i need your advice. if you had to choose between seeing Built to Spill and The Decemberists or The Doves and Longwave, who would you choose? Both are playing here on Friday and I gotta make a decision.

also, anyone seen The Walkmen? how was it? they're playing Thursday.

muchas garcias.

meet my roommate.

My roommate’s parents did turn around and head back to town, but they are not looking like they want to leave their house, and if they stay at their house, my roommate will stay with them, leaving me here with the dog. This is not good, as I don’t want to stay here alone during a hurricane. His parents live in an area that easily floods and is on the bayou, so this concerns me. Also, I’m not convinced their home is built any better than this duplex is. Lastly, I’ve gotten everything I need set up here. I’d have to move myself and my stuff, and probably the dog too. I don’t want to do that. I also don’t want to stay here alone. This is my dilemma.

Of note are the neighbors. They already offered a place for my roommate and I to hang out if the going gets too tough or we start freaking out, so I’m sure they’d be fine if I transferred my home base to their place. That would be an easier move than driving to my roommate’s parents’ house. I’m still not sure what to do with the dog. I could leave him here in his crate and put a tarp over it, and he’d be fine for 12 hours. He’s got water in the crate. Of course he’d have to do his business in the crate which is kind of yucky, but hey, these are extreme circumstances. I wonder if the neighbors would be okay if I brought the little guy over.

My roommate will get back to me with his parents’ final decision. I’d like them all to come here as this area is on higher ground, but I can’t force them to leave their home. Whatever I decide, I have till Friday night. Landfall is set for early Saturday morning at three am.

Found this WSJ article via Slashdot. Some disgruntled patients unhappy with the service they received from doctors are going online to complain and even start websites. First amendment free speech rights come into play, of course, but so does defamation. Where do we draw the line? Is this not the same as complaining to a few friends? Or is it on par with publishing an ad in the newspaper or on TV? I don’t remember all the laws about defamation (took that final last semester), but I’d say the patients are treading on thin ice, especially if they’re exaggerating. Plus, how can we be sure the patient isn’t posting plain fabrications?

On other hand, people have a right to know. If the truth hurts, too bad. Perhaps it will encourage higher quality care. It could also drive up insurance costs and scare doctors away.

Ahh, the internet: so great in so many ways, but also a huge pain the ass.

i added ecuador to my nifty indy junior travel map.

i'm also going a fantastic job of stalling on writing about the experience. for now, E did a bang-up job. my version will be more long-winded (i have that right, i'm a future lawyer), but hers sums up the trip nicely. and you can also read about her trip climbing a mountain - or at least some of it.

Whatever parts of the hurricane we were to see have moved on. The storm we saw was no stronger than a serious summer thunderstorm. Winds topped out at 50 mph and there was no flooding. Lots of people lost power, but we got lucky. My parents’ house a few miles away did lose power. I rode my bike around the neighborhood and the extent of the damage is limited to tree limbs lying in the street. Not too bad.

This flashlight my dad Frankensteined together was thankfully not needed. He rewired a desk lamp of some sort to a UPS battery, which is usually used a backup power source for computers. It’s nice having an electrical engineer for a dad.

We also didn’t need this trashcan full of tap water, which took a long time to fill even by the bucketful.

Eastern Texas and western Louisiana got hit pretty hard though. My thoughts go out to those who got the brunt of the storm. Even at category three, it was nasty enough to tear buildings and homes apart and blow out windows. And this is certainly the last thing the people of Louisiana needed. Flooding will soon be an issue off of the Trinity River as one of the dams is under threat.

On the bright side, I discovered that there are some really cool and dependable people on my street. They introduced me to a local pub hidden away from the crowds of Rice Village. The husband has a library so extensive it’s doing damage to the foundation. Several thousand pounds of books can be problematic for a home built in the late 1930’s. I’m sure I’ll be browsing his bookshelves quite a bit in the future. School starts Wednesday, so I’ve got a couple days to get back into the swing of things. Until then, the name of the game is cleaning up around the house and drinking beer.

i'm still exhuasted, so the write-up will have to wait. i thought about using Flickr for the pictures, but i can't justify fronting the cash for a Pro account. the free accounts only allow you to make three categories - any more, and you have to upgrade to Pro. i stuck with Snapfish since it's basically the same thing. apologies to all you geeky types out there who think Flickr is the best thing to happen to the internet since Google, but free is free.

on to the pictures

Two professors from my school relate what's happening to the New Orleans evacuees at the Astrodome.

