oferta

The third time was a charm. I received and accepted an offer, and next fall I'll be moving back to DC. This week, I've been casually looking at apartments in the district and getting totally depressed due to the ridiculous rents. I should save my worries for closer to the actual move date.

Off to an interview

Take three.

I'm approaching this round as a subsidized trip to see 'peeps before I am told "no" once again in a few weeks' time.

Próximo viaje (grande)

Late February - early March 2009. My current (fluid) plan is to spend a couple days in Barranquilla for Carnaval, then head to the Santa Marta area for some hiking and diving. Then I'll spend a couple of days in Cartagena before heading to Bogota to wrap up the trip. Ya no puedo esperar.

Kitchen gadgets

Why do I want this salt pig? Maybe because I'm tired of opening and closing a torn plastic bag to get sea salt. Or maybe because I have a thing for kitchen gadgets. Spending close to $40 for what is basically a ceramic bowl to hold salt is a little ridiculous, but this design is clearly superior to its cheaper cousins. It is functional, I would use it, and it would look cool in my kitchen. And I would get purple or green, or, since this is a fancy-pants salt pig made in France, "fig" ou "vert."

Cable

I don't have cable. For the past 10 years, I've either managed without a TV, managed with broadcast television, or, in the past two years, managed with a 2 disc per month subscription to Netflix. And it's been fine.

But sometimes I crave a Real World or Ab Fab marathon, or non-stop cable news even though I know all of it is garbage. This craving has become especially intense over the past week, when our national political scene has become an episode of "The Jerry Springer Show." I can only imagine the fun Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert are going to have with this election season.

But I think it boils down to the fact that I am cheap. $50 - 80 per month is kind of steep, especially when I could spend it on something else or hoard it for my post-clerkship vacation. Speaking of which, the job search has begun anew, and it feels like a repeat of last year so far.

Rats

8 days ago: Large rat spotted in garage at night while parking car.
7 days ago: Rat poison purchased and laid as bait.
5 days ago: Evidence that some rat poison was consumed.
4 days ago: Rat seen in garage in the early morning.
3 days ago: Evidence that more rat poison was consumed.

1 day ago:

Rat found near death by A/C unit. All poison consumed. More poison laid out in garage.

Rat currently is rotting in a bag of dog poop in the alley, awaiting trash collection.

The Man really is out to get me

The DOJ released a report today confirming allegations of the politicization of the hiring process for entry-level career attorneys. I posted on this when the story first broke, but the latest revelations provide more evidence that The Man really is out to get me.

The findings will come as no surprise to those disgusted with the antics of this administration. But this report is a big deal because (1) it comes from within the Department of Justice itself and (2) is the first in a series of reports investigating the higher profile U.S. Attorney firing scandal.

I found the report interesting because it shows how mediocre, but loyal Bushie, attorneys were placed in senior positions with influence over the entire hiring process for what are supposed to be apolitical career positions.* It also contained some laughable justifications by the cronies for why Rhodes scholars or people in the top third of their class at Stanford etc. were not qualified for an interview.

And of course, this report is somewhat personal. It isn’t directly relevant to my situation because it examines those who were “deselected,” or removed from lists of applicants to be interviewed whereas I actually interviewed. Twice. And for the years in which I interviewed, there either wasn’t evidence of blatant politicization or it was after the scheme was exposed and reforms were supposedly in place. The report doesn’t examine if there was any politicization of final hiring decisions.**

I have my suspicions, though. I was told in both my interviews that final offers were subject to senior-level review. And my resume contains enough “liberal buzzwords” to constitute Exhibit A of what to watch out for if someone might be illegally screening for political or ideological factors. Also, the place of my 2L summer internship is explicitly listed as a “Liberal Organization” that was screened out. (See p. 107). So much for wanting attorneys who are interested in what they want to practice!

Due to the extension of my current position, I am still eligible to apply for the Honor’s Program. I’m lukewarm on doing so, and I wonder if I should even bother. The same people will be in charge. The clock is ticking!

*Neither of the two worst offenders still work for the government and thus can’t be disciplined. One quit her position at DOJ the day before she was supposed to be interviewed by the investigating committee. Suspicious? I wonder if she is taking a leave of absence from her position in this law firm or if she is now worried about ethics complaints to her state bars?

**This of course would be more difficult to control for since the interview introduces many more variables. For example, after meeting me, the interviewers probably decided that I was WAY too attractive and charming to bring into the DOJ because I might distract both the jury and the judge when arguing a case.

