Indy Cultural Tidbit

I know I haven't posted much these past few weeks. Blame it on finals. I can tell from the hitmeter that there is less traffic. I also blame it on finals as the majority of my audience are my fellow students.

But this will be the start of what I hope to be a regular feature. This will serve as a reminder to those in Indy why this is such a great city; it will show the out of towners that are coming to Indy soon for classes why Indy is such a great city (I've had readers from Bloomington, South Bend, and New York who are coming to school next fall), and it will force me to find more cool stuff about the city I've grown up in. It's amazing. I've lived here all my live yet know so little it seems. I need to take my own advice and pretend I'm a tourist so I can find the cool stuff.

The historic Hannah House at 3801 Madison Ave. I miss the days around Halloween when it was "Haunted Hannah" but it is open the first Saturday of the month from 1 to 4pm. Go tomorrow if you can. $3 gets you in and you can tour the house and grounds of an authentic haunted historic mansion. Did I mention there actually are ghosts there? Perhaps ghosts of the slaves who stayed here as a part of the Underground Railroad.

Go soon, this treasure may disappear. Property taxes are killing the elderly sisters who own the house. The house is available for banquets, wedding receptions, and art shows.

Angel: Time Bomb

Rather appropriate title for this episode as Illyria was going to go BOOM! A tad transitional, but it picked up some interesting plot threads for the remainder of the season. Good to have Gunn back with the Fang Gang. Rather ironic that what was Fred, who he helped accidentally kill, is now Illyria who whips Gunn out of the suburban hell dimension. The exchange between Wes and Gunn was priceless:

Wes: I stabbed you. I think I should apologize for that, but I’m honest not sure how. I think it’ll just be awkward.
Gunn: Good call.
Wes: Ok.

It’s amazing how good an actor Alexis Denisov is. He portrays a grieving, rational, dark and insane Wesley so very well. A shame his work will never be recognized by the all the award shows. These fantastic-unreality shows are the bastard stepchildren of the media.

Oh god don’t go in there! That’s where he keeps his full strength crazy.

Yep, Wesley has gone off the deep end. Does anyone else figure he’ll do a dramatic self-sacrifice/death in the series finale? Joss Wheedon does like to kill off some people and this entire Wesley/Illyria arc just reeks of him dying in a final attempt to bring back Fred. JW can never allow a completely happy ending.

It was amazing to see Illyria kill everyone. With something so old that the concepts of good and evil are simply unknown to them, it is amazing to see them simply act out what they feel needs to be done. Rather scary thought if you think about it. Luckily with a time-shifting greater god you can bring in such dramatic moments of her explaining to Past-Angel that he was the final one killed as she threw an axe onto his dustpile. Besides, with 20 minutes left in the episode and 3 more for the entire series you knew they couldn’t stay dead.

If you want to win a war you must serve no master but your ambition.

This begs the question: to win the ultimate goal of good, does it matter what methods you use? Does it ever matter that the sacrifices required to win may be more costly than the win itself? Or is it all a matter of doing what needs to be done, not what you wish you could do? Do the ends justify the means?
For Angel we shall find out over the next three weeks.
For ourselves, perhaps we should ponder that a bit. Let me know what you think.

The Rosslyn House

For three years the house on Rosslyn was our bachelor pad of doom. Seven men have officially lived there and I might as well been the eighth! The first two years I could just open the door and walk in as someone was always there. The house added many friendships for me; Friends of Friends (FOF) became Friends (with no OF). I could bond with men as I helped helped move furnature in and out, help lay down the walking stones to the side door, helped lay down marbled vinyl tile on the bartop, helped set up nightlights along the patio, helped laid down gravel, helped build the storage bench for the hot tub, and . . . HEY, for that much sweet equity I should have been given a key to the house!

Rosslyn was more than a place, it was a state of mind. Go to Broad Ripple via the Monon Trail so we could stumble back drunk and happy. Need to meet someone just have them go to Rosslyn. If you wanted to just see how someone, anyone, was doing, just go to Rosslyn. You never knew who was going to be there, but that was the fun part. There was usually a cold beer and a warm burger available there, if there wasn't we would fix that. Plastic money, dangerous money! Oh, I fear for your livers!

I'll miss the Indy 500 Parties, the New Years Parties (the Chad steeping on glass part can be forgotten about), working on a '65 Mustang, cruising around Broad Ripple in the 'Stang, stalling out in the middle of the street in that 'Stang, Thanksgiving dinners, relaxing in the hot tub, seeing "Oh my god, is he doing that with her in the hot tub!", being unable to get in the side door because the six people in the living room couldn't hear me knocking due to someone having loud sex in his bedroom, charging toward the side door when someone broke in (but BiggMann had beer so it was good), the broken furnance before New Years, the closed flue in the fireplace, the couch I fear will spontaneously combust, the damp seeping basement, the toilet that required a prelaunch sequence to use it, Stokes peeing on the kitchen wall (at least he was attempting to aim for the kitchen wastebasket), the leaking wall, and one pretty damn good 30th birthday party for yours truly!

