I realized while watching portions of You've Got Mail on TNT recently; or was it TBS? (More on this later.)

Image: channel4.com

Also: I used to hum at work, "Eric Grace, full of grace," ergo the title of this short film.

Papers. Business papers.

This is one of those images "worth a thousand words." (That is a saying, right?)

Rita Cosby: "Say it ain't so. My career depends on this."

Image: AP Photo/Jack Dempsey

For those who may not know, Rita Cosby is the woman with her face pressed up against the window. Although Cosby still works for MSNBC, she recently had her pathetic show cancelled.

If you are unable to read between the lines, my fiancee and I will be heading out in ten days to the East Coast for our upcoming wedding. The wedding is the following week (in Philadelphia), and then we will live it up along the Spanish and French Mediterranean coast, followed by a week in Paris (with a stop in trendy Milan sandwiched in-between). As a result, my mind is focused elsewhere (rightfully so, plus the reality that work pays the bills, not blogs; not yet, anyway), and the fact that there is absolutely no news streaming in, at least consistently -- JonBenet's confessed killer aside -- so I am spending some time going through my mailbag. (I swear that these long lost emails are just the darndest, but I thought the same thing about the sequel to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and look how that turned out. Actually... pretty good for Keanu Reeves, I guess. The other guy, not so much.)

Here is one with my personal advisor, Dom the Berkeley PhD student...

Dom is in possession of a website (on CD) I developed for a class I TA'd as a graduate student at Berkeley -- one that I'd like to add to my growing archive -- and as I busily work on one of my favorite side-projects (when I do not have the free time to do so), geotechref beta, it would be nice to review a few things that were covered in that Rock Mechanics class. So I emailed Dom the first week of August and he responded...

Re: consider publishing your paper...

yo,
I'm about to go hiking for a week so I'll take a look [at the geotechref website, which I had blatantly "marketed" (read: plugged) in my initial email] when I come back.
p.s. your 172 website's still cookin in my car. I left the door unlocked last weekend and a bum rummaged through the console, but didn't want it. So your intellectual property's safe.
D

Good to know. My response...

Re: consider publishing your paper...

Good luck and have fun.
The bum probably realized he would need to re-learn stereo-nets and didn't want the commitment.
Berkeley bums... perennially uncommitted, pathetically consistent.

You see what I am saying... gold.

Well, I must admit, this wasn't that "lost." Or "long," really. (Just consider myself a marketing specialist.)

A friend I went to graduate school with at Berkeley sent an email from Seattle a month ago letting a few of us bay area residents know that he'd be in town for a few days. His schedule conflicted with my upcoming wedding, but I wanted to let him know just that. (You know, to not be a complete dick, like those people who don't respond to emails, even ones that state, "Hey, just let me know." Yes, you know the people I'm talking about.)

Re: visit to Bay

Hey man...
It is good to hear that you are still alive. It is hard to assume these days with all of the wmd being pointed our way by ruthless democracy-hating terrorists. They hate democracy; I hate them. Somehow, it's fitting.
Emilia and I are getting married on Sept. 16 in Philadelphia so I will not be around, unfortunately, for your visit.
Have fun with the lecture and the geobears, ask Goodman why he didn't puff that jay in Sierra, and good luck at work.
Stay in touch.
-Jeff

It is probably worth mentioning his (delayed) reply... "Congrats on finally tying the knot. You will probably find that not all (but most) conservative institutions are flawed. Flaws in marriage are generally attributed to the participants."

Hmm... I guess the rumor that he got divorced since school has been confirmed. And it looks like my friend here won't be giving a toast at our wedding reception.

One last thing, he did reassure me: "I'll talk to Goodman about that jay."

The "right to life" movement never takes a break, as Bizarro illustrates...

Image: SFGate.com

Hey, it is still morning out here in California... suckers.

Toles delivers a biased public service announcement from planet Earth.

Image: Yahoo!

This past Tuesday, Walmart's lawyers were back in action, attempting to halt the City's decision to purchase Walmart's property by way of eminent domain. As a result, I addressed the Hercules City Council once again...

I wanted to follow-up on what I consider my most thoughtful blogpost ever, one in which I had discussed my feelings upon discovering my dentist's suicide. I would like to clarify a few things...

(a) I am a supporter of legalized euthansia. I feel that any "right to life" in our law also suggests a "right to end life" as well. The first time I discussed this in length was as a senior in high school (way back in '98) -- I included a clip of the x-files Simpsons episode during my presentation. (Conclusion: Simpsons clips will always garner attention.) And on a further point, conservative arguments that interpret the Constitution as a so-called Christian document and purport that abortion, euthanasia, etc., should be illegal, but that the death penalty should be practiced, and practiced widely, despite the always-present possibility that an innocent person's life may be ended, are ridiculous and hypocritical.

(b) Suicide is illegal, almost universally, and maybe it should be. Because, as you think about it, suicide really is a type of homicide, right? (It doesn't really matter anyway, the criminal in this case is deceased, if successful, and I don't think the victim will be pressing any charges. But, maybe the victim's family would.) Anyway... should assisting a person's suicide be illegal as well? If you knew that a person may commit suicide, but did not act, should you be liable? Should you be considered a "criminal?" I do not necessarily think so. (Imagine being jailed after an unsuccessful suicide attempt... talk about depression.)

(c) I feel that prison inmates should be given the opportunity to commit suicide (or be allowed to give the state permission to assist in their suicide) in the case of "prison for life." (This may be construed as the death penalty, which I am against, however, especially if the State takes a proactive role in the process. In the end, probably not a good idea, but I do feel that these inmates should have the choice.)

(d) I feel that any, and almost all, efforts to physically stop suicides, including efforts by evangelicals to build a suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge, are silly and will end up being fruitless. If someone would like to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge, they will. And if a wall stops them, they will proceed to the Bay Bridge, or a cliff in Marin, etc.

(e) And finally, I respect people's wishes, my dentist included. Although the news hit me, caught me off guard and left we confused, I have no idea what this man was thinking, and for how long. All I can do now is understand the reality and respect him in death.

For those who know me, or have gotten to know me through this blog, you know that I am not an overtly sensitive person, and I do not wish to dwell on the horrible news I received yesterday, but getting my thoughts on paper, or blog, as it may be, may provide some good (I believe).

It is not as if a cousin of mine has taken his own life, but I had seen my dentist -- Dr. Douglas McNeil -- two times a year for the last three years. That is more often than I have seen my parents, or my brother, or my two sisters in the last four years (since I moved to California).

I did not know my dentist well, yet I knew him pretty well, or at least, it seemed that he knew me pretty well. He is only the second dentist I have ever known. (I had the same dentist my entire life until I moved; that dentist grew up across the street from my father, and was a son of Holocaust survivors.)

During my first appointment, he had asked me several questions about where I came from and what I do. (I had always wondered why dentists ask you questions when your mouth is temporarily incapacitated. How do dentists understand your nonsensical mumbling? That question is right up there with, "How do pharmacists read doctor's prescriptions?") At my next visit, he had remembered what I had told him, and as he asked more questions, our relationship grew.

When he asked me if I had flossed, and I had replied, "Not enough," I felt guilty. He was my dentist.

It is impossible to understand why, and it is probably best not to even try, but this event has puzzled me. It is the first suicide I have ever known, and although I was not very close to the person, I was close enough.

Note: The dentist had apparently invited all of his clients to his funeral (I am presuming in a letter), although I do not plan on attending. He had also taken preparations to have another dentist take over his practice. This shows, I believe, that he must have thought about taking his life for quite some time and that this was not an act in the heat of a moment.