for the record...

dented door, damaged pride

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:29:00 +0000

While on my way home from work today I was vainly contemplating what a good driver I am, and how long it's been since my last accident. Several minutes later I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up some decongestants. As soon as I opened my car door a giant gust of wind pulled the door out of my hand and slammed it into the car next to me, causing a good-size ding. I was mortified.

The lady who came out a minute or two later was amazingly gracious: "Oh, that's all right. You know, this car has lots of dents and scratches. It's going to need to be repainted at some point anyway..." etc. I didn't see any dents comparable to the one I had just inflicted.

I didn't put two and two together until I was back on the road heading home. God sure knows how to get our attention sometimes. I realized that I was taking credit for something I had no right to take credit for. So many Scriptures come to mind- "safety is of the Lord," "His mercies are new every morning," -and so quickly forgotten! Perhaps the new look of my door edge will help me remember.

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:21:00 +0000

A kayaking video one of my buddies put together:

Sean and Dry Meadow Creek from Daniel Lund on Vimeo.

For some still images and other video clips, cut and paste this into your browswer:

http://s705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/sangree99a/Dry%20Meadows%20Creek%203%2021%2009/

Witnesses

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 04:34:00 +0000

My job would be a whole lot simpler if it weren't for this whole pesky witness thing. I realize saying that is probably akin to any tradesman denigrating the tools of his trade, but it's true. Witnesses often make or break the case, and the problem is that they're so dang unpredictable! After all, we're talking about people here. A bad witness, in particular, can be a bane or boon. It all depends on whose witness they are. I've seen both sides in my trial the last couple of days:

Exhibit A: Bad witness sabotaging Sean's case

Court Clerk (to W): "Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, etc..."

Sean's star witness: "I got nothing to say."

Sean to himself: (Wonderful. here we go...)

The witness then proceeded to flatly deny anything and everything connecting him/her to the case, including talking to the cops, identifying the suspects, or even meeting with me one week prior. We call this "going sideways" on the stand. I was hopeful that this witness would find the courage to testify truthfully despite receiving threats from the juvenile defendant's "homies" not to do so, but alas, it was not to be. It's unfortunate that the gang mentality of intimidation actually works on many members of the community.

Exhibit B: Bad witness bolstering Sean's case

Defense's star alibi witness: "Yeah, they've arrested the wrong kid! My pal here was with me the whole night..."

Sean on cross-examination: "You're close friends with this guy aren't you?"

Defense W: "yeah"

Sean: "Would you lie to keep a friend out of trouble?"

Defense W (hesitating): No

Sean: "You wouldn't bend the truth even a little if it meant your close friend would avoid getting in trouble?"

Defense W (more hesitation): "I can't answer that."

Sean: "It would depend on the circumstances wouldn't it?"

This was the second person in as many days I personally observed perjure themselves on the witness stand. I find it odd that people who are willing to lie about the facts of a case don't also lie about the fact that they're not telling the truth. Apparently even liars have a sort of moral compunction or code of ethics about which types of lies are okay.

Additionally, one has to wonder about the credibility of a defense which conflicts with the suspect's own prior alibi statement, and which is presented for the first time right before the trial is about to conclude, on a case which is has been pending for close to two months.

Scripture has a lot to say about false and lying witnesses. No longer are those verses purely conceptual. I've seen how the cause of justice is threatened when people ignore their duty and their oaths.

rainy week = paddling weekend!

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:52:00 +0000

The flows came up and members of the kayak club took advantage...

The Merced River flowing out of Yosemite. This is the new rapid created by the landslide a couple years ago (the one that made them re-route the road on the other side of the river with two temporary bridges)

The Kaweah just above Dinely Bridge.

Merced and Willow Creek from Evan Lloyd on Vimeo.

next day...

I was holding the camera in my mouth, which worked out great until I pinned on the piton rock at the bottom of the rapid and had to spit it out, push off, and roll up. I definitely need to look into a helmet mount or deck mount for the cam. I was going to add a sound track, but I've been getting good feedback on the sound effects!

prosecutorial discretion

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 22:55:00 +0000

A big part of what I do is reviewing police reports and deciding whether to file charges or not- and if so, what charges to file. Just because a person is cited or arrested by the police doesn't mean that the DA's office is going to file a criminal complaint or petition. I send a significant number of police reports back to the agencies who submitted them, usually because I need more info or because the evidence is just plain insufficient. Even when I believe that a crime probably was committed, there may be reasons not to file. This function is called prosecutorial discretion. I was reading an article on this last week and was inspired by the following excerpt:

Nearly 70 years ago, as then-United States Attorney General, Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson offered these eloquent words about prosecutor decision making:

The prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America. His discretion is tremendous... [T]he citizen's safety lies in the prosecutor who tempers zeal with human kindness, who seeks truth and not victims, who serves the law and not factional purposes, and who approaches his task with humility.

extra Turkey Trot pics

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:58:00 +0000

The pro photography company at the Turkey Trot post low quality images from the race on their website with the hope that you'll purchase the high quality ones. Here are the low quality ones... =)

One of the challenges was created because there were so many of us on one narrow road. A lot of the race we were weaving in and out of runners who were practically shoulder-to-shoulder, trying to avoid the swinging elbows and not step on anyone's toes or heels.

Did I mention how wet it was?

Home stretch baby! Most folks walked or just jogged across the finish line, but Kyle and I were full on sprinting.

And in a completely unrelated vein, I just thought I would post this pic from "Ryan," a character from the TV comedy "The Office." It's from the 2008 The Office calendar which a couple of probation officers at work had hanging in their office. They gave it to me because they said I look like him. I kinda see the resemblance. Another guy at work who isn't familiar with the show saw it and thought it was an old pic of me at first. What do you think?

