damn the muse

::phew::

Posted by yasmín at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Listening to: Dispatch

Today is my last morning in El Paso, which has been unseasonably warm for this time of year. I'm not complaining. I prefer cool rather than freezing. Of course when I'm back here in three weeks it will probably snow. Just once, but it's all done to spite me. Anyway...

A friend from St. Mu drove down yesterday from Alburquerque and we hung out. Had Wendy's and caught a movie. J. is a sweetie, but watching movies with him can be an experience.

The Ice Harvest had it all. Dark humor, boobs, blood, and John Cusack. It still falls under the heading of guy movie, but I don't think J. liked it. I can't decide. The humor I liked. I especially love dark humor, and the movie was loaded with it until it turned gory. Then I was just puzzled, which is why I think I need to sit on it some more. Some critics compare it to Bad Santa, and I always flashback to Billy Bob and Lorelai enjoying themselves in a hysterical fashion. Anyone who does not laugh at that scene is insane. In this movie there are just as funny scenes. And Cusack, well think Gross Point.

Yesterday was interesting.

Posted by yasmín at 9:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This just in via Boing Boing. The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is bringing a class action lawsuit against Sony because of their DRM schemes. According to BB, this is the seventh lawsuit. Chances are more are on the way, and probably from a few other states.

Posted by yasmín at 7:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For once my state is doing something decent. Texas believes that Sony BMG violated the state's anti-spyware law when it included technology on cds meant to prevent consumers from ripping their music into mp3s or transfering the files onto their iPOD.

Without asking users, the CD automatically installed the copy-protection program when discs were loaded into a PC — a necessary step for transferring music to iPods and other portable music players.

Attorney General Greg Abbott accused Sony BMG of surreptitiously installing "spyware" in the form of files that mask other files Sony installed as part of XCP.

This "cloaking" component can leave computers vulnerable to viruses and other security problems, Abbott said, echoing the findings of computer security researchers.

"People buy these CDs to listen to music," Abbott said. "What they don't bargain for is the consumer invasion that is unleashed by Sony BMG."

Security researchers say XCP is spyware because it secretly transmits details about what music the PC is playing. Manual attempts to remove the software, which works only on Windows PCs, can disable the PC's optical drive.

Sony executives have rejected the description of their technology as spyware. A spokesman for the New York-based label did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment on Abbott's lawsuit.

Sony BMG initially rejected the uproar over XCP as technobabble.

But after security experts discovered that XCP opened gaping security holes in users' computers — as did the method Sony BMG offered for removing XCP — Sony BMG agreed last week to recall the discs.

Some 4.7 million had been made and 2.1 million sold. CDs that had XCP included releases by Van Zant, The Bad Plus, Neil Diamond and Celine Dion.

Honestly, I expected a class action lawsuit brought by consumers. Now that a state is involved, well this brings more exposure to the whole fiasco. Hopfully consumers will realize that they do not have to buy into DRM (digital rights management) schemes.

Posted by yasmín at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I will be watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire! It will actually be my first midnight movie too. I'm kinda excited, though I'm rather worried. I've been known to fall asleep easily during movies after a certain hour, but never in a theater. Hopfully not here.

Posted by yasmín at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the NYT today a report has been released finding that the FDA's decision to reject Plan B as an over the counter medication was rather suspicious.

The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, concluded in a report released Monday that the Food and Drug Administration's May 2004 rejection of the morning-after pill, or emergency contraceptive, application was unusual in several respects.

Top agency officials were deeply involved in the decision, which was "very, very rare," a top F.D.A. review official told investigators. The officials' decision to ignore the recommendation of an independent advisory committee as well as the agency's own scientific review staff was unprecedented, the report found. And a top official's "novel" rationale for rejecting the application contradicted past agency practices, it concluded.

The pill, called Plan B, is a flashpoint in the debate over abortion, in part because some abortion opponents consider the pill tantamount to ending a pregnancy. In scientific reviews, the F.D.A. has concluded that it is a contraceptive.

