Wait? No foreign students? What school was that?

Okay, I said it wrong because it's been so long since this was one of my job duties, but, having for a (blessedly) short time worked on setting up student visas for incoming postdocs from all over the world, I do remember working on a full metric assload of paperwork to ensure that their right to legally enter the country, enroll at the school, and visit their home countries and return as needed was written in stone. "Resident alien" is the wrong phrase; just "person on a student visa"? I can't remember.

The point was that even if my friend weren't a US citizen (which he in fact was), there was no way he could've gotten a valid US university student ID without having said metric assload of paperwork behind him; that one tiny little document represents dozens of hours of labor and eleventy-jillion forms.

His ID could have been forged, of course, but the border agents might then have asked why he'd bothered to get a forged college ID when he could've gotten a forged passport or birth certificate or practically anything else with more legal weight. And then the border agents would have had to ask themselves why they'd cheerfully waved through all the white folks with identical IDs.

I do remember working on a full metric assload of paperwork to ensure that their right to legally enter the country, enroll at the school, and visit their home countries and return as needed was written in stone.

Hey! That's kinda like my job!

I went to school in Quebec, so fake IDs weren't a big deal, but ... yes, they were being hypocritical -- not by stopping him, just by not stopping the others.

Fake IDs are everywhere, aren't they? And the lower the legal weight, the easier they probably are to fake. And I used my school ID long after the grounds on which I obtained it were invalid.

Which is why I'm continually stunned that folks were let across borders on such crap paperwork. Oy.

Hey! That's kinda like my job!

cries for Allyson

I wonder if, when I drift off in meetings, they can tell when it's say, pain, or fantasies of dismemberment, or pretty man thoughts. I do try to nod assuringly at the right pauses, but someone called me on drifting off during a krav explanation, saying "This time it looked different." Yeah. So did he.

Uh... is it just me, or does this seem to be a specious question? They should have called in the police if they believed a crime had occurred (and I'm all on top of why the hell didn't they call the police?). But "let him in"... what, all US-born criminals become effectively Canadian when they commit a crime? They were right to "let him in". It very much seems as though they were wrong to let him go and not inform anyone.

As much as I'm not above taking the obvious shot at Homeland Security (because of its crock-of-shititude), that is the crux of the matter. This isn't the first time some obviously crazy person has bumped into border folks, had a weapon confiscated, been released, then gone off and killed someone, because the last time it happened, it happened in Canada. The border people apparently don't have access to the necessary information to know all the background on potentially homicidal-looking suspects, and they don't seem to have the connections or the jurisdiction to pass the word on to people who should watch the guy, and actually do something about his craxiness.

I suspect turf, but it is probably just systemic incompetence (as opposed to individual). The inevitable judicial inquiry or coroner's inquest will likely say the same things about better communication, blabla, as was said the last time.

Aargh.

Please tell me why I have a burning need to read the transcripts of the entire Season 3 of Roswell instead of, well , packing up the mountains of crap I have collected in three years.

I think I need to set a date for someone to come over and help me pack, so I can at least get this mess cleaned up.

I am also looking for a hairstyle for a wedding where my best friend Maria is a bridesmaid.

She is wearing the below, in chocolate, with a long skirt:

[link]

This is she--

[link]

and she has very fine, thin hair and an oval face

I can't get in to your friend's picture, but I liked this page [link] because it has before and after.

Hairdo- 5th row down on far right in the bride section- except instead of leaving half down I'd leave some artfully placed whisps.

Jon and NW- all the awwws and sniffles in the world.

Please tell me why I have a burning need to read the transcripts of the entire Season 3 of Roswell instead of, well , packing up the mountains of crap I have collected in three years.

Because you are me. I apologize. And, you really should get cracking on that personal statement.