Really, what deity have I managed to piss off this time?

at 6:10 am.

It's now 7:40 am and I'm still trying to register for one last class -- a physics class -- in case I can't get into the class I want, "Issues in World Politics," with my favorite professor and MUN advisor Chris Saladino. I think I can still get in though, though probably via override.

And now, I'm back to page 1, rewriting with a different plot but the same name and characters.

And to give you an idea of where I'm heading (actually, there's really no way to tell) here's a tiny bit of the opening:

Katherine hated her first name. She preferred Kit, but every official document pissed her off with “Katherine.” To finally have a letter that began with “Dear Kit” made her smile. Maybe, just maybe, after nineteen years, the old name would slowly disappear in favor of the new one.

(Readers not liking the direction that this blog entry is taking should cease reading and not click on the Continue reading... link.)

So far I don't know what I'm going to write about. If you have any ideas, feel free to pos them in the comments for this post. I plan on doing a bit of outlining and notetaking, but NNWM participants can't -- honor system "can't" -- actually write a word until midnight on November 1st.

Who would've thought that I'd get HBO in my dorm? Apparently we do, and I came across the HBO series "Rome" while killing some time this evening. It's good, and they seem to have done a good job in general on it. If there's one gripe I have, it's not a valid argument: it's...HBO-like, if you will. There's a reason -- well, maybe lots of reasons -- it's on cable, and it's not because of an excessive number of backstabbings, vividly violent swordfights, and dismemberments.

I wrote a paper several years ago on the Recording Industry Association of America pursuing litigation against those who infringed upon their copyrights by downloading and distributing music, especially through "peer-to-peer" (P2P) networks. It criticized their motives due to the extreme measures that RIAA lawyers and their legal staff took in an effort to recoup significant financial losses due to online music pirating; one of the examples which I cited included a grandmother in her eighties with limited computer expertise and, at one point, no computer, accused of "stealing" (and I'll talk later about why this is an incorrect term to use) popular rap music.

Few lawsuits filed against individuals citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) actually go to a judge or jury; the DMCA notice is usually enough to persuade people to settle, because the risk of losing is much greater than the settlement that the RIAA is willing to offer, usually ranging in the thousands of dollars. This means that there are very few precedents for the DMCA and online music "pirating," which is much harder to prove than distribution of physically pirated CDs and DVDs sold in public on the streets. The plantiff(s) -- namely the RIAA -- must seek a subpoena against the owner of the IP address associated with any perceived illegal actions, and the owner -- usually an Internet Service Provider such as Verizon DSL or Comcast cable internet -- may be forced to reveal the identity of the customer associated with that IP. It's a messy legal issue that I won't go into now. But those opposed to the RIAA's tactics have been waiting for a landmark case that will force the RIAA to completely re-evaluate their business model (which, right now, is based on scare tactics, which prompts the question, why do people pirate movies and music more often than stealing a piece of candy from the supermarket?).

That landmark case may be here now, with Priority Records, et al., vs Brittany Chan. Why is this significant?

Nope.

We must've pissed off the rain god.

The only thing worse than no rain is a few drops of rain...followed by very humid weather.

These comments were made at the time of the press conference. They are the opinions of the author at the time when it was published and may not reflect the current views and opinions of the author.

1) Presentation for my business class. According to the schedule we're a week and a half late; according to me at my group's initial meeting, we could've gone as early as the class before that -- two weeks ago.

2) Rain. It hasn't rained much in Virginia. Today was the first day I noticed rain during the day since I've been here in Richmond, so it's been almost seven weeks. In fact, it's not really raining now, but there was a light mist of rain falling earlier. There's still a lot of fog around, and the sky is solid gray, so I'm sure that it'll rain. Actually, no. I'm not sure it will rain. If I say that I'll tempt the fates. It was only a few weeks ago that a freak thunderstorm popped up over Prince William County for a few minutes before disappearing. I have a feeling we've really pissed off [insert deity of choice] and [he/she/it(?)] is toying with us like we're Sim City. Speaking of Sim City, I built up a pretty substantial city yesterday. I saved it, then proceded to burn it down, set tornades and UFOs and locust swarms and earthquakes on it, and start riots in the streets. It took the better part of an hour to destroy it.

Things that are taking forever to come (i.e. things that have not yet come):

1) Hayley Westenra's Odyssey. This CD has already been released in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Ireland, and the UK, among others; it will be released last here in the U.S. and Canada almost two months after the first release in New Zealand. Argh.

2) Supreme Court confirmations. I want something to rant about, dammit!