Cameroon on my mind

Many things are preferable to social security review, and one of those things today was thoughts of The Cradle of Our Fathers. For one, today is the TEN YEAR anniversary of my Peace Corps staging date. Oh so long ago, I left what I knew and headed to Washington, DC for two days of orientation and shots and then a very long flight to begin my two years in Africa.

For another, CNN's Anderson Cooper is in The Cradle of Our Fathers for some "Planet in Peril" series. I don't get cable, so all I know is what I see on the internet (never at work, of course, even though net surfing is preferable to said social security review).

Anyway, AC is talking about bushmeat, the rainforest, and zoonotics, which are diseases that jump from animals to humans. Cameroon has the dubious distinction of being the birthplace of HIV and no doubt has some other surprises in store for humanity. One of these could be buruli, a nasty flesh-eating staph-like bacterial infection. The kids who have the misfortune of contracting it are then said to have been cursed by witch doctors for stealing mangoes or whatever. The story from is from Akonalinga, which is pictured below, sans cursed kiddos.

African albinos

Here's a macabre story from today's New York Times about the current craze in African witchcraft: albinos have magical powers that can make you rich, so some people are hunting them to use their body parts in potions.

The story is from Tanzania, but superstition about albinos abounds and is widespread throughout Africa. The albino-skin-can-make-you-rich belief has spread to Kenya and D.R. Congo, and may have roots in Nigerian cinema.

There was one albino student in my Form 2 math class in The Cradle of Our Fathers. I remember that she was always sunburned and seemed cursed from birth just because she was born an albino in rural Central Africa. I hope she hasn't been made into a potion.

Memorial Day To Do List:

Brunch.

Notícias en Español

Here's a great op-ed about how Spanish-language newscasts in Los Angeles dwarf their English-language counterparts in terms of quality and substance. I reached the same conclusion late last year about evening news in the Dallas area. My preferred newscast, when I watch one, is Univision.

Argument, translated from dogspeak

Nacho: Lick my wiener.
Beemer: I don't want to.
Nacho: Do it!
Beemer: No!

Random thoughts

1. So much for watching this week's episode of "The Office." There is a bad storm moving into DFW, so the weathermen on ALL of the local networks have pre-empted regular programming. The commercial free, self-validating marathon of the storm's progress is complete with 4-D computer graphics showing lightning strikes as they happen. If you look closely, you can see little erections just south of Dallas county.

2. I went to a neighborhood meeting last week and realized I am out of sync with my neighborhood. People were up in arms about a proposed homeless assistance center 2 miles from my house and about a rash of daytime burglaries. The vast majority of my neighbors either want to hire off-duty police officers to patrol the area or install citizen-monitored security cameras. I am opposed to both options.

3. Speaking of the proposed homeless assistance center, I’m not really clear on what it is, except that it would be located where the decommissioned armory is, which is across a highway from my neighborhood and close to the DART rail station. The location makes sense to me since the assisted homeless would be able to get around and find jobs and eventually (hopefully) not be homeless. I am clear, however, that my city council representative is an idiot, since he was shocked to learn that a U.S. military installation is a federal facility.

4. Nacho is doing fine. His six weeks of post-heartworm treatment indoor confinement ended today. He only peed in the house once, and that was just a little bit.

Backyard squirrel porn

Foreplay.

Consummation.

Things I do not want to hear before dawn

(1) My ear-splitting house alarm go off when I open the back door.

(2) A cell phone conversation recap of last night's "Dancing with the Stars" episode from the person sitting behind me on the train.

Happy Easter!

Witness my gardening prowess.

All is well here. Nacho survived the heartworm treatment, although he hates being in the house all day long when the weather is beautiful outside. Two more weeks of restricted activity, and then he can chase the baby squirrels to his heart's delight.

The patient is doing fine

Nacho is back from the vet's. I checked him in on Monday morning for his heartworm treatment and picked him up this afternoon. They took good care of him, but he is *definitely* glad to be home, and I'm glad to have him back. He seems a little weak and tired, but that is to be expected since the vet pumped him full of an arsenic-based medication with the scary name of Immiticide. I still have to take Nacho to the vet for a weekly checkup for the next six weeks, but the worst part of the medical treatment is over.

The next month is going to be difficult at home, though. I have to restrict Nacho's activity, which means crating him during the day and leaving him inside during the beautiful spring weather. Also, I can't take him for long walks or take him to the dog park. The reduced activity is necessary because as the adult worms die, they exit the heart through the pulmonary artery. Sudden activity increases the risk of a pulmonary embolism.