Where's my bailout? I want a bailout!

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 06:16:00 +0000

The language is a bit colorful but the message rings painfully true. Click the image to enlarge the text at the bottom.

Turkey Trot '08

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 21:53:00 +0000

One of my roommates invited me to spend Thanksgiving with some of his family in Southern CA. He also talked me into participating in the 31st annual Dana Point Turkey Trot 10 kilometer race. It was a great experience, despite (because of? :-) a torrential downpour during the run and standing water all over the road. I'm not in any kind of running shape, but I did it! I got VERY sore the next day, and the day after, and the day after that. I'd do it again though.

There were over three thousand runners, including people running in costumes as turkeys, Pilgrims, Indians, a banana- you name it!

A couple of pics:

The "before pic," around 6 am Thanksgiving morning. The other guy is my roommate Kyle, with two of his cousins on the right and a friend of theirs on the left.

Near the start. It rained hard!

Runner with a Pilgrim hat. I saw a guy in a banana costume wringing it out a few times during the race =)

Fresh fruit after the finish. Oranges never tasted so good!

The "after" shot, where we parked the car at McDonald's. We arrived late, parked pretty far away, and had to jog like half a mile to get to the start on time!

the last 5 weekends

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:16:00 +0000

I'm woefully behind on blogging, but here's a synopsis of what I've been up to the last few weekends.

My friend Glenn is getting married next weekend. The bachelor party was actually a couple of days in Pismo the weekend of Oct 11-12. It was good to be at the coast and see the ocean. Although it's only 2 hours away I think it had been about a year for me. We saved some dough by camping, so that we could blow it on ATV rentals on the dunes near Grover Beach. Talk about fun! Biggest sand dunes I've ever been around. Nine of us rented four-wheelers and spent an awesome couple of hours racing, jumping, and wrecking (no serious injuries) all over those things. Whoever comes out to visit me next, that'll be top on my list of fun things to do!

Glenn's brother Dan created an Extreme Croquet course throughout the campground using two croquet sets. I came from behind to take the lead at the last wicket, only to have it stolen from me through some questionable moves by the nefarious Brandon. I can't tell if I'm sneezing/coughing or laughing about something in this pic. Glenn is about to be whacked with Brad's mallet, or judging by his expression, maybe he was already knocked silly =).

=================================

Let me tell you, folks around here take October 31 pretty seriously. These are a couple of roommates and friends in their Halloween costumes. The Joker is Beau, and Kyle (another roommate) is the drunk werewolf. I got invited to no fewer than four Halloween parties, but ended up just staying home because a severe allergy attack left me feeling pretty miserable that night.
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Jeff and Evan on the Boundary Run, Kaweah River. An early winter storm caused the flow level to jump weekend before last, and I was able to capitalize on it with three friends. It was a narrow window and we hit it just right, as the following graph shows:

Yep, we paddled on 11-2-08. The Corp of Engineers flow data is invaluable for knowing what rivers are running when. We kayakers keep a close eye on the website with these graphs. Some of the guys in the kayak club even get updates sent right to their cell phones when the flows reach a certain threshold!

A short video clip of my friend Jeff running Bumper Rapid, which is on the Gateway run of the Kaweah above the town of Three Rivers. The only difference between storm flows and spring runoff is that the water's murky.

=====================================

A hunter went missing in Fresno County on 11-1-08, and the search was still ongoing last weekend. I drove up with a couple of other rescue team members to participate in the search effort. Here's what I e-mailed a friend about it:

There were volunteer teams from maybe 8 or 10 counties at the search. It was neat to see all these strangers come together to help somebody they don't know. We bushwhacked and scrambled up, over, around and through all kinds of terrain yesterday and today. It snowed at the elevation we were at overnight Saturday, so yesterday we were searching in about 4 inches of snow! (On our way to the briefing this morning at the command post, we started fishtailing pretty bad on one snowy section of road. I was frantically trying to get my seat belt on before we crashed, but thankfully after sliding all over and off the road we eventually came to a stop without hitting anything!) By last night I was definitely ready to come home, but some of the others have been there close to a week!

A Fresno Co deputy and Tom, one of our team members.

We were in a really beautiful area. There were no roads or trails to the above. We bushwhacked up to it, so it's likely that not very many people have enjoyed that view.

Unfortunately there was no sign of the missing hunter, but I did come across this very dead coyote.

A quick lunch break on Sunday. The sun's shining in this pic, but it actually snowed on us most of the day.We came across this old mine shaft/cave that wasn't even on the map. I hear the park service doesn't show these types of things on maps due to liability concerns. It's amazing what you can run across when you get off the beaten path!

============================================

October 26 was a fantastic day. Four of us decided to attempt an off-season summit of Half Dome. The cables were down for the winter, but we had awesome weather, great fellowship, solitude at the summit (normally there are crazy crowds on top, and a line to get on/off the cables), and some great animal sightings.

Mike and Madison on the cables. You can't really tell the angle from this shot, but this section is steep!- significantly steeper than 45 degrees. You can see the height they're at by how tiny the person in the background (to the left of Mike) is.

We saw a few big bucks right off the bat, before we even got on the actual trail.

Group shot on the way down: Me, Madison, Mike, and Katrina.

Group shot on top

A tagged black bear we encountered on the way down. Many folks don't know that black bears are often brown or cinnamon in color. Still black bears though. Unfortunately that's the only kind of bear we have in the Sierra anymore. Mike heard the bear first. It was only 20 or 25 feet away in some thick brush. It was heading towards the trail behind us, so I jogged back a few steps to get some better shots.

