1. I had my first felony trial. Lost. Very sad because it was very winnable. Don’t know what went wrong. Also sad because so many other new PDs seem to win win win, so what’s going on here? To paraphrase Lloyd Dobler’s Gas&Sip buddy in “Say Anything”: Juries, man.
2. I did not see the “Sopranos” last night. Tivo is saving it for me. I doubt the rest of the world will be so kind.
3. Today is apparently Apple’s WWDC keynote event and I did not even know that until five minutes ago. That means nothing to most of you, I’m sure, but to me it’s a sign that I’ve been way too freaking busy lately. I can’t keep up with anything anymore.
4. I learned about hydraulic oil well fracturing the other night from a Halliburton employee. I was not surprised to learn it’s probably bad for the environment.

Just in case Stephen Colbert hasn’t heard, can someone please tell him that the bears on are on the march? Note to self: Shooting a grizzly with a camera will not slow it down. [tags]humor[/tags]

Apparently the grizzly bears in Yellowstone have begun emerging from hibernation. It sounds like now would be a great time to visit the world’s first National Park:

Soon after emerging from their dens, bears begin looking for food. They’re attracted to elk and bison carcasses, and will defend them aggressively if anyone comes too close.

Park regulations require you to stay a hundred yards — the length of a football field — away from black and grizzly bears. Park rangers suggest using your binoculars, telescope, or telephoto lens to get a closer look.

Yellowstone officials advise hikers, snowshoers, and cross-country skiers to travel in groups of three or more, make noise on the trail, and keep an eye out for bears. Bear sightings should be reported to the nearest visitor center or ranger station as soon as possible.

Let’s go see the bears!

I just hope someone tells Stephen Colbert for whom these cuddly creatures are:

“godless killing machines without a soul,” or as he said on The O’Reilly Factor, “giant marauding godless killing machines.”

Yeah, this could be bad. Can someone get him a memo on this, please?

Thanks to the magic of Tivo I just got to see last Friday’s BSG premier. What an incredible show! The multiple cylons all talking to each other and walking the streets of New Caprica¹, the irredeemable Baltar², the captive Kara (Starbuck) and her cylon baby (!?), Tyrol’s eye ripped out like a boiled egg and his dark and mad babblings about being on the side of the demons… We’re talking good tvhere, people. I’m bothered by the fact that Starbuck sort of seems to be genuinely warming up to her cylon boyfriend/captor, by the idea that Roslyn might have been, um, well, I won’t say in case you haven’t seen it. But what bugs me the most is Fat-Ass Apollo. That just creeps me out. L. says his whole crybaby fatsuit thing is not really well explained by the show, but I disagree. To me, nothing says “hopeless” like a Fat-Ass Apollo. Let’s hope EJO’s plan is going to work.³

Politically, this season premier makes some jabs at switching sides. In the first season, a popular interpretation of the the humans on the run from the surprise attack on their home was that the humans were just like the U.S. after 911, the cylons were the terrorists, etc. That sort of works until the cylons take over, which they have done. So now we’re supposed to think the cylons are the U.S. as the unwanted occupiers of another “country” and people? And the humans are the “insurgents” fighting to liberate themselves from the occupation? Hmm. Really?

I guess we’ll have to see…⁴ [tags]battlestar gallactica[tags]

1. Do cylon models actually ever challenge themselves? I mean, does one Number Six ever argue with another Number Six? Or do members of the same model always more or less agree and echo each other?↩
2. Will Baltar ever be able to redeem himself in the eyes of the people? I miss Baltar in his lab making cylon detectors and then lying about the results. Baltar as politician is just tired.↩
3. And of course the plan will work. I give the show about three more episodes on “New Caprica”—at most. Just like in the second season when the show was mired in a two-track plot where half of it took place on Caprica proper, I’m already tired of this terrestrial version of the show.↩
4. The title of this post is a quote from Starbuck at the end of last season’s finale. When the cylons come marching into New Caprica, Tyrol turns to Starbuck and asks, “What are we going to do now, captain?” The title is Starbuck’s response. It would also be the perfect name for a public defender blog, don’t you think?↩