Supposedly I'm going to get paid on Friday. That'd be nice. Getting paid is always nice...especially in return for working. We'll see though.
Once I do start getting paid I'm going to sign up for internet at home. So given the urgency that me getting paid has within the government and the fact that the best setup for internet service looks like it is the government telecom, I'll probably be all set up by 4th of July. .
This setup is somewhat insane actually- at least right now. I'm the District Court prosecutor at the moment. I have pretty much no guidance though as to when to charge what. I've read the code. Moi and Mark, who both used to have my current job try to help me out as much as possible, but they're the only guys at high court. I took criminal law in law school, but other than that and a couple department of licensing hearings, my criminal court experience prior to coming here totaled my own apprearances at traffic court. I think that was a total of three appearances. That's pretty funny eh? The bad is that it sucks stresswise for me right now and quite possibly also for the interests of justice. But, soon I'll have it figured out and have more experience than if say I worked for a prosecutor at home for a year- since I get to handle all kinds of stuff and not just the lowest offenses (as most prosecutor offices smartly start inexperienced attorneys at that level). I hate looking like an idiot, and I'm quite sure that I do quite often in court right now, but hopefully that won't last terribly long.
We're understaffed by somewhere between 2-5 prosecutors apparently. We also apparently have funding for 2-3 more attorneys. None have been hired recently though because the Attorney General has been undergoing cancer treatment for about a year off island. Unfortunately, he died the other day. I never even met him.
While that is a tragedy for his family and village, maybe they will appoint a new AG or at least elevate the acting one so that he/she has the authority to hire some people. Even without that though, I think it'll get better relatively soon for me. I think I'm starting to get things organized and pretty soon I won't just be sitting waiting for some deadline to pass for something that my office was supposed to do but that was never calendared or in anyway revealed to me before heading to court. In another two weeks, I think all the stuff that was filed before I was there will be done, so at least I'll mostly know what is coming. That'll make my job much easier and much much less stressful.
All of this is just the reasoning behind why I haven't posted or emailed much lately. It'll improve. I'm sorry for the unreturned emails too. I keep meaning to get to them, but I just haven't been able.
I didn't do anything that you would probably find interesting this weekend. I just hung out all weekend. Friday- went to a public defender's house and hung out for a while. Saturday...drank beer, played Risk all day. It rained a lot recently, so there wasn't much to do outside, and I didn't really want to do anything else due to the tiredness. Sunday...nothing really. Some computer Risk, KFC bucket o chicken. Monday, I was so drenched with rain at court that I couldn't stop dripping all over all my paperwork. Very nice.
The other day I had some oka, which is one of the specialties here. The variety I had was really good. Kind of like a whole bunch of sashimi tuna in lime juice and hot oil and a little coconut juice.
I don't know what I'm doing this weekend. It probably depends on the weather. I've heard rumors of sloshball Saturday. That'd be fun. If not, and it doesn't pour down rain, I'm going to do some snorkling. And if there is sloshball, I'm planning on snorkling Sunday if possible.
Oh, also Sunday I went out to Moi's house. It is in a ridiculous setting. It is right by the ocean. The shore is a lava flow with tubes that the ocean goes into so that there are holes where the ocean comes in maybe 60 feet from shore- and big, Pitfall tarpit sized holes. You can jump in them and swim out to the other ones and then to the ocean apparently. I'll have to take some pictures of it out there next time.
Huskies: No NIT? Whuuuuut? Well that was a shafting, but not exactly one that matters I guess.

Movie reviews:

Man on Fire: 6 (Denzel even played a slightly different character)
Lets Go to Prison: 2.5 It isn't incredibly painful to watch, just boring and not funny, oh, but it is stupid.

I watched another stupid movie this weekend that I had seen before: Super Troopers: 9.5

So what's up? How are your kids. Apparently you pretty much all have them or will soon now. There must be some good stories.

Meg: I got the Balderdash and the other stuff. Thank you! Powdered Propel...great success.

Books: Somerset Maugham wrote lots of short stories. One of the most famous ones, Rain, takes place here in Pago Pago. The stories are ok, but they all end the same way- one of the main characters either kills himself or gets killed to end pretty much every story, so the only suspense is how they will die, so it is a little like Final Destination. Not great, not horrible. Plus, now you know what happens.

Games: EA NCAA Football 07 is great.