Strike a pose! As it turns out, the girls were much braver around the edge than Mike or I. We spent half the time trying to tell Madison to step back and stop doing crazy antics while leaning over the edge to catch the view 2500 feet straight down =). I, on the other hand, prefer to crawl out to the edge on my belly while maintaining at least three points of contact with the ground at all times.

Victory!

Getting ready to attack the cables again on the way down. Mike had a death grip on those things! Halfway down I was trying to get more pics and his terse response was "Just KEEP MOVING- Let's get off this rock!!"

Leaving at 5 am and getting back after 9 pm made for a long but fun-filled day. Even the trip home was blast, between singing in the car and hot juicy burgers/ freezing temperatures at Carl's Jr.. Seriously, for some reason this particular restaurant had the AC blasting everybody inside with frigid air. One employee responded to complaints of patrons (not even us) by saying, "sorry, if we touch the thermostat we get fired." The not-so-bright employee dutifully asked another patron if he could get him anything else, and the customer suggested, "a blanket?" It was quite humorous, including when Katrina started stuffing napkins in her clothing as insulation.

Alright, so that's been my last few weekends. Next update should be a work update- or maybe I should throw in a post announcing my recent change of address?

August update

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:54:00 +0000

Here's what's new for me in August:

First of all, I decided to update my blog name to something more reflective of my job rather than an inside family joke of sorts that no doubt leaves most folks scratching their heads. "For the record" is a phrase that I use in court regularly, almost as much as "for the people," a phrase that follows my name when the judge says "counsel, state your appearances."

School's started in California, and the stacks of police reports in my office have gone down a little. Even so, there's never a shortage of crazy cases, and lately I had a few go to trial. I suffered my first not guilty verdict recently when two key witnesses went sideways on me on the stand. A loss is always tough, but when your witnesses give one story to the police (and you), and then testify to something completely different at trial, there's not much you can do. (If you've seen the movie Fracture, it was kind of like that. Good movie, by the way.) The next day I wrapped up an armed robbery trial that had been going on for over a month, and thankfully, this time the result was good. But one of the things I love most about my job is that ultimately it's about something more than simply winning or losing. In a 1935 decision the U.S. Supreme Court summarized the prosecutorial role with seminal language which is oft repeated more than 70 years later:

The [prosecutor] is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done. As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the twofold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor -- indeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one. Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 88 (U.S. 1935)

That right there is a great little bit of legal writing.

I got to take a helicopter ride the other day! The California Highway Patrol flew their bird down from Fresno to do a demonstration for our rescue team, but that's not the chopper I flew in. One of our veteran team members happens to be a pilot, and he flew his company helicopter to the meeting. When we were done and CHP had taken off, he took us up for a brief spin around the Sequoia Air Field and surrounding area. The best part of it was that this was no commercial tour. We zoomed just over the crops and dipped and banked so steeply that I could see land through the sunroof. We even did a simulated engine failure. This started when in the middle of our flight, we heard the voice of our pilot Bo through the headsets asking, "So, who can tell me what happens when the engine dies?" Ed ventured an educated guess from the back bench (I was riding shotgun) - "you go down?" "Well yes," Bo answered, "but not in the way that you think." He then proceeded to perform a live demonstration. As if our ride wasn't already exciting enough. He throttled the engine back to idle, and my stomach shot up to my throat as we immediately starting dropping from our altitude of several hundred feet. We remained at idle as we dropped, and Bo explained how the chopper actually develops energy as it falls- energy which you can use to control the descent even without power. At the last possible moment he flared the nose up and we slowed dramatically (engine still at idle mind you). He powered back up just in time to avoid what would have been a rough but survivable landing. As technical rescue team members, our job often involves trusting each other when lives are, literally, on the line, but this was just very cool in its own way =).

I found a good deal on another kayak. I'm not sure what it says about my priorities that at age 29 I own two boats but still rent a one bedroom apartment. This one is what they call a creek boat, so I should be able to run more steep and challenging whitewater with it- its larger size gives it more volume and stability. Also, with a second boat I can take you out if you want to try the sport! Only problem is- I have to wait until spring to get much use out of it =)

stupid slogans

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 05:54:00 +0000

I get a kick out of catching really dumb things being said in ads on radio and TV. Sometimes I wonder how some ad campaigns ever made it out of the boardroom. For example, this is what I just heard on an ad for a local news station:

"We know you want answers to the tough questions- so do we. Local News 17."

And it's said in that deep authoritative tone that all media announcers have. What in the world? Is it just me, or does that make no sense at all? I'll overlook for the moment the fact that it's probably somewhat grandiose for a local news station to be referring to themselves along with life's tough questions. Regardless, what they're basically saying with a slogan like that is, "we have the same questions you do." Call me crazy, but I don't think that's the message most news viewers and listeners are tuning in to hear.

I guess they want you to assume that because they want answers to tough questions, that they also go out, obtain them, and pass them along to the viewing or listening audience. But that's a big logical leap. Most people never achieve what they want. Maybe it's designed to garner loyalty by expressing a sort of "hey, we're on the same page you are" sentiment. But that's not what it did for me. My first thought was, "hmm, that sounds clever." Second thought: "but what does it mean?" Followed quickly by the conclusion that it's another slogan stupid enough to blog about.

Unless.... maybe their true objective was simply to get people thinking about their ad. If that's the case, then I'm the sucker.

