In this episode: telemarketers, Kubuntu 9.0.4, and 3L grades!

Update the First: Telemarketing

So, the Police Athletic League called me yesterday. Actually, it wasn't really them. Did you know that most telephone "charities" are commercial organizations? They pay up front--er, make a donation--for permission to use an authentic charity name. Then they call you in an attempt to recoup that money--and they get to keep whatever they make on top of that. It's all basically above-board (this is why they provide you with those "accountability" phone numbers) and you can see how it works to the advantage of charities to get lump donations and forgo direct employment of solicitors. On the other hand, it creates more telemarketing, and there's something about profiting from money that is essentially handed to you for nothing that strikes me as unsavory.

In any event, the presumably PAL-contracted-solicitor asked if he could count on my support for a "Stop the Youth Violence" program, and I simply said, "No." Then he asked, incredulous that I would dare turn down his generous offer to take my money and give it to his corporate masters, "You don't want to help out the kids?"

"No."

"Am I speaking with the man of the house?"

"Yes."

"Are your parents home?"

At this point, I'm reminding myself that the guy is probably sitting in a call center in north Phoenix or east Mesa, pulling down minimum wage to read from a screen. (Kudos for not outsourcing to India, I guess; at least this guy is speaking something approximating English.) I've been there, and I respect people who do what they can to earn a living even if it means a miserable job like telemarketing. But at this point I want to reach through the phone and slap this guy. I'm almost certainly older than he is. But I respond calmly.

"I just told you who I am. Don't be insulting."

"Alright, well, we'll just call back when your parents are home." *click*

They called back this morning and specifically asked for Kenneth Pike. After I affirmed my identity twice, the guy at the other end asked if he could count on my support. Can you guess what I told him? Can you guess what I will always tell the Police Athletic League, under all circumstances, for the rest of my life?

If they want more donations, they should probably consider not paying morons to make them look bad.

Update the Second: Kubuntu 9.0.4

Over a year ago, I tested out Kubuntu with KDE4. It was horrendous. I could see the potential, but I had to downgrade to KDE3.5 to get anything done. Anyway, except for when I'm playing games (and a brief stint with Fedora), I've been running Kubuntu 24/7 for years now. This week I upgraded from 8.0.4 to 9.0.4, including the latest version of KDE4 (4.3 Beta 2).

Wow.

Ubuntu, and Kubuntu in particular, has come a long way in the three-ish years since I started using it. Fewer problems. Faster setup. More integrated experience. This is the first upgrade I've tried where I didn't encounter a single problem requiring some kind of hack or workaround. Complete system migration took me less than two days--something that in the past has taken me a week or longer. Every single thing I do on my desktop, Kubuntu 9.0.4 just makes it happen. It's beautiful, functional, intuitive, and stable.

I know most of you don't use Linux, but if you do, you should give it a go. I didn't even install Compiz this time; KDE4 has all the effects I want built right in.

Update the Third: 3L Grades

I haven't done a law school update in a while because, frankly, I'm still not settled on how to proceed. The Ph.D. thing sort of fades in and out lately. I'm keeping my options open with ASU at least until the department gets back to me with a final word on funding (which presumably will require the state to, you know, pass a budget). I'm kind of in vocational limbo for the moment.

That said, I graduated from BYU law school cum laude. That puts me in approximately the top third of my class, which is respectable considering after my first semester I was in the "lower half." I'm still processing the experience as a whole... it was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I was not really prepared for it. I met a lot of really amazing people. I have a doctoral degree. I learned some very interesting things. I even, at times, enjoyed myself. And I succeeded, eventually, which is confidence-boosting.

I'll probably have more to say about it later, but I thought I'd let you know how things turned out. I never did repeat the abysmal GPA of my first semester. I do apparently learn from my mistakes.

Epilogue

I apologize that this is a pretty boring entry, departing from commentary and verging on actual web-logging. I should probably add pictures or something. But I figure I owe most of my actual readers an occasional update between esoteric rants. d^_~b So there you have it!