We've been very lucky. We still have power, but the people acorss the street did lose power last night. Between two of the several power companies in town, one million are without power. This doesn't include the largest provider, Reliant.

Winds right now are topping out at around 20 mph and there is no flooding. I just took the dog out for a walk. The weather guys say we're supposed to be getting strong winds for 12 hours, so it ain't over yet.

edit: winds are actually at 30-40 mph. my sense of wind speed is obviously subpar.

please help with the relief effort! there are shirts, baby clothes, beer mugs, stickers, and other nifty clothing items.

meeting random people on trips is the best:

During the few minutes we talked, the French guy told me that he could understand the English accent, but that Americans sound like "waa waa waa" (or, as he was French, "ouaa ouaa ouaa").

a new Briefer History of Time has been released (or will be on September 27th). i'd buy it, but i'm still trying to figure out the first one, which i've had for eight years.

We heard a loud, far-away sounding boom and the lights dimmed for a second. The houses across the street still had power, we still had power, so we weren’t sure what happened. After a quick patrol of the block, we found out that a transformer on the street next to us blew. The backup kicked in and they still have power.

the woman who lives next to my neighbors is also camping out with us here. so now we have a nurse, a geologist, a geologist/economist, and a law student. i think we're set. an engineer would be nice, as would an atmospheric scientist, but hey, i think we're doing pretty well so far.

for the time being, i'm still catching the wireless signal from my place next door. hurricane be damned, i need my wireless.

if you haven't seen it, you need to check out Post Secret.

people on the coast (45 - 1hr from me) are being told to leave. i live in middle of the city, and so far, there is no instruction for us to evacuate yet.

Decision made. I’m staying with the neighbors. They are very, very nice and very cool. They even have a guest room for me.

It’s very calm outside and the streets are deserted. Every now and then I see someone on a bike or taking a walk. There’s a slight breeze and it’s a little cooler than it was yesterday.

My landlord and her husband stopped by on their way out of town and wanted to see if I had room in my trash can for a few things. I knew then that I was screwed because the lease says I’m not allowed to have any pets, but I didn’t have a choice because my parents’ dog is old and tired and has some kind of leg injury. My landlord told me to get the dog out right away because she doesn’t want the place to smell. I was shocked. Of all the things to worry about now, dog smell doesn’t strike me as vital. I mean, for all we know, the hurricane might blow the windows out, which would work nicely for getting that dog smell out on its own. So that’s basically what I told her. She and her husband left right after that without using my trash can.

Here's a shot of the little guy himself:

The word from the neighbors is they think the power will go out around midnight. We’ll see. (or not). Flooding is almost certain, so for purposes of perspective, this is the view from my front door:

We were recently studying life insurance in my Tax class. In the midst of doing some homework problems, this shit popped into my head:

“I wonder if there’s a limit to how much someone can insure their life. What’s the most life insurance anyone has ever bought? How much does Bill Gates insure his life for? What will happen when he’s no longer running Microsoft? Will the company tank? Will those who hate it still hate it? Will those who like it still like it? Will the products be as bug-ridden? Will one of the higher-ups in the company ascend the throne? Can anyone else run Microsoft nearly as well as Gates has for the past 20-something years? Does anyone else in the world have the business savvy and computer-geekiness needed to run a software giant like Microsoft? What if ol’ Gates took Microsoft with him? What if Apple and Microsoft merged? Would the world end? Damn, these problems still haven’t gotten done. Son of a bitch.”

addendum: neither of us eat pork.

Google, omniscient creator of all things cool on the internet, has embarked on a nifty new project: making snippets from books available for searching on Google. For instance, if you search for “somnambulist pineapple” on Google, not only will you get only every webpage containing that term (one), but you would also get any book ever published that mentioned that term. Cool, eh? Also debatably legal. Or illegal, depending on your point view. Google has accordingly and predictably been sued. The plaintiff is the Authors Guild.

There are several arguments here.

1. Google is doing the same thing a library does, except online. No, libraries buy their copy, and thus have a right to reproduce it along fair use guidelines.

2. This would discourage people from buying books. Do libraries discourage people from buying books? Does the radio discourage people from buying music? Does the internet? We may not have an answer of the last one, but that’s the basic idea. Also, Google only displays a small snippet – one or two sentences – around the searched term. You’d theoretically have to piece together a book snippet by snippet.

3. Google isn’t selling the books, so there’s no problem. But they’re making money on advertisements that come from the authors’ content being displayed to the user. So yeah, they are making money.