Speaking of words, I did see a great quote the other day: "Repetition is the sincerest form of repetition." =)

Okay, enough time wasted. I have two boxes of files to prep for court tomorrow, and it's after 11. I just had to see a few more Olympic medals won for Team USA, and a couple more world records broken. (Seriously- who set these previous world records? They're snapping like toothpicks in the Beijing swimming events.)

Olympic gold

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 06:43:00 +0000

The 2008 Olympics are in full swing in Beijing, and I've been glued to the coverage all weekend. I saved a medal standings results page as a favorite on my laptop. And believe it or not, I actually have a CD in my car right now with Olympic theme music from John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra.

In what some are heralding as the best swimming relay of all time, the Americans just took down the French (and everybody else) in the men's 4 X 100 relay, the one swimming event in which the French were heavily favored. In fact, the French were talking some smack, publicly stating pre-race, "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's why we came here."

It was pretty incredible, and if you haven't yet seen it, make sure you do: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0811_HD_SWB_HL_L0194. The Americans trailed for most of the latter half of the relay, but anchor Jason Lezak rode the wave of the Frenchman, Bernard, and created an incredible finish. My reaction was about the same as Michael Phelps' above =).

To give you an idea of how fast these swimmers were, consider this: The Swedes, whose 5th place finish didn't even get them close to the podium, still came in with a time under the previous world record. The Americans crushed it by like four seconds!! And to add insult to injury, the world record for fastest split time had been held by the vocal Frenchman, until that too was crushed by Jason Lezak. Who's talkin' now?! =)

Onion News Network

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:03:00 +0000

I've always been a fan of The Onion newspaper, and I've just learned that their website now includes video news stories. If you like parodies and satire, check out this compelling example:

Study: Most Children Strongly Opposed To Children's Healthcare

okay, gotta post one more. This one's actually not that far from reality =)

New Wearable Feedbags Let Americans Eat More, Move Less

July 4th family visit

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:07:00 +0000

Last weekend Christian and Dad flew out to visit me for almost a whole week! We had a fantastic time. Thanks so much to Mom and Hol, Addie and Storie for giving up your men for the July 4th Holiday! I worked half a day on Wednesday, then jetted up to Fresno to pick the guys up. We had all afternoon, so we decided to cruise on up to Yosemite. Christian had never been, and we figured (correctly) that it would be less crowded on a Wednesday than on a holiday weekend. Unfortunately none of us had a camera with us, but we drove through Yosemite Valley, and took a nice little jaunt up to the top of Vernal Falls. It was beautiful as always.

On the 4th we went kayaking on the Lower Kings river east of Fresno. This scenic stretch is COLD because it's fed from the bottom of the Pine Flat Reservoir. It has a couple of class two rapids. C & D were in borrowed old-school boats and neither has a reliable roll, but they were game for it and Dad especially was a great sport despite a cold swim below one rapid which caught him off balance.

It was another triple digit day, so the water felt particularly refreshing!

At the takeout there's what they call a "weir" for irrigation purposes. It's a fun spot to kayak surf. Here's a short clip of my first attempt to get on the wave.

On Sunday we hit up some of my favorite spots in Sequoia National Park. We got on Top of Moro Rock just in time to catch an interesting talk from a Park Ranger on some of the history and geography in the area. We hiked a couple of miles around Crescent Meadow and saw Tharp's Log, a hollow and fallen Giant Sequoia that Hale Tharp, the area's earliest white settler, fashioned into a primitive cabin that he lived out of in the summers from 1861 to 1890 while his cattle grazed in nearby meadows. We checked out the aptly named Tunnel Log, and stopped by Auto Log, another giant sequoia that people used to drive on. Christian found a "C & H" carved into it, which made for a great photo. We finished up with a respectable hike from Wolverton to the Watchtower. (I checked the mileage again guys- it was probably close to around 7 miles round trip with significant elevation gain =). The views of Tokepah Valley were stunning despite the poor air quality due to so many wildfires in the Sierra this summer. Dad's knee was bothering him on the descent but he was a trooper even though I had no pain-killers in my pack.

On the Watchtower Trail.

Christian and I, same spot.

The almost sheer vertical here will take your breath away! Click on this pic (or any other) to see it full size.

Dad and I scrambled out as far as we could to peer over the edge. This granite monolith is a lot like Half Dome- not quite as high, but the hike is shorter, and the views are still killer.

Christian and Dad enjoying the fruits of our labor.

The view up Tokepah Valley. You could clearly hear the stream raging over a thousand feet below us as it pounded through twists and turns in sections of granite gorge. There was a sizable snowfield below too, which surprised me, considering it's July and it wasn't a great year for snow pack.

Crescent Meadow, in the Giant Forest, Sequoia National Park. A ranger was telling us that there have been a number of sightings of a sow and cub(s) here recently. We didn't end up seeing a black bear here, but on our way out of the park, we did! A sow and one cub were meandering through another meadow just off the road. It was a great way to end the day.

Christian on top of Moro Rock, with a view of the Middle Fork Kaweah River drainage and the Great Western Divide in the background.

At Hanging Rock, with Moro Rock just behind.

There were some beautiful wildflowers. I'm really bad at identifying local species, but this is what I call a purplus flowerus.

This is a patch of the rare and beautiful spotted yellow-centered penta-petal.

Another beauty known as the pale droopy flower.

And here we have the fuzzilus spikus plantus.

Here's a clip of a doe and fawn we encountered, as well as the Watchtower.

My friends Kevin (in the boat) and Beau (reclining in background) swung by as we were out by the pool grilling one night, and we turned it into an impromptu roll session.

