the uscis is so stupid...

how stupid are they? let's take a survey over the past two days:

proposed new o/p visa regulations that state in the preamble that you can file an o/p visa petition up to 12 months in advance, but not earlier than 6 months. this is utter stupidity. to add to the utter stupidity, the actual text of the reg, published in the federal register at 70 fed. reg. 21983 (4/28/05), does not match what the preamble says. the actual proposed text of the reg states: "The petition may be filed up to one year, but not earlier than 6 months, before the actual need for the alien's services." they take months (if not years) revising these regs before they are published, you think someone, anyone, would have read that sentence and have said, "this doesn't make any f*!%ing sense!"

in a request for evidence, the ever intelligent adjudications staff at the csc tell me that someone is subject to special registration per 67 fed. reg. 70526, which states that citizens of certain countries who were in the U.S. on december 2, 2002, are subject to special call-in registration. the crack uscis adjudicator says the fr notice requires individuals who were here at that time had to registerd by a certain date or "at time of entry thereafter." they are wrong on two counts. first, port-of-entry registration is only for citizens of iran, iraq, libya & sudan (see 67 fed. reg. 57032). (needless to say, the individual is not a citizen of one of those ocuntries.) no other countries have been designated. second, the fr notice for call-in registration is only for call-in registration, not port-of-entry registration. they are two completely different concepts. the call-in registration, described in the fr notice they simply required you to present yourself by a certain date, notify immigration of any address changes and report when you departed. there is not one mention in that rule about registering upon subsequent entries nor is there any rule about subjecting individuals to port-of-entry registration. they are too stupid to be able to read and understand their own regulations.

darth vader's blog

ever wonder what darth vader would write in his diary? check out http://darthside.blogspot.com/ . read it soon because george lucas' lawyers will probably have this shut down by the end of the week.

how rich are you?

find out at: http://www.globalrichlist.com/index.php. there's also a link on the sidebar.* this is a really innovative idea to drum up donations for a charity. if anything, it really made me stop and think about how fortunate i have been in my life.

* disclaimer (i am a lawyer, after all): i do not know anything about this organization, so if you feel the need to give, then i suggest you do the appropriate research first or simply give to a charity that you know is bona fide.

f'ed up lawyer

a blog i've been reading a lot recently...

http://philalawyer.blogspot.com/

it speaks to me as one of those disillusioned with their choice of profession.

dmb

the new dmb album, stand up, comes out on may 10. no, i am not counting the days. ok, i lied. you know i am. check out some in studio interviews about the making of the album at http://www.dmbnewstudioalbum.com/. they look and sound great, so i am expecting great things from this album. another before these crowded streets maybe? we heard some great new songs during the summer 2004 tour (sugar will, joy ride hello again). here's hoping they make it to the album (remember the everyday debacle) and that the rest of the songs are of the same quality. 26 days!

it's transubstantialicious, baby!

the college of cardinals has set the date for the conclave to select the new pope. have you filled out your brackets?

http://www.drewmarlowe.com/pictures/brackets.jpg

update

ok, by posting that last post, i seem to have re-activated something and resurrected the heretofore missing blog. the blog has arisen. all praise to the mighty blog!

ah suck

so due to some technical difficulties, i accidentally deleted my blog. for some reasons, i had two listings for maltese parakeet. one had postings, one did not. why two listings for the same blog? i thought. why don't i just delete the one with no postings? i thought. click. delete. blog with all the postings ... gone. as my old friend at the dorms, terry l. would say, ah suck.

mitch

"I bought a donut, and the guy gave me a receipt for the donut. I don't need a receipt for a donut. I give you the money, you give me the donut. End of transaction. We don't need to bring ink and paper into it. I just cannot imagine a scenario where I would have to prove that I bought a donut. Some skeptical friend. 'Hey man, don't even act like I didn't get that donut. I got the documentation right here... Oh wait it's at home in the file. Under D.' "

r.i.p. mitch hedberg. you will be missed.

buchy gets his salad tossed

well not really. but i bet that got your attention.

http://video.woodtv.com/

select the link for "pat buchanan doused with salad dressing"

don't know how long it will be up at that site, but its worth your time to go look for it.

this f'ing made my day.

hypocrisy in the white house

the president's statement about terri schiavo:

"I urge all those who honor Terri Schiavo to continue to work to build a culture of life, where all Americans are welcomed and valued and protected, especially those who live at the mercy of others," he said.

