Raymond M. Reskusich's Home Page

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10:28:

Family Trip to Colorado, July 2007

10:31: Song lyrics in judicial opinions
Link courtesy of my brother John:

The Chief Justice, Dylan and the Disappearing Double Negative

13:34: 100 new classics meme
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11:32: There is no end to the strangeness of humans...
This is one of the oddest things I've read about in quite some time:

Sworn Virgins: Women Becoming Men in Albania

10:26: Morning ruminations...
I should probably be worried, how much more optimistic I feel about the day after my morning cappuccino.

Last night, Mel, Bill, and I climbed Cougar Mountain. This is the first real hike Mel and I have been able to get out on this summer, thanks in large part to the spring rainy weather hanging around far longer than it should. I enjoyed it. We've got to start doing hikes like this after work, to counteract our busy weekends.

Bill has been visiting since Friday. We've mostly just been hanging out, doing fairly low-key things, which has been a lot of fun. Bill is a zealous convert to the cult of Carcassonne.

On Sunday, we all went to see the new Hulk movie. It was, in my opinion, a big improvement on the last one. It pretty well reflected the character of the comics from the early days. Overall, much better than I expected.

On the bus to work this morning, I finished The Man in the High Castle. This is the first Phillip K. Dick book I've read, although I've been meaning to check him out for a very long time. It is an great book that I can recommend wholeheartedly. I was impressed with how well it operated on multiple thematic levels. More than anything I have read in this branch of sci-fi, it managed to be about other things in addition to the speculative premise. The characterization was impressive. It allowed the plot to unfold in a very indirect way, progressing at the intersections of very self-contained personal arcs. The prose style was distinctive and enjoyable. Dick is an impressive writer, and I think I will be reading more of his work.

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10:39: Bonnaroo 2008, Day 3
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9:55: Bonnaroo 2008, Day 2
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10:41: Bonnaroo 2008, Day 1
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23:22: I return!
I'm home from Bonnaroo. I am still sunburned, unshaven, and dog-tired, but I'm home. That was good. Family, friends, sunshine, and music. Mel and I've been going to this festival for the last four years, and I'm pretty sure this is the best one. I caught 26 bands, give or take, and most of them were pretty damn good.

I was planning on blogging the festival as it happened, but sadly the mobile phone situation was pretty screwed up. Packet services were a pipe dream. Too many people and too few frequencies. Sometimes, it took over an hour for an SMS message to work its way across the venue. This made meeting up with people a bit of an adventure.

I'll probably write more about this soon. For now, these are the bands I saw:
( Damn, that was a lot of music... )

12:05: In transit

We're in Chicago now, waiting for our connecting flight down to Bonnaroo. I'm feeling pretty psyched. In particular, I'm looking forward to Gogol Bordello, Death Cab, Vampire Weekend, Jack Johnson, and Pearl Jam. There are so many good bands this year, it will be hard to catch anything new. The schedules are packed with good stuff until 4am. I hope I can stay awake. I will probably be mo'blogging further updates once we're there.

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10:59: Escalation...
Hackers' posts on epilepsy forum cause migraines, seizures


In one of the first computing hacks seemingly intended to physically harm victims, attackers saturated the web forums of the Epilepsy Foundation with strobing images allegedly calculated to trigger seizures in visitors to the site. In addition to reminding everyone of Snow Crash, this seems like a disturbing escalation in the hacker culture. Obviously this attack is only applicable to those with certain types of epilepsy. Hopefully no more general-purpose attack can be devised. Any brain-meat specialists in the house who can comment on this possibility?

10:37: For my birthday this past Wednesday, Mel got me a Nintendo DS to keep me entertained during my commute. I know that many of you have more background with this platform than I do, so I'm looking for recommendations. What are the great games for this system? I have no particular love for anime or the Pokemon franchise, but outside of this I'm pretty open. In particular, I'd like to find a decent strategy game.

15:23: The last power of two, for a while...
This morning, I turned 32.

It is a good thing to celebrate birthdays. They provide an unavoidable reminder that time is, indeed, passing. I find it easy to get tied up in the little details of living and let the years go by, unmarked. I want to get certain things done in this life, and it helps to remember that there are only so many years to do them.

In this brief moment of altered perspective, please join me in a blog toast to some of the things I feel like celebrating on my birthday:

To youth (while it remains available)!

To responsibility!

To risk!

To food, wine, friendship, and nature!

To family!

To knowledge!

To art!

To saving the world!

And, of course, to Mel, who makes all of my birthdays fun these days, and much less soul-crushing than they would otherwise likely be! Thanks, babe!

13:18: From latterday:

Below is a list of the top 106 books tagged “unread” on LibraryThing. The rules:
bold = what you’ve read,
italics = books you started but couldn’t finish
crossed out = books you hated
* = you’ve read more than once
underline = books you own but haven’t read yourself
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16:11: A storm on the horizon
In One Flaw, Questions on Validity of 46 Judges

Apparently, since early 2000, all Patent Court justices have been appointed by an official who lacks the constitutional authority to make such appointments. Now all of the cases that have been ruled on by such justices are, to some degree, up for grabs. Many of these could be retried, with the possibility of rulings coming out differently this time. This could cause some serious chaos in the tech world.

The original article that uncovered this issue is here.

10:47:

11:26: Some actual good news
U.S. Shifting Prison Focus to Re-entry Into Society

It is a big relief to see that you can get a bipartisan coalition around one of the U.S.'s "worst in the world" issues.

15:16: Spitzer and Springer

The current saga of Eliot Spitzer's fall from grace has been reminding me of another politician who found himself is a very similar situation: Jerry Springer. This is one of the more memorable episodes of This American Life that I've heard:

Episode 258 - Leaving the Fold

The first act tells the unlikely story of Jerry Springer's career as a much-beloved politician in Cincinnati, many years before he achieved his current infamy as a talk-show host.

10:50: Lame...
LiveJournal is discontinuing the "basic" account type. While annoying, this is not a deal-breaker, but it makes me apprehensive about what other changes the new owners will be making in an attempt to make money.