I don't think Kevin had ever been in a whitewater boat before, but he picked up the technique fast and did a couple of unassisted rolls within about 10 minutes!

video- Kevin roll

Here's Christian giving it a shot. You can tell he's on his way up here because of the water curtain off the boat.

setting up for the roll...

video- Christian roll

Dad's turn. Flopping in (on purpose =)

Me standing by for the assist, if needed.

Dad fiddling with his spray skirt. underwater. =)

video- Dad roll

Well there you have it- all the stuff that was photographed, at least. We also spent a fair amount of time eating good food, watching good movies, and computing (that's where the three of us line up on the couch with laptops and check e-mail, listen to music, and watch funny YouTube clips together =). I also had a jury trial scheduled which the guys were going to watch on Thursday/Monday, but it ended up resolving, which I wasn't too disappointed about. We got more time to hang out together!

Thanks so much for coming to visit me guys! It was such a pleasure sharing part of my life with you. I know both of you guys have a lot going on at home right now too. We need to start long-term planning soon for next time!

Oklahoma!

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:14:00 +0000

Over Memorial Day we had sort of a sibling reunion at my brother's place in Oklahoma, minus my brother-in-law. My sister flew in from PA and I flew from Sacramento. We had a fantastic time hanging out and just enjoying each other's company, but we also managed to get some great food and fun around Edmond. Cheesecake Factory is a great restaurant- don't think I'd ever eaten there before. The afternoon before we met there for dinner, the guys were busy doing manly things like checking out the go-cart track and playing disc golf, while the girls went shopping and got pedicures. When we met up, Dana and Hol were talking about how nice the pedicures were, and especially the massage chairs at the salon. They said, "you guys should try it!" C and I looked at each other and immediately recognized that going with a brother would without a doubt be less embarrassing than going by yourself, with a girl, or with any other guy. So we did. I mean, hey, I was on vacation, right? Those massage chairs were pretty nice, and we even let the tiny Vietnamese girls talk us into the deluxe version with their limited English: "You need deluxe!" We were too pedicure ignorant to know whether our feet were that bad that we really did need it, or they just knew we were easy targets.

Another highlight was the water park. You can tell how much we enjoyed it in the video below. That last ride caused C to lose his voice for a week!

Christian, Addie and I in the wave pool.

We spent quite a few hours on the Wii- enough to cause some muscle soreness! Half the fun is creating your profile. The similarity is quite remarkable, no?

C-dawg throwin down some tasty grooves on Guitar Hero.

If you're really bored check out this video clip of a late night storm that blew through while we were there.

Thanks so much for having us, C&H! You guys are fantastic hosts. Your girls are so sweet. You have a beautiful home and family. Already looking forward to next time!

Not from OKC, but just a funny pic from the pool the other day, playing with the waterproof camera.

The Chute

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:29:00 +0000

I've been meaning to post an update including my visit to Oklahoma over Memorial Day weekend, but I still haven't put the pics on my pc yet. Soon.

In the meantime, I had an awesome run Sunday with my friend Jeff on an exciting class IV section of the Kaweah River. I actually made "Picture of the Day" on the Kaweah River dot org website http://c2.com/kaweah/picturesoftheday/pictureoftheday_6-15-08.jpg because the webmaster helped us with the shuttle and took pics as we went by his house. Thanks Bill!

This particular rapid is great- crazy fun, with pretty low risk. This is the first time I've run it without flipping.

Settin' up, and aiming for the "tongue." Last time I tried this rapid, I almost went straight into that boulder- the absolute worst line due to the pin potential.

Boom baby! Can you spot my paddle? =) My little boat doesn't have the volume to avoid getting buried.

All right, so I wasn't facing downstream the whole time, but I stayed upright =)

Jeff and I.

Sadly, it's the tail end of the season. The snow pack is almost gone and the rivers are dropping fast. This coming weekend will probably be the last for natural flows. Fortunately, there are a number of reservoirs with controlled releases so there will be more paddling opportunities through the summer. I'll just have to drive a bit farther.

Quilt unveiling, men's breakfast

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:13:00 +0000

I broke from my routine work and play and did a couple of out of the ordinary things this weekend:

-Friday night I went to the annual Victim's Memorial Quilt Unveiling, sponsored by my office, and held at the Visalia Convention Center. Every year families of recent victims of violent crime are given the opportunity to remember their loved one in a special way. Each family gets a quilt square on which to put pictures, thoughts, or prayers. The quilt is then put together by a local volunteer, and the unveiling ceremony is a chance for the community to pull together and bear one another's burden. Violent crime can splinter a community, but a function like this can work to overcome that tendency and turn a tragedy into something that unites. There was a surprising amount of songs, words, and prayers during the program about God, faith, and hope. It seems even the government tends to disregard separation of church and state in times of intense loss. (Remember on 9-11 when members of Congress spontaneously sang God Bless America and, as I recall, Amazing Grace, on the steps of the Capitol?). For me, it was a great opportunity to mourn with those who mourn, something I don't often experience. I saved the lapel ribbon from the event- it says "Justice For Victims, Justice For All"- and stuck it on my door so I'm reminded why I do what I do when I leave my apartment for work each day.

-Saturday morning I attended another annual event, the Iron Men's Breakfast sponsored by a local church. The speaker was an ex-con who cheated lots of people out of lots of money and did prison time before Christ transformed his life. His testimony was inspiring, and it was encouraging to be part of such a large group of like minded men (over 500 in attendance). Assistant DA Bill Yoshimoto did a great job recruiting prosecutors from our office, and we ended up with like 30 DA's there.

