My sister, a budding financial guru, sent me this:
This is that economic model I learned in school that proves what you were saying on your blog.
The Matt and Kim show during the upcoming Slaughterama weekend has been canceled due to injury. Fortunately, Slaughterama is still happening. So come and bring friends, drinks, bikes, and bail.
News coverage from last year
In the midst of Clinton heading to mexico to discuss drug policy, gun import/export, etc. I couldn't notice Obama's town hall comments about this. When the notion of legalization of drugs was mentioned, the entire place laughed and it was dismissed as 'this is who is on the internet.' The fact is that this entire 'drug war' is much more of a plague on society than the drugs themselves (much like the 'war on terror' vs. actually terrorist acts). We have more people in prison than any other country, including china, both in proportion and population. Many of these are for nonviolent, victimless crimes. Meanwhile, private prisons are one of the few sectors turning a profit, and prison labor is used for just about anything these days. Let me restate that: people are making a profit off of imprisoning human beings and using their labor with little to no compensation.
What do you think gives these 'drug cartels' so much power? Could it be that marijauna is one of the largest cash crops, providing them billions in untaxed revenue? Prohibition has never worked and it never will. Think about what motivates you. Do you not do something simply because it's illegal? Knowing the dangers and risks involved, would you really smoke crystal meth if it were legal? Does knowing something is illegal really deter you? I'm sure we've all had speeding tickets, rode bikes down one way streets, downloaded music, etc. You simply have to look to the netherlands to see that legalization of drugs does not increase use, its population smokes less marijuana than americans. We live in a society where it is easier for minors to procure illegal drugs than alcohol. Does a dealer care if you're 8 years old? No, but the ABC store clerk certainly does. The only thing that makes any drug a 'gateway' drug is that you have to go to a shady dealer to get it, and they will probably offer other drugs that they have. There's nothing inherent in any drug that makes it a 'gateway' drug, other than prohibition. We are putting money in the hands of drug dealers, putting children at risk, and spending billions that we obviously don't have, all to fight a war that can never be won.
thanks to eva who sent the below picture and spurred this rant.
I got my 3rd missed connection! I haven't replied to this one yet, but I'm certain it was me. The funny part is that i have no idea who could have sent this as i was not playing any game with anyone. well, maybe chris, but the game was 'how do i pass this shot off on someone else.' chris bought well over 20 shots that night, so while this girl thought i was 'shyly looking away', i was probably thinking 'gravity...is it always out to get me?' or 'meta pizza - pizza topped with pizza bagel bites.'
empire beard (one of many) - w4m - 25 (empire)
Reply to: pers-ffrb5-1096xxx669@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]
Date: 2009-03-28, 5:23PM EDT
you were at a tall table near the big buck hunter game. black hoodie and beard (like many others) but you had a kind face and really sweet eyes... i kept looking at you and smiling- and you shyly looked away. fun game! lets do it again sometime.
The late, great, Carl Sagan's Cosmos is now on Hulu.com
How neat is that?
Pretty neat.
My job is at a fancy restaurant in an old historic bank on main street in richmond. I've been working a lot of shifts at the new job, trying to get as much money as possible so i can get a motorcycle/pay rent. Last night we had a party of 90+ people at a banquet upstairs. The problem with setting these things up is that a lot of the materials are in the 'vault', so you have to go up two full flights of stairs, with table, chairs, etc. All night I'm up and down stairs with giant trays of fancy food or dirty plates. On top of that, I have to smile at a coked up Sir Ben Kingsley lookalike as he tells me that he has put 'bob marley's roots reggae song, exodus, remixed' on the sound system. awesome.
After almost 7 hours of this I did get a free meal (not the norm) and another waiter bought me a beer (blue moon). So all in all it was pretty good, but the last thing you want to do after all of that is ride your bike home in the cold night, up a giant hill. Working at the bottom of the hill makes for a nice ride to work, but a lousy ride home.
The giant upside is that I am very happy with how things are going. I work really hard and go home physically exhausted. My mind is actively engaged and the more stressful it gets, the faster time goes by. I ride my bike a few miles a day and I'm in great shape.
Slaughterama is fast approaching.
the river. hadads. bike rides. friends. front porch hangouts. outdoor movies. cook outs. . .
dear summer,
i'm ready.
I watched this today and laughed out loud. It's a group of old people reviewing Animal Collective's My Girls, one of my favorite tracks on the new album. They start by reviewing a Young Jeezy song, which has a hilarious/cracist ending. Well worth the watch.
I was reading this story today and I am sure that you are outraged at the obvious misquotations. To think that they would quote you as saying that 'condoms don't prevent AIDS, in fact they increase the problem', in Africa of all places. I am sorry that the press has made you out to sound like an ignorant asshole. We both know you couldn't have possibly said that.
On the off chance that you did, I hope that millions of AIDS sufferers are laid at your feet when you try to get into heaven.
Love,
jimi
I read this story today and I instantly admired your brazenness and open disregard for any sense of morals or ethics. When people claim that evil must exist in order for good to exist, i immediately think of you and smile. I'm glad you're out there doing what other people just can't.
I understand you're unhappy with the fact that bush did not pardon 'scooter' libby. That he simply commuted his sentance to 2.5 years for borderline treason/murder. I know that it will be hard for him to be in that fancy prison for 2.5 years, but i'm sure he'll get through it. The CIA agent who died as a result of libby's actions, doesn't have the same luxury.
