The Death of a Sniper

John Allen Muhammad was executed just a few hours ago. This is the infamous "DC Sniper" that terrorized one of the worst cities in the world a few years back.

Muhammad has professed his innocence all along, but the nail in the coffin against him had to be the testimony of his 20 year old accomplice, who testified in detail about helping Muhammad and from what it seems did not try to play down his own role in the killing at all.

The only thing really giving me unease about this is 1) serious questions about whether Muhammad is mentally ill, 2) a reference he made in a letter he wrote to a federal judge that makes a mention to evidence that was favorable to him being excluded at trial.

Now, I know as well as anyone (actually better than most) that a lot of the time what the accused wants to put on has absolutely nothing to do with the case against him (this is why we have lawyers, people), but I also know that judges will bend over backwards to make sure people get convicted. Is there any legitimacy to Muhammad's statement? Well that brings us to point #1, if he is mentally ill it may not have even happened.

I like to measure executions by what I call the McVeigh scale. Timothy McVeigh was, in my opinion, the poster boy for capital punishment. He was an unrepentant mass-murderer who specifically targeted people that had never hurt him. Sure there was some shadiness to the whole thing - such as trying to paint him as a white supremacist when the evidence of that was shaky, and the fact that there were probably more people involved than those caught, but those factors don't really mitigate McVeigh's actions.

So basically a 10 on the scale means execution fine and dandy, anything less means problems. Muhammad I put at about a seven. I do not believe I would have voted for capital punishment if I had sat on his jury.

But, the State of Virginia felt otherwise, and now he's gone. Rest in peace.

Virtual Sisyphus

Ugh. Aion. I have no desire to play. My main character has been level 31 for two weeks. I have all the alt slots filled. I just...don't care.

Aion's main failing is that the more you level the less fun the game gets. What's your reward for gaining X amount of experience to get the next level? Finding out you have to get even more for the next one! Skills come only every three levels and they're usually just slight variations of the ones you already have. PvP gets easier as you level. I actually like the crafting system but that's about it.

There is no reason to play this game past level 10. Like, none. My subscription runs out in a few weeks and there is a very small chance of it making past that point. The fact that people who play for six months get better wings than anything currently in the game just makes me want to come back less. What would the point be?

Like the rest of Aion...there is none. Such a well-polished, beautiful looking, completely pointless game.

Hilarious

It flew away safely. Manuuuuuuu Ginobli!!!!

In This Scene, Our Hero Begins to Realize the Gravity of his Situation

I drive one of the most commonly sold cars in America.

This is not my car...but if I put a picture of my car up you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

There is nothing unusual about this car. It's a standard model from a very ordinary make. And yet there is one store in the county I live in that can do real work on it. And that store happens to be an hour away. And is only open during work hours.

So I made an appointment two weeks ago. They said they would order the part no problem (it's a very ordinary part) and it would show up in 3-5 days and the work would take maybe two hours.

Except when I roll in this morning (having permission to take a few hours off work if I make them up later) they go 'whoops...we never made your appointment...or ordered your part. Sorry.'

If this happened in Los Angeles or even Indianapolis I would say 'go fuck yourselves' and take it down the street. But here...I can't say shit. There's literally nowhere else I can take this car. So I get to wait until they get the part in, then try to find another day during the work week I can take off half the day to get my car fixed.

I think I'm finally starting to realize where I am.

Every Dog Has His Day

I had a jury trial on Thursday - three counts of driving under the influence (simple dui, dui with blood alcohol over .08 and extreme dui).

This was a frustrating case for me. There were literally no legal issues. There weren't really any factual issues. I had an hour long conversation with my client where I tried to convince her to accept a plea offer (and I hate doing that) and basically told her she had no shot at trial.

But somehow lightning struck. I pulled some fancy lawyer moves (won't go into details on a public blog) and slung some doubt. Apparently reasonable doubt. I was stunned after fifteen minutes the jury was still out. Then thirty minutes. Then an hour. Then the message came that the jury had a verdict on two counts and were hung on the third.

Oh dear god what the christ. They hung on the extreme dui, the charge that had my client looking at thirty days in jail. One of the jurors later said it was one juror that held out. The others were all willing to convict after fifteen minutes.

So the judge declared a mistrial on that count and set for sentencing on the other two. There's a good chance the state won't retry it, mostly due to the fact that there's very little chance there is a viable trial date within the time limits, and also because of high how their caseload is.

On the one hand, I am beyond happy with this result. Even if all it means is the state has to try twice, that's much better than I was hoping for as I was expecting a clean loss on all counts. On the other hand I feel like a bit of a schmuck for telling my client she had no chance, since apparently she did.

I also like it because it makes me feel good about where I am as an attorney. I don't need a case to put on a good trial. I can make a defense where there should be none. I'm going to bring this up at my review (which should be soon). I need to start working felony cases soon if I'm going to stay passionate about this job.