I wonder if Nacho is going to cough up bloody bits of worm. If I find any, I'll be sure to post a picture.

Crappy Monday

(1) Nacho has heartworms, despite being on a prophylaxis for the past year. The vet thinks it was a failure in medication, and I agree since he also contracted roundworms, which the medication is also supposed to prevent. The company supposedly has a guarantee, but they are saying he contracted heartworms before his first (negative) test. Possible, but not likely. They are offering to pay a quarter of the $1,000 treatment cost and they'll give me a year's supply of their ineffective medication. Thanks! It is going to be a battle to make them pay more, but they are messing with the wrong owner.

(2) Nacho peed on the floor today. I left him inside b/c it cold and rainy, but evidently he couldn't hold it.

(3) I'm currently working on a motion where the USG can't seem to get through its thick skull that exhaustion is a condition precedent, not a jurisdictional prerequisite, to suit for employment discrimination. This is probably the sixth or seventh time I've addressed this issue, yet for some reason the USG continues to argue that the burden is on the plaintiff to prove exhaustion.

(4) I owe taxes for FY 2007. Some of these taxes will go towards my salary which pays me to tell other people funded by my salary time and time again that exhaustion is not a jurisdictional prerequisite.

(5) All of my expected fiscal stimulus will go towards the taxes I owe. So much for doing my part to stimulate the economy via the stupid idea thought up by our leaders. Instead, I'll get an increased federal deficit funded by government bonds sold to foreign countries.

Why can't I be back in Honduras?

Tela

The last stop in my vacation is Tela, a small city on the Caribbean coast of Honduras about an hour and a half south and east of San Pedro Sula.

Tela is nice, but the beach would benefit from an organized clean-up to pick up the trash that litters the sand.

Tela, as seen from the Maya Vista hotel

My days here have been pretty lazy. I walked along the beach for two hours on Saturday; on Sunday I went to Parque Nacional Jeanette Kawas (Punta Sal); and today I went to the Lancetilla botanical gardens and sat on the beach. I´m staying at the Maya Vista, which has a good restaurant and great patio conducive to drinking and watching the sunset.

Parque Nacional Jeanette Kawas

Howler monkeys at PN Jeanette Kawas

I head back to the U.S. tomorrow. I´ll catch a mid-morning bus from Tela to San Pedro Sula and sit in the airport until my flight leaves. Overall, this has been a good vacation and I feel rejuvenated.

Utila II

My week of diving in Utila was good. I liked the rhythym of the day, except for the waking up at 6:15 AM part for the 7:00 departure for the morning dives. The upshot of such an early start is that by 11, I was "done" for the day and could eat lunch, sit around, read-nap, and enjoy the sunset before dinner and turning in at 8. There isn´t a whole lot to do on Utila - what I just described pretty much sums it up. I took a walk one afternoon but aborted after about an hour b-c I decided it was hot and that I´d rather be napping.

View from Rubi's Inn pier at dawn

Utila's happenin' main street

Overall, the diving was good, not great. The reefs were pretty healthy and there was a good diversity of hard and soft corals, sponges, and fish. I was happy with the dive shop. I was a little underwhelmed b-c I think Asia really spoiled me. At Sipadan (in Malaysia), I saw a bajillion (yes, I counted) sharks and turtles and huge schools of fish. In Utila, no sharks, no turtles, some schooling fish, and certainly no whale sharks. But still, the diving was good, and I don´t regret returning to the Bay Islands.

Utila

I arrived on Utila on Saturday morning. The ferry ride over was very bumpy, and some people got sick. Thankfully, I did not.

I had mixed karma on arrival. I found a great place to stay that is only $15 per night, and I found a good dive shop to dive with. My bad karma was that I felt a little ill - fluish, or maybe I swallowed some fecal matter while river rafting the day before. I decided not to dive for a day and just chilled out instead.

I did go diving on Monday afternoon. We went to two sites on the south side. Both were good - lots of corals and fish. The reef is pretty healthy. I got extremely cold during both dives, which kind of sucked.

On today's two dives on the north side, I wore two wetsuits and was quite toasty, although it was a little hard to move my arms. I felt a little bit like the little brother in "The Christmas Story." Today's dives were good, too. Our boat lost its rudder right before the first dive, so we had to get towed to the buoy, towed to the second dive site, and towed to shore. Thankfully the dive shop already has a replacement boat.

dive site on north side of Utila

I'm done for the day. Dive vacations are great. The only bad part is that I had to be at the dive shop at 6:30 AM for our departure, but after two very strenous hours underwater floating around and looking at fish I can sit around all afternoon and do nothing. Dinner is on the agenda for the evening, but first it is hammock time.