4. Google is doing the same thing it does to web sites: indexing. Sort of. Websites are always offered for free… most of them, at least. Books are not offered for free.

So what should happen? Google should pay for each of the books it indexes. It would then have a right to fair use. That Google makes money from ads is an incidental byproduct. They make money on ads for every Google product, or service, or whatever we call the things Google creates. At most, consider it as compensation for directing web-searches to books. At least at that point, the user will discover a book they might have not discovered, and never bought.

Via Lessig.

My roommate and I are staying. His parents tried heading south and then west, but traffic was so bad they decided to turn around and come stay with us. Their house is one block from Braes Bayou, so they cannot stay there. My parents also live a block from the bayou and left this morning at about 4. By 9 am, they had covered approximately 40 miles. That is to say, they’re still more or less in the Houston area (Kingwood to be more specific). I just tried calling them to see where they are but I can’t get through.

The weather guys say the hurricane will weaken by the time it gets to the coast. Winds will still exceed 110 mph. We live about 60 miles inland so the storm will probably be a tad weaker by the time it gets to our neighborhood (Rice University area), which is a little higher than other parts of Houston (Bellaire, West U, the southwest side) so the flooding shouldn’t be too bad. The next door neighbor is a Geologist and told us we’re on good land here. He started talking about the microtopography of the area and completely lost me. All I know is he’s staying and he’s confident the water will stay out of the house. The guys across the street have lived here over 20 years and said that the street will flood and the water may reach the steps, but it has never come in the house.

They did say that the power will definitely go out and will take one to two weeks to be restored. The phones will probably go too. With that, the cell phone system will be overloaded with callers and I can’t imagine the cell towers will survive anyway, not to mention they’ll need power.

The word is that the storm will be overhead for about 12 hours and will move up north, so it’s not as bad as the other common Houston storms that dump rain for one to two days and then linger for one or two more. Hopefully the floodwater will drain out once the storm leaves.

The windows are taped, we’re stocked on water and canned goods, and we’re making sure the electronics are unplugged and away from the windows. I’ll try to post continuous updates until the power goes out. If you live in the area and are reading this, be sure to get your car off of the street.

Fourth installment of the “things that happen to you while” series.

Your gf tells you to chug water like nobody’s business the day before you get to Quito and on the flight as well, because if you don’t, you’ll get altitude sickness. You do as she says and end up having to climb over the person in the aisle seat about three hundred and eighty two times to go to the bathroom. Your gf also tell you to get some altitude sickness pills and start taking them the day before you get to Quito, because if you don’t, you’ll get altitude sickness. You get to Quito, and within 12 hours, your body goes into shock after realizing, lo and behold, there is absolutely no oxygen in the air.

When you land in Quito and walk into the arrivals hall, you spot your gf, who you haven’t seen in a month, and make a bee-line for her completely oblivious to anything or anyone else in the room and wrap your arms around her and squeeze her and breathe in her shampoo.

The taxi ride to the apartment is a whirlwind. You gaze at your gf. You stare at the surroundings. You gaze at your gf. You notice a Ford Explorer and ask, “What the hell, it’s bad enough we make these things for ourselves, we have to export them too?”

You wake up Saturday morning unable to do much because there is no air at 3000 meters. You have to spend the day in bed. Which, after a long week at school, turns out to be a good thing.

That evening, you and the gf head to a café recommended by her flatmates. It is known only by the name “Café Guapulo.” Gf doesn’t know where it is, but the cabbie thinks he does, so he radios his buddies and figures out where to go. The café is cute and quaint and is perched on a hillside overlooking a church and much of the city. It is relatively empty and you sit and talk with sassy music in the background. You talk and share “Crepes de Pollo” which turns out to be chicken baked with dough in a tiny pan. After spending a month talking on the phone and the computer, talking in person is a whole lot better.

You have more energy Sunday morning and you head off to the equator. As every other site on the equator is much less accessible because it’s either on a mountain, in the jungle, or in the water, this part of the equator is considered the middle of the world; hence the name “Mitad Del Mundo.”

After spending a good two hours wandering the city for the right bus to take – aka taking the scenic route – you find the right bus and come to a strange realization: you are a giant in this land. At 6’2”, you’re almost twice as tall as many of the locals. You feel like a walking circus.

You get to the Mitad Del Mundo and notice there are two equators. After lengthy analysis conducted in your head and out of the earshot of your gf, you decide two equators are not possible. One must be a fraud. Which one it is remains to be determined. You eagerly anticipate the collection of evidence to disprove the validity of one of the equators.

