Bayerworld

Shockey gets shocked

I had a little incident right before the Saints Super bowl championship.  When I went to plug in an atenna signal booster, the ac adaptor blew up in my hand, numbing my arm,  gave me a blister on my thumb and causing a  huge ringing sound in my head for the next hour.  Lucky for us, we could watch the game without the signal booster. 

#Whodat

Pictures from the Saints Playoff Run

 

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bayerworld/sets/72157623389998582/

Traffic Court Pettifoggery

 

Great Email I got from Attorney Al Robert Jr. http://ajr.tumblr.com/

 

Somebody asked me today what happens when you miss a traffic court date and I realized that some people might appreciate some traffic court pettifoggery.  If you are one of those people, continue reading. . .

First things first, the easiest way to avoid dealing with traffic court is to avoid getting a ticket in the first place.  This Lifehacker article is actually pretty helpful in this regard and is worth a read: http://lifehacker.com/208611/how-to-beat-a-speeding-ticket-or-at-least-better-your-chances  (the idea about asking to see the radar and then contacting the cop at a later date is too much to me, but your mileage may vary).  In short, if you are going to get a ticket, you want to be entirely forgettable.

When you get a ticket, you have two options for fighting it: (1) do it yourself; or (2) get the help of an attorney.  It’s almost a right of passage for young attorneys to be sent to traffic court to deal with speeding tickets for firm partners and  for regular clients.  There are plenty of attorneys who will handle a speeding ticket for you for a fee and you can find them at the courthouse on the day of your hearing, if necessary.  Just ask somebody in a suit if they know of an attorney that can help you that day.   I’d expect to pay $100 or $150 for a lawyer to handle something like this, but you can also check Craigslist's legal services (http://neworleans.craigslist.org/lgs/) because there are often new attorneys offering to handle traffic tickets for free (or for a nominal fee like $25) as a means of building a practice. There must be some book out there that recommends this.  By the way, I hope it's clear that I'm not looking to handle any tickets--this is totally FYI.

Regardless, if you get an attorney to handle the ticket, you generally will not have to go to court and they will almost always get the ticket reduced to a non-moving violation (that doesn’t go on your record and result in increased insurance rates) or, occasionally, they can get the ticket dismissed entirely.  If, however, you want the experience of handling your own ticket, or don’t want to spend the cash, it’s pretty easy to handle the process on your own. 
In this regard, it’s probably worth mentioning that the primary purpose of traffic tickets is revenue generation for local governments.   When you realize that the whole process is designed to part you with your money, it’s much easier to work up the gall to fight your ticket in the first place. 
The basic process for fighting your ticket will remain the same in every traffic court.  Generally, they are all arranged around the same process: (1) you can call in and pay your ticket over the phone (or on the web) and you don’t even have to show up in court (if you do this, the ticket will go on your record and insurance companies can use the ticket as a reason to increase your insurance rates, I think for up to three years in Louisiana); (2) you can show up on the day of the hearing and they will ask you if you want to pay the fine immediately and leave without waiting for your hearing (again, the ticket will go on your record); or  (3) you can tell them that you want to fight the ticket.   If you fight the ticket, they will generally give you a piece of paper (or a copy of your ticket) and tell you to go sit in the courtroom and wait.

At this point, you will likely have to wait for an extended period of time while the city attorney or assistant district attorney deals with other matters in the court.  After you have waited for a while, you will typically be called to the front of the courtroom (or to a side office), either alone or with a bunch of other people, and the DA will advise that they are willing to reduce the speeding ticket to a non-moving violation in exchange for payment of a fine--usually equal to or a little less than the speeding ticket would have been.  At this point, most people gladly accept the offer and pay the fine.  This will keep the ticket off of your record and your insurance rates will not go up. 
For those who are feeling lucky, you can tell the attorney that you don’t accept the deal and that you would like them to nolle pross (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nolle_prosequi) the ticket or that you would like a hearing.  They will either tell you to go back to the courtroom and wait, or they will say they can nolle pross the ticket  If they offer this, then that means that you don’t have to pay any fine and nothing goes on your record.  I’ve had about five or six speeding tickets of my own (most before law school) and got them all reduced to non-moving violations or dismissed entirely.  I’ve never had to go beyond this point in the process.

If you do push your luck and the DA doesn’t offer you a nolle pross, then I would just ask the DA for a new hearing date or tell them that your are willing to take the non-moving violation offer.  Worst-case scenario is that the hearing goes forward and they cop is there to testify and you get found guilty.  In this case, you have to pay the fine, plus court costs, and the ticket goes on your record.