On another note, my friend Matthew uploaded some additional pictures from last weekend's climb of Mt. Silliman on his blog. Interestingly, his blog has more pictures of me, and mine has more including him. We should probably just swap cameras before the next trip =). Anyway, if you want to see a few more, including some spectacular sunset shots, check out his blog at http://thatlooksspicy.blogspot.com/ or additional pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/SMRVultures/MountSilliman2008 .

Mt. Silliman

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 06:10:00 +0000

Last weekend I joined two friends from SMR for an overnight trek up Mt. Silliman, in the national park. We were blessed with fantastic weather- the Valley was hit with the season's first heat wave (95 degrees!), but temps at 11 thousand feet were very mild. It dropped below freezing overnight, but was probably around 60 during the day.

I love playing, hiking, and camping in the snow!

Breakfast was instant oatmeal and cream of wheat. About 6:30 Sunday morning.

The ultraviolet exposure and solar radiation at altitude is reflected (and seemingly magnified) by the snow. I hydrate like crazy, wear a full brimmed hat, sunglasses, and sun-block, and still get chapped lips and burn. And the funny thing is you can burn in odd places, like the undersides of your arms, chin, and nose, from the reflection off the snow.

Mathew in the foreground, Tony following. Knowing how to self-arrest allows you to stop yourself in the event of a fall so the rocks at the bottom of the slope don't =).

Another handy bit of knowledge: approaching an edge like this, you want to be fairly certain that the snow is not actually a cornice- jutting out with nothing supporting it underneath. I've come a long way since my extreme fear of heights as a kid, but I still get queasy around 1000' verticals like this.
I don't know why I keep doing the arm-raise thing. It's like a universal summit pose or something...

We dug a pretty cool snow cave. I'm not sure how deep the snow was where we camped just over 10,000 feet, because we never actually hit bottom.

Gretel- the proper introduction

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 05:13:00 +0000

While I'm normally fairly well grounded in reality, I happen to be a firm believer in the myriad of benefits attributable to naming your cars based on their personality. Now that I think about it, there really aren't a myriad of benefits. No tangible benefit at all actually- it's just fun. My Subaru was Fiona, as in the princess from the movie Shrek. The Escort station wagon didn't really deserve a name. It was always just an in-between car. I've been tossing around a few different possibilities for the new VW. I even went so far as to do a Google search which turned up the Top 25 German Baby Names for girls.

The finalists were Freda, Gretchen, and Gretel. I got some input from friends last night and the winner is Gretel. I'm surprised at the number of reasons justifying this choice that came to light with just a little thought:

The car's a GTI. This incorporates several of the letters of the name Gretel. The name conjures up images of the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. I find that charming. My last car's name was also from a fairy tale, so I sort of have a theme going here. Plus, my memory of Gretel (in the story) is that of a an energetic and spunky youth with a thirst for adventure/exploring, and who has a penchant for getting into trouble. Same with my car.

Plus, Hansel is the dude in the story, and I'm the dude in the car. And Hansel sounds kind of like Handsome Eddie, which is an old nickname of mine. So it's quite obvious, I'm sure you'll agree, that the name is exceptionally fitting! =)

GTI, Park Boundary run, kiddie court

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:27:00 +0000

I bought a new car! Well, new for me anyway. It's an '05 GTI VR6. My fondness for Veedubs stems from childhood memories of road trips with 6 people and 2 dogs in a VW Rabbitt, watching/helping Dad replace the glow plugs or do other engine work, being able to hear the distinctive diesel rumble coming home from half a mile away, riding shotgun and being allowed to shift and steer on country roads while Mom worked only the pedals. We owned a number of Volkswagons growing up, and they were all good cars- practical, fun to drive, and economical to purchase, fuel, and maintain.

My new car falls only partially within that description: fun to drive? Oh yeah =). We're talking six speed manual, just over 200 ponies, and no turbo lag in a compact hatchback. Economical to purchase, fuel, and maintain? Not so much. Granted I got it for significantly less than blue book value. But it was still more than I've ever spent on anything, and it only took one trip to the VW service center to learn that with these new cars you can hardly do anything on them yourself, and the people who do work on them are anything but cheap. Everything's a trade off, I guess. I like the car, and the way I see it- a lawyer with no girlfriend oughta be able to afford a "poor man's BMW," right?

I added a Thule rack system with kayak haulers over the weekend.

Now I'll be able to throw 2 or 3 or 4 boats on the roof.

sorry about the blur. That's what happens with no-flash and no tripod. If you can't see it, the speedo goes all the way up to 160. I'm sensing a trip back to Death Valley to see how close to that the car can actually get. A few other luxurious features I'm still getting used to are heated seats and mirrors, speed sensitive volume on the stereo system, and leather. Love the leather!

Enough about the car. Whitewater still consumes as much time as I can manage to spare from work. Saturday I hit the Park Boundary run on the Kaweah river. Which means that I've now paddled all of the Kaweah from inside Sequoia National Park all the way to the terminus reservoir. I'm in the market for a second boat- one with more volume and stability as I progress to more challenging water. Plus with a second set of gear I'll be able to take out friends and family who have an interest in the sport.

This particular run has 15 rapids in half a mile. Boredom not likely!

"The Chute." Gateway run, Kaweah River. Right side up and looking good!

Not so good =). My stern is up out of the water in this picture because I'm bouncing off a rock with my head. Thank God for helmets!

Kayaking buddies Evan and Gene on Brush Creek. When I tried the same thing I somehow managed to fall into the crack we were portaging. Other than a bruised elbow, I was unhurt (much to the amazement of Evan and Gene).