I can also understand your frustration over obama, and your claim that his actions are making america less safe. I am sure that you are just beating yourself up over the fact that you were in charge of norad on 9/11, and despite their 100% success rate, failed to miss 4 targets that day...while under your command. I'm sure that their response time of 88 minutes would have been much worse without your supervision, despite the fact that that is 11 times their average response time. I understand your desire to make up for that 'mistake' by creating and fueling a fear of 'terrorist acts'. After all, we need to create awareness for a problem that kills so many americans each year. Wait. How many americans died last year from terrorist attacks? I sure it has to be more than shark attacks or falling airplane parts. Anyway, i'm just glad you're there to watch out for us.
love,
jimi
saw this today,
re:
Reply to: pers-vsh3k-1075736596@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]
Date: 2009-03-15, 8:47AM EDT
still I stay silent
I am not asking (ass? king?)
still I do love you
i'm not sure if this is a joke, but i do think that the idea of someone being a king of asses is pretty funny.
I just watched the interview with Jim Cramer on the Daily Show. Wow.
There's the uncensored 3 part unedited version on Hulu and I recommend checking it out.
It reminded me of this.
Les and oscar have been on my list of 'cutest couples' for some time now. They are also 2 of the kindest and most generous people that aren't boring. Oscar recently fixed my jeans and did an amazing job. They have an etsy shop now that you should support because its cute things by cute people. Whether you buy something or not, just add it to your favorites and i think that helps them out.
click here
I now have to be away from the internet for hours at a time so I have to make a quick pre work post:
scientists are making robots that can emulate human emotions. Their most advanced robot, kenji, went from 'puppy love' mode to 'stalker mode' pretty quickly. This was problematic, as kenji has 100kg arms and is a robot.
story
"Science: all about coulda, not about shoulda" -Patton Oswald
Thanks to friends and family that have supported me in various ways throughout these times. Special thanks to my sister for always doing research into jobs and job fairs for me.
Thanks to friends, not experience, a degree, or even charm, I got a job today.
It's a nice little bike ride from my house, which is good because there is no parking downtown during the days. Due to my over zealousness, I am waiting tables from 10am-11pm tomorrow and 10am again on Wednesday.
The upside is that the uniform is a black dress shirt, black shoes and jeans.
Friday night, 7pm, chris complained that he could not go to the Harvest of Hope Festival in Richmond's unofficial sister city, St. Augustine. Apparently, the plane tickets were too much so he couldn't afford to go. I suggested we just take his car and drive down there, and so long as i didn't have to pay for gas, I was available to make this happen. Chris, in true form, called my bluff and I called drew good. In my mind, drew was on the way and a proven good time/driver. The plan was to drive all night, arrive at st augustine around 8am, take a nap and go see some bands.
At 9am, we arrive in st. augustine and eat at Manatee Cafe, a little health food eatery. Once the food hit our stomachs we were pretty tired so we went to the beach and slept until about 1130am. 
If you'll notice, i have used a gym towel i found in my car as my bed, my shirt as my pillow, and my bandanna to block the sun from my eyes. This proved to be a bad idea, as I now look like I got sunburned while dressed up like a ninja turtle. We woke up, drove to a friends house, and immediately left for the show.
As with most music festivals, this one had the lesser known bands play during the day. This proved problematic in a sleep deprived state, so drew and I took naps under trees until Valient Thorr played. What a good show, if you like Les Savy Fav, Motorcycle gangs, and extraterrestrial mythology, you should see this band.
Oddly enough drew and I both ran into people we knew at the festival, a scarcely advertised event 10-12 hours south of where most of our friends are. We got sunburned some more and waited for the major bands to start playing. Then the temperature dropped. Sunburn and cold weather is no fun. For about 6 hours I stood freezing, trying to keep moving to avoid what I thought would end up being hypothermia. Then I figured out that if i snuck behind the bbq food cart I could keep warm. At this point, I am filthy from sleeping in dirt, have a weird sunburn on my face, have barely slept, have no idea where warmth or a place to sleep will happen, and I smell like pulled pork.
Then Bad Brains played. Worst. Show. Ever. Remember that reggae album that they came out with, but no one ever bought? they played all those songs and then went over on their set by about 40 minutes. Second to that was Tilly and the Wall. If you like this band please take a moment to punch yourself in whatever private parts you happen to be working with. They seriously had a tap dancer for the entire show. She looked like a rejected american apparel model and, at best, the band sounded like a gloria estefan rip off.
Best show? Probably Propaghandi. They were pretty pissed at bad brains closed out the night with a near perfect set. Then when the show shut down, they decided to just finish out their set that was cut short by Bad brains. Unfortunately, the event organizers weren't having it, so they cut off the sound. Then Propaghandi played just from their amps and the audience sang out loud. It was beautiful, much like the few moments before a mass riot are beautiful.
Drew slept in the car that night and I slept on someones floor. Sleeping with a bandanna over your eyes and earplugs in your ears has its disadvantages. One of the big ones being that when you wake up already confused as to where you are, it is much more difficult to determine your situation quickly. This becomes even more problematic when you wake up to: "don't move that, you'll crush him!" Apparently I was sleeping next to a broken couch (true) and someone was trying to get to the fold out bed part so they could get the mattress out. To add to this, one of the people involved was some girl that sounded just like AEB, but without the powerful brain. Then some guy was really apologetic for waking me up and kept calling me 'sir'. i responded with being way too nice, that kind of nice where your voice goes up an octave because you're overcompensating.
After a surprising full night's sleep, we walked to downtown and got some mayan food. a-mazing. Then we walked around the fort by the water, took some pictures, and walked back to the car to start our trek back. I arrived in richmond at 330am, about 55 hours after I decided to leave.
Dear summer,
Thank you for coming early, I missed you.
love,
jimifoster
So the director of the war porn mockumentary '300' is having his new movie released today. I want to see this so bad. Who's not working and wants to see this today? i'm so excited. i'm so scared.
hold me.