The report suggested that it quickly became apparent that the agency was not going to follow its usual path when it came to the pill. "For example," it said, "F.D.A. review staff told us that they were told early in the review process that the decision would be made by high-level management."

Abortion politics? Apparently Plan B prevents a zygote from sticking to the uterus, assuming the woman did get pregnant after having sex.

Personally, I'd be more worried about the safety of the drug, and if it is, well...

Posted by yasmín at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The roomie and I went to see Goodnight, and Good Luck yesterday. What a fantastic movie, and the lead who played Murrows is going to get nominated for an Oscar in the leading actor category.

Goodnight is a quiet film, but almost every minute of it is so tense it's difficult to believe the events portrayed actually ocurred. Then I realize that they did, and it makes me smile because here's a reporter who stood up for what he believed in. Such integrity on television rarely exists anymore. It's controled by sponsors and corporations who decide whether a story is too controversial to air. Newscasts, too one-sided.

Maybe I'm being too harsh, but I can't help it. I left the movie theater struck by the parallels between then and now. Murrows and his staff took an enourmous risk when they challenged McCarthy, and even though their reactions were fictionalized, I'm pretty sure their struggles internal and otherwise were profound. They reported on the truth because it was the right thing to do despite the threats. It was an amazing movie.

On that note I honestly believe that the future of journalism lies not in tv anymore, but in the internet. Just look at all the weblogs out there devoted to reporting the real news, uncensored with its supporters willing to pay the bills with a few clicks. These are the new reporters.

Posted by yasmín at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's election day in Texas, and while there aren't any races today, there are tons of amendments. Some of them are just puzzling. Others make me cringe. The one that will make national news tomorrow will be Proposition 2, which defines marriage as strictly between a male and a female.

What is marriage anyway? Is it the union of two loving individuals who promise to be loyal to each other in sickness and in health till death do them part? Are husband and wife the only ones capable of acheiving this? Does God command it as such? If so then something must have happened somewhere because statistics show that people really don't respect the sanctity of marriage anymore. Till death do us part? It's more like, "till you bore me to death."

Sanctity of marriage.

Is this a fundamental right? Furthermore, these are unions made in churches blessed by priests. Surprisingly, it's a more religious movement that seems appalled to the whole idea that a male might be attracted to a male, a female attracted to a female. These same religious people can't even keep their own marriages in check. For whatever reason, adultery, disatisfaction, an arranged marriage, the point is that this so called union between a man and a woman really isn't as sacred as it used to be. And if it is, then the religious component should be kept out of it.

Marriages work and marriages fail, the gender shouldn't make a difference.

Posted by yasmín at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was going to title this LOSER, but the bar exam is a sham. I failed, or rather, I didn't acquire the necessary points to pass the exam, again. I'll know tomorrow if I was close, but at least for now the waiting is over. Hello pinot grigio, goodbye stress!

Honestly, I'll be a fifth timer if I take it again. In Texas it means it's a do or die situation. I honestly hope my score improved.

For now I need to look for a job. Out of curiousity, before I raid Career Services at St. Moo, what can you do with a J.D. fellow readers. I'm bilingual, female, and disABLED. That makes me tres appealing, does it not?

Posted by yasmín at 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Saw the Corpse Bride, and then did much avoiding of Texas blogs. Then my roommate convinced me to look at the site. The list is not up. Chances are, it will be up tomorrow.

Damn you, Texas Board of Law Examiners. Damn you!

Anyway, I'm going to see Serenity tomorrow. "I am a leaf on the wind..." ::sniff::

Posted by yasmín at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I AM STRESS.

I was the nut talking to myself in the middle of the street.

I made my roommate read a newsfeed for one of the Texas blogs I frequent because I panicked. Stabbed in the gut, plastic bag over my head, panic. I see white space with black little sticks in all the wrong patterns. That is my nightmare. After all it's happened before. Even after chatting to myself all day that I had conquered and surpassed the evil test from hell, I freaked.

I hate myself.

Posted by yasmín at 8:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)