Work is intense but rewarding. I won my second jury trial recently. Getting guilty verdicts on all counts was probably more satisfying because I lost my first trial. (No blog post about that because I was seriously bummed out for about a month =). I have one more week in my current assignment, and then I'm getting transferred to our Juvenile Division, which should prove interesting. Kiddie Court is serious biz- I'll be getting my first exposure to felonies of all types and degrees. Local gangs doing drive-by's often give the gun to a 16 or 17 yr old because they know the consequences if caught will be less severe for a juvie. Probably the biggest difference between juvenile and adult criminal law is that juvie proceedings are all confidential. No juries, no trials, no convictions- only "jurisdictional hearings" and "adjudications." California believes strongly in rehabilitating young offenders and giving them every chance to improve/succeed.

This pic pretty much sums up what I've been doing primarily the last few months.

In other news:
-Over four weekends in March I completed an 80 hour search and rescue academy put on by the sheriff's office. It's required in order to respond to out-of-county call outs. (With my current work schedule that's not likely to happen, but it was still good instruction and useful for local SAR ops too.)

-I've made some new friends at a new weekly Bible study.

-I'm still rejoicing with my brother in his miraculous answer to prayer. If you haven't heard the story, check it out on his blog at http://printscharmingphotography.com/blog/.

-I ran into a former client at the supermarket tonight. His case is still ongoing, and he wasn't happy when I told him I switched jobs.

-I haven't played Ultimate in a while and that makes me sad.

-I'm going to Oklahoma next month to visit family, and that makes me very happy.

-My 6 month LASIK checkup is coming up. I don't think I blogged about that. Long story short- I had the procedure done in October, my vision is much improved, and I love not having to wear contacts or glasses anymore.

All the stuff I can forget about, at least until I hit 40 and need reading glasses.

Shortly after the procedure. And in case you're wondering. No, it doesn't really hurt, but you are conscious, and they do use metal tools to pry your eyelids open way past normal, and they do stick powerful suction cups on your eyeballs...

-The springtime weather has been beautiful lately. Honestly, I haven't touched my thermostat in months.

On the drive to the Kaweah, the town of Three Rivers, and Sequoia National Park

A common springtime view in agricultural Tulare County.

unPATRIOTic (just for today)

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 21:17:00 +0000

History shmistory. I don't care if they're 18 and 0. The Dolphins already achieved perfection. Besides, the Giants are the underdogs, and if I hear one more person drool on about Tom Brady I'm gonna puke. Just throwing out my $.02. Go Giants!

No such thing as a stupid question? Yeah right!

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 01:32:00 +0000

I can't remember the last time I was really embarrassed about anything. I'm talking about the kind of burning embarrassment where you can actually feel the blood rushing to your face without anybody having to point it out. Until today, that is.

The DA's office in Tulare County is known for providing excellent training. Our office is certified by the state bar to have our trainings count towards mandatory continuing legal education (MCLE) requirements for active attorneys. We usually do trainings on Friday afternoons, and the last two weeks have been an intriguing course called "Homicide on Call," dealing with a multitude of issues surrounding homicide investigations and prosecutions. The course has been videotaped, and instruction has been provided by senior attorneys within our office as well as outside experts from different agencies within the county. My goal in attending, as in most of what I've been doing the past three weeks, has been to learn as much as I can without screwing up too badly.

The final speaker today got up and started explaining the county's witness relocation and assistance program. When he was finished he inquired if there were any questions. I noted that he hadn't specified who he was with and whether the program was administered through our office's Bureau of Investigations or another agency, perhaps the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office. After a moment's hesitation, I raised my hand and asked him to clarify. To my dismay the courtroom (yeah, we were meeting in one of the courtrooms) erupted in laughter. Apparently this particular instructor has been with our office since like forever and nobody could believe that this new kid would pose such an inane question. Amidst the chuckles and giggles I could hear supervising attorneys and senior deputies from the other side of the room saying, "Who was that?" "That's [and here's where my first and last name get inserted, only I'm leaving them out because the last thing I need at this point is for anybody from the office (besides Darla, who, coincidentally, I met today and whose parents in Michigan somehow found my blog and asked her about it) stumbling across this blog through a Google search for "Idiot".]"

So yeah, I was embarrassed. But what are ya gonna do, right? They say you shouldn't worry about what people think of you, but I think it's only natural for someone who's launching a new career to want to be well received by their peers, especially when those peers are professionals. I think I distinguished myself today- unfortunately it was not in a positive way. All I could do was shake the guy's hand afterwards, ask him to please excuse my ignorance, and explain that I've been in the office a total of three weeks and I'm still trying to get everyone straight and figure out what's going on (in an office with over 200 people including 70 plus attorneys in four different branches).