The sign for the outdoor equator museum, Inti-Nan (path of the sun), says “LAT. 00? 00’ 00” CALCULATED WITH G.P.S.” and you are satisfied that that must be the real equator. And lo, the tour guide demonstrates that this is indeed the true middle. She fills a bucket of water on the equator and drains it. The water drains straight down. She moves the bucket three feet to the north and the water drains counter-clockwise. She moves the bucket three feet into the southern hemisphere and it drains clockwise. You stand flabbergasted.

Afterwards, you decide to head to Plaza Grande in Old Town. On the way, however, you take the sage advice of a semi-local that turns out to be not sage at all. While Old Town lies towards the center of the city in the valley, the bus you’re urged to take sends you into the hills, where the streets are eerily deserted. Thankfully, you get on a bus that takes you back down into the city center and get to the Plaza Grande.

Plaza Grande turns out to be a little on the bland side. It’s basically a big statue in the middle of a plaza. What is interesting, however, is a police car parked on the edge of the plaza. Policemen are inside the car. Instead of watching out for shady characters waiting to take advantage of unsuspecting tourists (hi), they’re texting each other and playing games on their cell phones. Ecuadorian tax dollars hard at work.

For dinner, you had to the Mariscal district, also known as Gringolandia (Land Of White People). It’s a little on the touristy side. You eat dinner at a tapas restaurant and drink sangria. Whatwith the higher altitude, one glass gives you a nice buzz. Your suspicious that you are a cheap date are confirmed.

The next day, gf wants to go climb a mountain. You say, “cool,” especially since there’s a cable car that takes you up there. The mountain overlooks Quito in the valley lying below. You’re at an altitude of about 4000 meters, so it’s much colder there. The clouds appear to be within arm’s reach. Off in the distance is Cotopaxi, the volcano overlooking Quito. Gf was there just the week before.

After you return to the city, you and the GF run some errands around town. After stopping in nearly every toy and knickknack shop in the city looking for dice, you finally find some in a mall. She plans to use them to play English games with her students. You wonder what kind of shady operation the school is running, anyway. Since you’re in South America, you figure you ought to score yourself a nice Panama hat. You buy a cool one from a street vendor for $8, which seems reasonable considering some stores sell them for $30 (up to $300).

Then, you and the gf attack the grocery store. You pick up food to make for dinner and have a great time in the kitchen as the other flatmates cook too. One of the flatmates is making an alfredo sauce and notices it’s taking longer than normal to cook. Upon closer inspection, gf notices her mushrooms and onions aren’t sautéing very quickly either. Upon yet closer inspection, we all notice the gas burners are off, resulting in the lack of heating being applied to the pans. Turns out the gas canister hidden in the cupboard next to the stove ran out of gas. The flatmate cooking the alfredo sauce proceeds to grab a spare canister of gas and hooks it up to the stove. Viola, instant gas stove.

One of the flatmates’ friends, an Ecuadorian, is leaving the country, so they invite him and some other people over for dinner. Not only do they cook for everyone, but they also write him a rap song. And then perform it. It’s possibly the most entertaining musical and theatrical performance you’ve ever seen. Three Canadian girls rapping with their pants and hats on backwards is a sight to be seen.

The next morning, you’re on a plane back to real life, where books and alarm clocks and construction on Highway 59 await. The next time you’ll see your gf is on December 20th. Until then, you patiently wait for her, and think of the good times you’ve shared.

My sister will be induced tonight at midnight. Her baby boy is ready to take on the world and she wants a specific doctor to do the delivery, and he only works Fridays, so looks like it’s going to be this Friday! The Bris (Brit Milah) will be next week, and I won’t be able to make it. Oy. I wish I could go, if only to see him. I’ll visit during Thanksgiving, so at least I can see him then.

Addendum: we are all lucky to now live in a world containing Max Jacob Lain, approximately 20" long and 7 pounds 3 ounces heavy. As one Talking Head once said, he ain't no foolin' around.

Article here, summary of the decision here, my breakdown of the summary here (word doc).

In classic lawyer fashion, the ruling is full of ambiguity. Israel is ordered to, in a reasonable time, reconsider various alternatives for the portion of the fence that is the subject of this suit. The Court did admonish the State that the fence line chosen "seems strange" and that "the necessary effort had not been made to find an alternate route which can ensure security and cause less injury to the residents of the villages."

bummer man.