What's on Your Mind: A New Journey

Back from a week in the tropics.

A Canadian in the tropics. Fascinating.

After being five days late, I finally got my mark for a big essay and it's an A-. I'm in a good mood.

I don't think I've ever spent longer than 2 hours on an essay, hence my depressingly low GPA in high school and college.

I remember handing in a term paper my senior year of college. I was about 4 days late turning it in because I was studying so hard for the final exam. I gave it to the TA who was also a friend of mine. He said 'because this is so late you can't get anything higher than a C on it. However I'll make you a deal. I have three cloves of ginger. If you can eat them in 60 seconds I'll give you a B, I won't even read it but if you fail you get a D.' I took the bet and pounded the ginger as fast as I could. I checked my grade online a couple weeks later and boom, B+.

Your school sounds fun.

That explains his doctorate in cocker spaniel neurosurgery.

I once got a B in a class because the real grades were lost on the computer. I was probably looking at a D or C-.

I passed a class because the teacher was fired. Then I bumped into that teacher at another school and asked when he expected to get fired again. He wasn't amused.

What an intense past two days. Disappointed that I wasn't fully prepared for a situation like this, happy I was prepared enough. Needless to say, it's over now and lesson learned.

I'd like to nominate two cops for Asshat of the Year

Reserve Deputy Robert Bates who is 73 (along with the officials who let him play cop) and used his gun instead of his taser on a perp who was already on the ground being subdued by several regular officers.

And Officer Michael Slager, 33, who was charged with murder Tuesday evening. He was caught on camera gunning down 50-year-old Walter Scott after stopping him for a broken taillight Saturday. Scott was running away at the time despite the claim from Slager that he had grabbed his taser and he feared for his life. Slager is apparently seen on film picking up the taser and dropping it next to the body to support his story.

Also defendant Shayna Hubers  who is on trial for the 2012 murder of her boyfriend. Although the incident took place years ago, she really did not set herself up in a defensible position for trial during her 911 phone call or interrogation by police.
She claimed to have snatched his gun away from him while he was sitting down and shot him in the face. She said she was in fear for her life at the time and shot him in self defense. She then told the police she shot him again while he was on the floor "because he was still twitching" - she ended up shooting him 5 times in the face.
The 911 operator asked her, "instead of shooting him again why didn't you dial 911 then when he was still alive?" "She replied, "Do what?"
She also joked with the police that he wanted a nose job, so she gave him one.
He was attempting to break up with her when the incident happened.

Which brings us to Jodie Arias' sentencing hearing - she spent half of it still defending her actions and saying how she didn't want a trial, but the family would not agree to two plea deals (which would have left Arias serving a much shorter sentence) so they forced it to go to trial - after blaming the family for the trial she had the nerve to tell the court she DOES remember the moment she slit Travis Alexander's throat and that he was still alive after the more than 20 stab wounds and shot to the face (which she said she did first) - funny how she "couldn't remember" those details when she testified in the trial (yeah).