Anyway, I actually have some positive work-related items to blog about, most notable of which is that I have two trials scheduled for next week- one a court trial involving driving on a suspended license, which will probably end up getting postponed; the other is a DUI case with a defendant who is in custody and has asserted his right to a speedy jury trial, so it's on! I'm excited about it and will be doing trial prep this weekend, but right now I'm off to Fresno to play mindless video games with friends. If you've got an embarrassing tale of your own, be sure to post a comment about it so I can laugh at somebody else for a change

Jordan Peak

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:00:00 +0000

It takes something out of the ordinary to get me up before 5 am, especially on a Saturday, but SMR (Sequoia Mountain Rescue) training on Saturday was worth it, as usual. We met at 0600 hours in the small town of Springville, nestled in the Sierra Nevada foothills at an elevation of 1,000'. With one stop to add snow chains, we made it to our starting point just as the sun was starting to show. Once again, the "SMR curse" was with us- we always seem to have fantastic weather every time we go out. I haven't had the chance to train with the team in really inclement or severe weather yet, and that's precisely the weather we're most likely to get called out to operate in. (update: the storm system that had been projected for earlier in the week arrived hours after we left =)

Regardless, it was a fantastic day. Eleven team members climbed approx 2500' to summit Jordan Peak. Most of us wore snowshoes, but several team members used telemark and Randonee skis to climb, and of course, to descend. Until I moved out here I never really knew how backcountry skiers actually got uphill. The trick is that they use removable climbing "skins" which attach to the bottom of each ski and provide friction for ascending. I even got to try it out for a while. I don't consider myself much of a skier, but I've been to a few resorts, and I'll tell ya it's certainly a different experience trying to ski in deep powder in heavily wooded terrain with a large pack. Thankfully the soft snow and warm dry clothes made my many face and butt plants more embarrassing than painful.

The others were happy to let me break trail most of the way up. There's something special about being the first one to put tracks in a pristine and breathtaking environment.
The air quality was so good we could identify lots of features in the Valley, and even see some of the Coast Range.

We dug a snow pit for avalanche assessment. A snow pit provides for snowpack evaluation and the opportunity for different types of tests to determine stability.

Click on any picture above to make it larger, or click on the buttons below to play a short video clip.

double identity theft, etc

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:11:00 +0000

I just checked a Sierra weather forecast, and it's calling for snow accumulation of 4 to 72 inches overnight. How cool is that! It'll certainly make Saturday's avalanche assessment training with Sequoia Mountain Rescue interesting.

My car was broken into Monday night. The thieves stole my radar detector. I haven't been too concerned about tickets in my new clunker, so I wasn't all that upset. Besides, in my new line of work maybe I shouldn't be driving around with a device aimed at circumventing law enforcement (my boss raised an eyebrow when he saw it the other day =). A spare credit card I used to keep in the glove box for emergencies was also taken. A call to the credit card company confirmed that several unauthorized charges were attempted. The company was great about cancelling the charges and offering a new card with a different number, but not so great about cancelling the account entirely, which is what I wanted to do. I gave up after they put me on hold 5 times transferring me to six different people.

The weirdest thing is that my insurance and registration info was stolen. I couldn't figure out why someone would do that- all I could think of was that it was like a new kind of identity theft- for cars instead of people. I checked the bottom left corner of the windshield. Sure enough, the VIN plate was gone. I've read enough police reports on vehicle code violations the last few weeks to know that there are countless unlicenced and uninsured drivers out there who would be happy to provide a citing officer with false info during a traffic stop. I've filed a police report and now my car's VIN is reported stolen. That'll really up the resale value, as anybody who runs a CarFax or other vehicle history report on it will attest.

I'm kind of pissed off. I don't think I've ever been the victim of a crime before. I feel helpless and angry. I wish I'd walked outside and caught whoever it was in the act. Maybe the cops will be able to trace the credit card use or VIN or something and make an arrest. I would love to testify as a witness in the case (I'd have to recuse myself from being the prosecutor). I'll probably just settle for going back to work tomorrow putting the bad guys in jail with renewed vigor.

Anyway, enough of that- I'm getting depressed.

I went snow camping with two friends Sunday into Monday. We had a great time despite temperatures dropping into the teens overnight. A few pictures:

Lodgepole visitor center in Sequoia National Park. Last year was an extremely dry year- the Sierra snowpack was only about 30% of normal. This season is shaping up to be a good one for snowsports (and kayaking come Spring!).

My friends Sean Trimble and Brian Hutchins. Both DA's. Sean and I share an office, which makes for quite a bit of confusion regarding names. The good news is that even though my new business cards haven't come in yet, I can just take some of his and scratch out the last name. =)

We didn't take tents or tarps, instead opting to build a snow shelter. Fun stuff! I don't think I'll ever outgrow playing in the snow.

Snow is a great insulator. A well built snow cave or shelter can be surprisingly warm- well above freezing even! They take some time to build, but can offer more warmth and protection than a tent. What you see in these pictures isn't a great example because we were short on tools and time, but I didn't freeze, and that's pretty much the point.

I never get tired of these views.

A helmet story

noreply@blogger.com (SES) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 03:32:00 +0000

I have a number of friends who insist on teasing me that my obsession with paddling around in a 6.5' yellow plastic boat is something less than heterosexual. They're just jealous, of course, but still, when I went out and bought a lacrosse helmet the other day for kayaking, I didn't exactly help to shut them up. Until now I've been using my climbing helmet, but I wanted to get something with a grill attached to protect my face (which, as anyone who's seen Ashton Kutcher in the new Cheaper by the Dozen movie can attest, "is the real moneymaker"). Observe:

Anyway, last weekend's severe weather in the Central Valley caused a number of local rivers to spike, and I got the chance to paddle a big chunk of the Kaweah River with some buddies on Sunday. It was my first time using the new helmet, and it paid for itself the first time out. The flows and features on the river were very challenging for my limited skill level, and though I made it downriver without any swims or portages, I did get just a little beat up. One of the times I flipped I smacked my head against a submerged rock hard enough to crack my neck. When I got home I was looking my helmet over and here's what I found:

The grill looked new when I got it. So basically, I don't care what you think, I'm saying it was a good investment! (Additionally, Monday was my first day of work at a new job, and though I wanted to make an impression, I don't think a broken nose or gash in the face would have been the best way to do it.) The end.