Remember that it’s the burden of the DA and the police to prove that you are guilty.   It is not your burden to prove your innocence.  Accordingly, even if you were totally speeding, there’s nothing wrong with pleading not guilty.  It just means that you are not willing to concede your guilt and that you are going to require the state to put on the evidence of your violation.   The state doesn’t want to go through the hassle of this, which is why you can feel pretty comfortable that they will offer you the non-moving violation if you show up and plead not-guilty.  They get their money without having to hold a hearing and you don’t have to worry about your insurance going up.
Finally, if you do skip your traffic court date, the court will almost-certainly enter an attachment, which means the next time a cop runs your plate, they are going to be required to bring you into jail and you will likely end up spending the night in OPP.  Unfortunately, it happens all the time, so if you have missed a hearing date go to the courthouse and pay your fines. 
That’s traffic pettifoggery, in a nutshell.  If anything is unclear or confusing, let me know.
Thanks,
Al

Strippers rooting for Shockey

06:33 AM ET 02.04 | Who will win the Super Bowl? The ecdysiasts at Rick's Cabaret pick the Saints, maybe because they are partial to New Orleans tight end Jeremy Shockey, a regular on the strip club scene when he played for the Giants. "We're not allowed to talk about our celebrity customers," said busty Rick's girl, and NYU student, Cynthia. "But let's just say that we all know and love Jeremy." "Jeremy is my favorite athlete," said petite Alyssa.

New York Post

http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/153471-strippers-rooting-for-shockey

Lost Season Premier First Hour Rewatch (Spoilers)

Here are my questions from the first hour of the season premier.  I will refer to the original time line as lost 1 and the alternate time line as lost 2

• After the plane did not crash, Jack goes into the bathroom.  He is bleeding on his neck,   Why?
  
• In Lost 2,  was Penny ever born?  Does Jack know Desmond from the Stadium or some sort of weird memory from Lost 1?
  
• Pretty Obvious that Hurley went to Australia become he owns Mister Cluck’s chicken and not to find the origin of the numbers.  Since the Island sunk,   that dude in Hurley’s mental institute never heard the numbers.  So Hurley won the lottery,  but with different numbers.  I wonder if Hurley got to hook up with Starla and if Trisha Tanka is dead in Lost 2?
  
• Did Locke go on the Walk About as as a Cripple.  That black dude told Locke to go on a Walk About.  Is he still alive in Lost 2?  Does the black guy work for jacob or the man in black?
  
• What is the stuff that protects you from the smoke monster?
  
• If the man in black is the smoke monster,  how could Ben control him?
  
• Did the man in black want jack and company to come back to the island?  It seems he orchestrated the whole thing.  Maybe Jacob knew the plan and got Hurley to bring the guitar case as a counter move against the man in black. 

Big Love

Love Big Love but can’t stand Bill.  Hope he goes down this season. 

Super Freakonomics

The book does a great job taking on Global Warming,  geo-engineering, and religion.  In 1991 Mt. Pinatubo erupted spewing tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere.  The end result was a partial cooling of the earth.  If the earth can cool itself down,  why can’t man recreate this effect and solve the “issue” of global warming?

Dump chemicals in the atmosphere?  It was a crazy hair-of-the-dog scheme that seemed to violate every tenet of environmentalism.  Those who saw global warming as a religious issue could hardly imagine a more grievous sacrilege.  P.216

 Budyko’s Blanket is a plan to do this.  Pump sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere at the poles to cool the earth down. 

So Budyko’s Blanket could effectively reverse global warming at a total cost of $250 million.  Compared with the 1.2 trillion that Nicholas Stern proposes spending each year to attack the problem, IV’s ideal is practically free.  It would cost $50 million less to stop global warming than what Al Gore’s foundation is paying to just increase the public awareness of global warming. 

P.216

Besides Global Warming the book takes on Prostitution,  (Casual Sex has killed the prostitutes wages.)  Suicide Bombing, Child Birth, and a lot of other topics.  A great read. 

NFC Championship Launch pad Party

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ernieattorney/sets/72157623160770319/show/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ernieattorney/sets/72157623160770319/

There and Back Again

Were back and the NFC Championship again.  This time, we don’t have to go up and play in 20 degree weather surrounded by hostile fans.  At home, in the dome.  Great things are going to happen to New Orleans regardless if we win or loss this game, but this will help the people of New Orleans feel just a little better.  Douglas Mccollam puts it into words much better then I could ever:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703514404574587904269570732.html

FitBit Update

 

How does the sleep tracking work and what will I learn?

It's important that you get a good night's sleep. Recent studies have shown that sleep quality is linked to overall wellness. Have you ever wondered why you still feel tired even though you think you've gotten a full 8 hours of sleep? The Fitbit Tracker will allow to "see" what your body is actually doing at night.

When you get into bed, you slide the Fitbit Tracker onto a wristband that is provided with the Tracker. As you fall in and out of sleep, the Fitbit tracks the movements that your body makes and can tell you how long it took you to fall asleep, how many times you woke up throughout the night and the actual time you were asleep vs the time you were in bed.

Does the Fitbit accurately track calories from cycling/biking?

The Fitbit is optimized for walking, running and general household/lifestyle activities and gives you a good general 24 hour picture of your day. It's not going to be that accurate for things like biking, but the website will allow you to manually log activities, so that an estimated calorie burn for your biking can be included in your daily totals. If you are only doing the biking for an hour or so a day, the Fitbit will give you a good overview of your activities for the other 23 hours. The Fitbit is really for people to get a general sense of their day and get motivation from improvements in their general day to day trends.

http://www.fitbit.com/faq#sleep