La Ceiba

On the flight from Miami to San Pedro Sula, I changed my mind about heading straight to the islands and decided to spend a few days in La Ceiba instead.

La Ceiba has changed quite a bit since I passed through 6 years ago. For one, a small tourist infrastructure developed, which made it a lot easier to enjoy the area's natural wonders. I stayed at Omega Jungle Lodge, which I would describe as a backpacker ecolodge. Two Germans ran it. I spent most of the non-nature-y time sitting at the bar talking to the disgruntled returned Peace Corps Volunteer bartender who was about to quit after all of 4 days of work.

Jungle Lodge Bar

On Saturday, I went white water rafting on the Rio Cangrejal. Our group of five started off with some river swimming and boulder jumping. The river is a bit low right now, so the rapids were only class II - III, and only one was challenging. They were all fun though, and I had a great guide. All I had to do was follow his instructions on when to paddle, when to back paddle, and when to stop.

Blogazon conquers a rapid

In the afternoon, I hiked up part of Pico Bonito to a very nice waterfall whose name escapes me right now. The trail was fairly well marked and not strenous.

Cascada El Bejuco

My time in La Ceiba was very worthwhile, and I'm glad I decided to spend two nights there. I probably could have spent another day or two, but diving called.

Mañana

Tomorrow I leave for a little vay-cay. I'm going to play it by ear, but the rough plan is to get to Utila on Saturday and spend about a week diving. After that, I'll head back to the mainland for some time on the beach in Tela. Or maybe I'll spend some time near La Ceiba.

Amo Honduras !

Super Tuesday redux

I don't have much to add to what has already been said by the bajillion commentators.

On the left, I'm not surprised that yesterday resolved nothing. I'm getting a little excited that my vote in a month might actually mean something. But then again, even after Ohio and Texas, there probably won't be a winner. I'm waffling as to whom I should support. My head says Clinton but damn does she have a lot of baggage, so much so that she is more likely to lose in November. My heart says Obama, but I can't help but feeling he is an empty vessel into which we pour our hopes.

On the right, Huckabee's victories, although dwarfed by McCain's, surprised me. They raised the increasingly likely specter of Vice President Huckabee. He may be folksy and charming, but deep down he is evil.

One year to go

Not that I'm counting.

Reality deferred

Thursday was the boss’s birthday. We had bagels for breakfast, went out for lunch, and had chocolate raspberry cake in the afternoon. All together, I probably did about four hours of work yesterday. Oh, and we’re still doing the "official" birthday lunch sometime next week since this week is busy.

A while ago, the boss asked if I wanted to stay on for another year. At first I thought she was kidding, but it became apparent that she wasn’t. With my pickiness (and procrastination) in the job search, election year uncertainty deferring much government hiring and a looming recession cramping private sector hiring, I realized: why would I give this up? I like my job, it is pretty cushy, and it pays reasonably well. And I actually like my boss. Those are four things most people can’t say about their job.

So I’m staying. I agonized and flip-flopped a bit over the decision, but in the end it really was a no brainer. What’s another year in la-la land?

Fashion police

I'm not a fashionista, but I know that a man should never wear white socks with slacks and dress shoes. Knowing this basic rule, I was horrified this morning when I realized that I forgot to pack a pair of dress socks in my gym bag. I was forced to wear my dirty (but still bright) white athletic socks to work.

I tried to convince myself that it wasn't noticeable, but with every step a bright white band flashed between my cuff and shoe. And today, since we're on duty, many bright flashes filled our lobby as I greeted the people delivering search warrants, pen registers, and probation reports. I felt like a dork.

Shallow

I bought a pair of hiking boots today. I'm excited as I have been wanting a new pair for a while. Some Christmas gift certificates finally motivated me to get a pair to break them in before my trips in February and August.

As I was sending a thank you note to the people who gave me the gift certificate, a friend forwarded this article about John Granville, the USAID diplomat who was murdered in Khartoum, Sudan earlier today. I was in the Peace Corps with John; he was in the education group a year ahead of me. While we weren't great friends, we were friends and our paths crossed for the year our time in the Cradle of Our Fathers overlapped. I remember him best for the Cameroon art import business he tried to start once he returned to the U.S.

I feel shallow.