Blood for the Blood God

If Warhammer books were crack (and let's be honest, they are) then Blood for the Blood God is pure, uncut cocaine.

There is nothing wholesome or half-baked in here, nothing redeeming or complex about any of these characters. The closest thing to the good guys are blood thirsty mutants who willingly sacrifice their closest friends to achieve their goals. No heroes to be found in these pages, just treachery, murder, and despair.

There is a stark message in these pages - the world outside of the shadow of chaos is completely fucked. Far from the empire and deep in the chaos wastes tribes of men live and die and form great kingdoms and ruin them in a matter of heartbeats. The world of pious men of Sigmar is banal and heartless and very weak next to the world of the Tsavags and Suls and the other denizens of this novel.

The author teases us with hints at romance, hints at heroism, hints at overcoming the odds, and then dashes them beautifully. Somewhere between the four-trunked mammoth crushing the maggot infested limbs of a captured scout, the bloated priest of Nurgle transforming his slaves into plaguebearers in a desert of crystals, and a demon rising from an ocean of blood the reader realizes that selfish empowerment is the best one can hope for.

There are many gods mentioned in the worship of the various peoples in this book, but all are clearly avatars of the four lords of Chaos. Mutants are commonplace, and demonic power is the key to everything.

And that's not even going into the millenia old champion of Khorne called the Skulltaker that is slaughtering the descendants of an ancient Khagan who keep their ancestors legacy alive through cannibalism.

The sweeping power of Chaos and the motivations of Khorne are put out in this book better than any other so far. The final message is one of never ending conflict. The blood god does not wish for conquest, does not care for treasure or devotion, he simply wants blood and he does not care if the blood spilled is that of his followers or his enemies. When the protaganist and the Skulltaker finally have their inevitable showdown it is made very clear that they are not fighting for principle or contest or for any other reason than to spill each other's blood.

I give this book a well deserved four stars out of five and cannot recommend it highly enough for fans of the Warhammer world.

The Day the Mushrooms Fought Back

Click on the pictures below to see the full size versions.

The day began like any other, with a local mushroom merchant bringing her crop to the market. Meaning that I made candy that turned us into Fungies and ran around yelling gibberish, a few guildies joined in for some unscripted awesomeness.

But something went wrong, these were no ordinary mushrooms, they demanded equal rights!


More and more mushrooms joined in! Random people asked if I had any more and I handed it out.


Soon the mushrooms were joined in solidarity by their long allies, the corn. Someone used a frightcorn transformation and hopped around with us! Meanwhile another guildie had turned into a dragon and made demands.


The mushrooms fought both man and dragon for freedom! Or tried to at least, I actually couldn't attack the dragon, so it just took bites at me while I rallied the troops.


Even the strange ice trees joined the cause! Another random person joins in, showing us up with her much higher level transformation candy.


The mushrooms and trees and corn began to actively persecute those who wouldn't give them the right to vote! A guildie freaked out and tried to run away, we chased her down muhahahaha!


No matter where the heretic ran, we were in hot pursuit! Note the pluma!


The glorious dream of mushroom freedom and an egalitarian society ended the only way it could. In blood. We ran into the arena where PvP is enabled...and a bloodbath followed.

Despite having no hands or feet, the mushrooms fought hard! Although we actually have no attacks we can use in mushroom form except auto attack. Doh. Note the occulens as well.









The noble mushrooms fought hard, but were no match for those who could actually hold weapons.


What a strange dream indeed! And pretty much the most fun I've ever had in Aion.

Winless Wonders: Part 2

A few weeks ago I did a run down of the winless teams and tried to call their first wins. Time for an update!

Carolina
I predicted: Week 5 (I know I said Week 4, but they didn't play then, I meant Week 5)
Currently: 2-3, beat Washington Week 5 and Tampa Bay Week 6
Status: CORRECT

Cleveland
I predicted: Week 11
Currently: 1-5, beat Buffalo Week 5
Status: WRONG

Kansas City
I predicted: Week 6
Currently: 1-5, beat Washington Week 6
Status: CORRECT

Miami
I predicted: Week 4
Currently: 2-3, beat Buffalo Week 4 and New York Jets Week 5
Status: CORRECT

St. Louis
I predicted: Week 5
Currently: 0-6
Status: WRONG

Tampa Bay
I predicted: Week 10
Currently: 0-6
Status: STILL ALIVE

Tennessee
I predicted: Week 8
Currently: 0-5
Status: STILL ALIVE

So of the seven winless teams from week 3 I was dead on the money on three of them, wrong on two, and two are still up in the air. That's pretty damn good if I do say so myself.

Looking over the Ram's remaining schedule there are a number of winnable games, but then again this team also has a very real shot of losing out. It's tempting to pick Week 8 in Detroit, but I'm going to go with Week 11 when the Cardinals come to town.