"The essence of civilization is that the strong have a duty to protect the weak. In cases where there are serious doubts and questions the presumption should be in the favor of life." *

* Offer not valid in all 50 states. Offer does not apply to Iraqis, death row prisoners in Texas, blacks, hispanics, gays, lesbians, democrats or anyone living in a blue state or a state where my brother is not governor.

free dogs

it really should be flattering. they bark and bark and bark at every little noise when one of us is not home. they know the pack is incomplete and are so excited that the missing one may come back. but it drives me frickin' nuts. anyone want two free dogs?

uscis at it again

posted this morning on the american immigration lawyers association (aila) website:

Still no word on when USCIS will start accepting petitions for the 20,000 H-1Bs. In the meantime, government sources confirm that the USCIS miscounted fy2005 H-1B allocations, such that at least 10,000 more than the 65,000 quota were allocated. Posted on AILA InfoNet at Doc. No. 05032860 (Mar. 28, 2005) .

wtf?! wtff!?! this agency is so beyond f'ed up. every day its something like this. are they going to take visas away now? am i going to get calls to turn my clients in because uscis gave them a visa they weren't supposed to get?

podcasting

so, what is this podcasting thing? as we established in my first post, i am coming rather late to blogging, so i figure i am behind the curve on podcasting, as well. not as behind, though. so anyway, i'm reading one of my favorite blogs (http://randomreality.blogware.com/) a few months ago and i see this word podcast. don't know what that is, don't bother to look it up (yes, i am lazy). then, randomly, the next day, i read some other reference to podcasting. ok, this is something i need to know about, i think, as i google the term. i find ipodder (http://ipoddernet.sourceforge.net/) and am instantly hooked. so, what is it? basically, podcasts are radio shows that are produced by all manner of random individuals and posted on the internet so that you can download them and listen to them on your ipod. ipodder is an aggregator for podcasts, like all the content aggregators for blogs, news sites, etc., that will automatically check the sites you indicate for new podcasts and download them into your itunes for synching to your ipod.

so what do you listen to on podcasts? anything. literally anything. the content is so specific. they are radio shows that you would never hear on the radio because they are so not commercial. there are talk shows, music shows, comedy bits, food shows, sports talk shows, everything. there is so much content out there and some of it is crap, but some of it is great. i was having a hard time knowing where to start, but, lucky for me, literally minutes after i learn about podcasting, i read my wired magazine (yes, i get the old school paper version) and see this article (http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,66133,00.html) about adam curry (yes, the former mtv veejay), who is apparently the granddaddy of podcasting. he's involved with ipodder and has got a great podcast called daily source code, which you can get at http://www.dailysourcecode.com. there's almost always a fun mash-up to hear, a funny name-that-tune game called jan polet's hit test (http://www.janpolet.nl) and he runs promos for podcasts so you can find good content to add to your ipodder. like the roadhouse blues podcast, which i am jamming to right now. it's the best blues you've never heard. hit it up at http://www.codemode.typepad.com/roadhouse/ . other than adam, there are some other great sources for finding good podcasting content, including websites like podcast alley (http://podcastalley.com/), podcasting news (http://www.podcastingnews.com/), and podcast bunker (http://www.podcastbunker.com/).

so, there you have it. there are so many issues to talk about, like legal and copyright issues about content, the future of podcasting, how it could be made to be profitable and about a million others. this is my new favorite thing right now (which will probably fall by the wayside in a few days, we all know that i have the attention span of a gnat on meth). but, for now, i think its cool, so check out this podcasting thing...

spyware

spyware has got to be the most evil thing ever invented by mankind. seriously, people, i do not want to play blackjack at an illegal offshore casino, refinance my home or learn about unbelievable travel deals. i think the thing that tipped me off that i had spyware issues was the 8,000 pop ups for spyware detecting software. can they be that stupid to advertise something that blocks their advertising? probably not. so, figuring that the spyware software they were advertising was just another way to install spyware onto my computer, i closed the 17 popup windows that had just opened on my screen and went straight to the microsoft site and dowloaded the free anti-spyware beta. 15 minutes later, i am spyware free and surfing the web, gloriously pop-up free. thank you microsoft. pick it up at http://www.microsoft.com. i highly recommend it.

e-bay as art

go to ebay and search for item 5566217149. can't get the link to work here. did ebay know what they were getting themselves into? did they know that their site was going to be used for entertainment as well as e-commerce purposes? who was the first persion that thought they would use ebay as a platform to distribute their writing? this is a great hoax. very well done, well planned.

pat o

one of the funnier things i've read in a while...

http://stuckinrehabwithpatobrien.blogspot.com/

k&b

i will be the first to admit that i am a dedicated kevin & bean fan. i have listened to them, basically, since they went on the air on kroq in 1990 and they often have me laughing out loud. but i had no idea that people are so fanatic as to have blogs dedicated to the kevin & bean show. for your surfing pleasure:

http://kevinandbean.blog-city.com/

http://www.livejournal.com/community/kevin_n_bean/

so here we are

ok, we're going to try this again. i feel the need to have an online record of stuff. what i think is funny. what i think is annoying. annoying but funny. funny but annoying. plus everyone in l.a. has a blog or a script and i don't have a script, so this is the only thing left. funny, i am being brutalized by my 5 pound dog. max chews his nails to sharpen them during the day while i am at work. when i come home, he paws and swats at me. it's like a million paper cuts. he just got my nose because i wasn't paying enough attention to him while i am typing this. i look like i have been attacked by a gang of rabid cats. annoying, the u.s. citizenship & immigration services released another version of the i-129 from again, just 6 days after they sprung the last one on us (on a friday night). yay, we thought. i bet they fixed the mistakes (the duplicative questions; the place where they ask the province and country of birth, but not the city; the quaint olde english spelling of "previouse"). no, no changes that we can see. wtf? this is your government, folks.