here's a situation:

10 years ago, you made a phone call to the police based on educated evidence that a person you know may be a potential suspect in the rape of a 15 year old girl.

after a week or two, the person you reported is arrested. a few months later, found guilty by a trial and sentenced to 4 years.

several years later, you do some googling on this person and discover the following:
* at the time they were arrested for this crime, they were on probation for a previous sexual assault against a teenager.
* they have appealed the conviction (and lost).
* they have appealed the DNA that was taken from them and added to the dangerous sexual offenders database, based on a technicality (but they lost that appeal too).
* they served the entire four year sentence before being released.

skip ahead another few years. another google is done and the above information is still easily located (court documents are publicly archived and easily searchable) but you find the following:
* this person is now married to the girlfriend he had at the time he was arrested/convicted, who believes that the charge was false.
* he is self-employed as a musician, playing for old-age homes and other organizations.
* his wife is a devout christian.
* he himself advertises himself as a devout pentecostal, even posting poems and prayers to god on websites.

you're also aware that the community of people you were part of at the time he was picked up by the police believe in his innocence at the time.

now, i'm aware that this person *did* fulfill their punishment by serving the entire four years and all appeals failed, so the criminal record has stuck. but at the same time, i kind of feel the way the advocates do in the various criminal tv shows. i feel like loudly proclaiming to everyone around him that he's a rapist, a sexual offender. i want his neighbourhood to know what kind of person he is... a man that will grab a 15 year old off the street, drag her into the bushes, and rape her. and that he hasn't done it only once.

yet there's the niggling little thought in my head that people deserve a second chance. that people can actually reform and change and ask forgiveness. maybe his attempts at being self-employed and being a christian are part of that reformation. and while a person who admits their guilt and asks forgiveness doesn't attempt to appeal a rightful conviction, it's entirely possible he changed after he tried the appeal process.

but there's still a strong part of me that wants to scream out warnings. he was a creepy old man who couldn't keep his hands to himself around any semi-decent looking female... even if they were young enough to be his daughters (but old enough to be legal). i would avoid him at meetings because he was always trying to cop a feel. it's a shame that others laughed at it and encourage him to be a dirty old man.

if he gets nailed again, i won't feel bad for thinking the worst of him. but i hope hope hope, for the sake of others' safety, he really has changed.

(hrm... this kind of changed from a hypothetical situation to something pretty obvious. anyway... if you knew all these facts and were the person that did the initial phone call back up at the top, how would you feel? what would you do?)

Current Mood: contemplative

i went searching for some ideas on how to clean the in-sink garbage disposal that came with our apartment and while i found the answer (grind up citrus peelings) i also found articles on why garbage disposals are bad for the environment.

that really sucks. i like having it. :( i find the kitchen doesn't get the smelly odour associated with having rotting garbage in a bag under the sink and i go through less plastic bags since it takes longer to fill up one due to most things being recycled.

i tried searching for more information on the pros and cons of a garbage disposal but only found the one article. anyone know more about them? they're apparently installed by default in most houses/apartments in california. maybe the septic systems are able to handle the added organic material?

Current Mood: thoughtful

i have discovered something.

i live in san francisco, right?

it's on the ocean, right?

right.

there's a bay not even 1 km away from me.

but i cannot find any beach sand.

it doesn't have to be pretty soft sand. just any ol' type of beach sand. with shells and seaweed for added measure.

i biked for 45 minutes yesterday before realizing that i really needed to turn around and come home in order to make a 1:00 appointment. so no sand.

california, living on the ocean, and i have to bike an hour to get to some silly sand. *grr*

next week maybe.

also going back up to canada for a few days to visit with friends/family. that promises to be fun. :)

i've also been watching horror movies as of late (i like having a movie or show on while i do stuff around the house like housework, cooking, or mindless computer stuff). so far, i've watched "re-animator", "in the mouth of madness", "28 days later" and "28 weeks later". either i'm getting kinda meh at horror movies or these aren't that good. don't get me wrong, the "28 * later" are actually pretty good, but i think i'm just worn out of zombie movies. "re-animator" was interesting but i was disappointed at how far it deviated from the original HP lovecraft story, and "in the mouth of madness" was loosely based on HPL cthulu mythology but really had nothing to do with it outside of that. also, "re-animator" kinda went for the incredibly "ick" factor in the gore and was just a bit more b-rated than i'd like.

ah well. what can one expect with movies centred around blood, guts, gore, and the pursuit of chompiness?

halloumi cheese is made of way too much awesome. you can actually grill the stuff and it doesn't melt.

yummy!

WTF??

i did the first two weeks of my 13 week walk/run program. today was going to be the start of week #3, but i felt it necessary to repeat week #2. that's not that big of a deal... i feel that as long as i work through each until i'm comfortable with it, then i'll be more likely to stick it out instead of getting frustrated that i can't reach the goals for a specific week.

well today it was more like "walk" instead of "walk/run". i did two sessions of 1 minute run / 2 minute walk, and both knees and one ankle are screaming at me. i turned it into a 45 minute walk instead.

i can't tell if my knees are inflamed or stretched or what. but suffice to say, pushing it just hurt too much. i can tell the difference between "good hurt" for pushing your limits and "bad hurt" where it means pushing it means more damage. this was definitely the latter.

*grumble* it's one thing to repeat a week. another to have to completely abandon the program for that week due to injuries. and after only two weeks? bah!

i'm going to go find a juicing recipe for inflammation. see if a few days of that helps out.

will there come a time where i won't look out my window and feel disconcerted that i see an american flag flying instead of a canadian one?

it still feels weird.

Current Music: puscifer - sour grapes

why isn't the sun out and shining when i go running between 10 and 12 in the morning, but decides to pop out at 3 pm? when i'm resigning myself to staying in the house to finish up stuff?

that sucks.

and bast is taking up half my office chair and i'm too much of a wimp to move him. cause he's too cute. at least he's keeping my butt warm.

Current Music: dokken - when some nights

so far i've managed to make it to week 2 with my jogging program. i restarted it a little over a week ago and i'm aiming to stick with it for the full 13 weeks.

the weather is really conducive to running at least. a good breeze, decent temperatures, not too hot. i go east towards the bay each time and run by the water. today, i went south enough to actually pass underneath one of the bridges. that really does sound much cooler than it looks in text. i'd love to bring a camera with me but i can't really when running. i might tomorrow though, i'm biking down to a farmer's market for fresh veggies.

i lost my water bottle on the run though. :(

i just need to actually figure out some sort of schedule of running, cycling, yoga and weight lifting.

and i need to finish my list of 101/1001, as bardofawen has really inspired me to do this.