1) Last Thursday we went to court to sue our former landlord, in small claims. Not only did he dress like some kind of hippie clown, but he lost his temper with our judge, after the judge awarded us our initial $500 of $2500 we were asking for. The judge had us leave the courthouse so he could deliberate on it later. Yesterday, we received the judgment in the mail and were awarded all of our money back, plus court costs. This is a grand total of $2658.84. That's great! But, in the middle of the former landlord's meltdown, he told the judge, he didn't care what the judge said, he was taking it to superior court. I imagine that means he'll appeal and we'll go to superior court. And then sue his ass again.
2) My mom has been getting pretty deep into our family genealogy, and recently I've taken a gene test which traces mtDNA(matrilineal side) and y chromosome DNA(patrilineal side). We figured it's best to test the kids since we're a package of everything in our most immediate family. However to get the female DNA from my dad's side, he'll have to get an mtDNA test and the male DNA from my mom's side, her brother(my uncle) will have to get a y chromosome test.
I haven't been sure what to expect out of the results, but the first batch came through yesterday. It's the results of my mom's, mom's, mom's, mom's, mom's, mom's etc. mtDNA. On that part of the female side, it said I am part of the haplogroup U5a1a, which is defined here:
Haplogroup U5a1a lineage within haplogroup U5 arose in Europe approximately 30,000 years ago, and is mainly found in northwest Europe. In the context of its rather ancient origin, the modern distribution of haplogroup U5a1 suggests that individuals bearing this haplogroup were part the initial expansion tracking the retreat of ice sheets from Europe. Bryan Sykes in his Seven Daughters of Eve book named this mtDNA haplogroup Ursula.
With Haplogroup U5 described as:
The oldest mtDNA in Europe that's human, Homo Sapien and not Neanderthal or other archaic individual is U5. The age of U5 is estimated at 50,000 but could be as old as 60,500 years. The first place scientists find U5 in Europe is in Cyrenaica, and artifacts are found in Iberia, as it's the first in Europe and evolved in Europe.
The presence of haplogroup U5 in Europe pre-dates the expansion of agriculture in Europe. Bryan Sykes' popular book The Seven Daughters of Eve says it shows up 45,000-50,000 years ago in Delphi, Greece and named the originator of haplogroup U5 Ursula. It shows That U5 is the first out of Africa into Europe, and that it shows up as the first Europeans in two places, Delphi and Spain around 50,000 years ago.
By another source haplogroup U5, age is estimated at about 52,000 kya, being the oldest subclade of haplogroup U.[5] Haplogroup U5 and its subclades are most common in Sami, Finns, and Estonians, but it is spread widely at lower levels throughout Europe. U5 is found also in small frequencies and at much lower diversity in near East suggesting back-migration of people from northern Europe to south.[1]
Here is Sykes' description of 'Ursula'
Who was Ursula? According to Professor Sykes, Ursula was likely born about 45,000 years ago in the mountains of Greece. This time period is close to the beginning of the Ice Age. Ursula and her family likely encountered Neanderthals. Her people were slightly taller than Neanderthals and much slimmer, a trait that helped her ancestors adapt better to their previous homelands of the Middle East and Africa. Neanderthals were shorter and stockier, with large broad noses, built better for the colder weather of Europe where they resided for the past quarter million years. It is thought that Ursula's people did not "kill off" Neanderthals, but rather, they were a more social animal, and their communication skills allowed them to more efficiently gather and share the living supplies available in the new land. The average life expectancy at that time is estimated to be around 35 years. Both Sykes ("Seven Daughters of Eve") and Oppenheimer ("The Real Eve") agree that Ursula's Clan, and her mtDNA haplogroup U5, were the first permanent Homo sapiens in Europe. Today, the highest proportion of Ursula descendents are found in Scandinavia, Germany, and the area of the United Kingdom.
So this is pretty interesting. Basically my female side is like, super-whitebred. Not really, since Ursula all but came straight from North Africa, but the neat thing is, the DNA test I took linked me to living people who I have recent common ancestors with, all over the world. The majority of which are clustered in Eastern Europe.
In a few weeks, I'll start to get the results of my male DNA lineage, which is alleged to be Dutch, Scotch, Irish, Native American, so we'll see how that ends up.........
3)
I did not expect to be taking this picture yesterday. Man, it's crazy, happy and in some ways sort of sad. I thought Transformers had overall better looking FX than The Golden Compass, but what Compass was trying to do was very difficult and 90% of the time, they(we) pulled it off. Also, Rhythm was ripped off a few years ago by King Kong versus Narnia, so this was payback. Naturally, it's been very happy here at work. I'm very happy too. Receiving an Oscar is a pretty god damned tremendous way of having your work acknowledged and approved. I never thought I would have such an experience. The sad part comes from reading the backlash against Compass's win, as written by movie fans on forum boards and whatnot. I can't get too upset about it, since 99.999% of those guys have never won an Oscar or made a freaking movie, but I don't want to defend it either. I don't want to be that guy who argues with people on the internet, about whether or not he did a good job AFTER he's won a fucking Oscar. So I just got to let it slide. This makes me think about what it must be like for people who are heavily spotlighted in their artistic careers - musicians, filmmakers, fashion designers, actors etc. When you do something so public, no matter how well you do, or how hard you work, there is always going to be someone judging you harshly, telling you that you didn't do a good job, that your work sucks, you didn't work hard enough, etc. Like the old saying: You can't please everyone. That doesn't mean I don't want to fight all those fanboy nerds in the Dairy Queen parking lot though.
Anyhow, time for my own little Oscar speech: Mom, Dad and Michi - thanks for all your love and support. Without you guys, there is no way and hell I'd be where I am doing what I do now. I love you guys.