As you can tell the Rosslyn house has many memories. All were created by the people who either lived there or visited it. Many are now some of my dearest friends if they were not before, my own Band of Brothers. As our lives have changed over the past 3 years it is amazing to see. The original 3 men are all married now with 2 getting ready to be fathers. One has been in, out, back in, and back out of college. Two have moved to Indy to find work (with one being a little more successful than the other). One did have a job, but needed to wait until the wife could come to Indiana, and I get to drop napalm on their overgrown lawn in a few weeks. He-He! As for me, that house saw me quit my job and attend 2 years worth of law school as the employed and unemployeed gave me beer and burgers.

Tonight some of us hosted beer and bad champange to praise the Rosslyn house. The house keys will be turned in over the weekend, and sometime over the summer someone new will enter. Friday night we drink beer at the Rathskellar and will definately toast that house again. I feel the need to drive by one more time with a tear in my eye. I hope 5 gallons of gasoline is enough to burn down that craptastic hellhole.

The worst is over I think.

I discovered that I was not well prepared for Admin Law Final. Until I started preparing I didn’t realize that I had no idea about the Skidmore case that we had covered for about 3 weeks. Not a good sign. I did manage to name a side-case that would have been very helpful. Of course the fact I couldn’t name any of the five factors in that case isn’t a good sign either. Nor the fact I said that the six to eight factors would help. Aye-aye-yih! On the plus side I’ve helped everyone else with the bell curve.

I had intended to go home, do a little research for a memo that I still need to write and then enjoy Wednesday night television. Yet somehow I end up at a bar with classmates consuming beer. If you drink this much alone you’re an alcoholic. With friends and classmates you’re only being social! Somehow we end up with our own Sex And The City-esque discussion. Rather interesting with five women, a married man, a gay man, and me, the perpetually single dude. The problem with most sex is that men and women have different styles. Men are the turbo-charged sports car. They spool up fast, expand a lot of energy quickly, and the quarter-mile is over. Women are the steam locomotive. They take awhile to warm up but once they start boiling over they can go for a long distance. Okay, you put two and two together folks because if I have to spell it out there is no hope for you.

I had a great time on a sidewalk patio drinking with my friends and classmates. Yet it some ways it was bittersweet. These past two years have found me unstuck in time. We work, we attend class, we work on papers, we run organizations, we even sing and dance sometimes. But I don’t know these people as well as I would want to. I haven’t been able to socialize with this band of brother and sisters anywhere near the extent I would like to. This past semester they have proven so interesting. Perhaps that is why so many of us are addicted to this blogs. We see different sides of ourselves; the sides that don’t come through in a classroom or at a table in the library.

I’m going to try to be more social over the next year. We need to see each other outside of the stale air of our hermetically sealed state of the art building. As I only need 22 credits to graduate and those will be spread out over the summer, fall, and spring I’ll have a party here, a barhop there, and with luck a cheesy-movie night somewhere. That’s the problem with law school specifically, it teaches us to be less than human at times. That is a cost I do not like.

The new Oldsmobiles are in early this year

Sadly I'm lying with the title. General Motors had a choice back in 2000: kill Oldsmobile or kill Saturn. I still think they made the wrong choice. If you want an Alero grab one soon for production ends on Thursday. They are pretty decent cars IMHO.

Free Ice Cream Cone Day

On the lighter side of news:
Ben & Jerrys annual day of free ice cream is today.
Noon to 8pm nationwide.
Go out and relax and treat yourself :)

Brain...Oozing...Out...Of...Head!

Four hours sleep. Check!
Take eight hour Evidence exam in seven hours and twenty minutes. Check!
Being able to print out the hardcopy in the law review office I have access to and avoiding all the 1Ls (who are the scourge of the earth), and other Evidence classmates cramming up by the lab printers. Priceless :-)

I did see a few crafty people bringing in their own printers to avoid the rush. Excellent idea on their part. I did that last years.

Okay, I'm tired and exhausted. One more final and two memos to write. Eek, those memos will suck!

And so it begins

Less than 18 hours until an 8 hour take home final for Evidence begins.
Should I be shot before, during, or after the final?
Can I negotiate an automatic C+ just for showing up to all the classes?

Happy Wedding Day

Scott and Caryn. Good luck today. See you all in a few hours.

As for my guest who is running late and won't be meeting my at my place, I hope she makes it to the church on time and doesn't get lost. I'm going to feel really bad if she gets lost again.

Definately not going to be much of a study day. Let's see if I can get through my Admin Law outline in an hour.

TV of interest for couples

This post is rated PG-13

Okay, last post for the day I swear!

Last night I stumbled onto a unique show on Discovery Health channel. Have you heard of the Berman & Berman? They're two doctors and sisters that have their own TV show I guess. Last nights show was on interesting and different sexual positions. They found 3 couples for a weekend and the point of the show was to have a meal, discuss a sexual position, go to their rooms and try it out, then have another meal and report back how the liked it while getting info on the next two positions. I doubt they had problems finding volunteers. Just my guess.

For me, the entire show just goes into the In Theory Mental Database due to my perpetual singleness, but for those of you who are married or involved be on the lookout for the show. It would spice up things between you two for sure! Wow.

I would like to note that you should watch the show AFTER finals. It definately kills study time for Admin Law and Evidence!

P.S. you don't have to click on the hyperlinks so this is not pornography. This is just a helpful tip for those who can make use of the knowledge.

Lack of Posting

I'm going to be involved with studying, going to a wedding, and the groom's last lunch over the next few days. Break time for me online at least! What a shame; there are so many things I wish I could post about to get your thoughts.

Good for stock price, bad for products

Okay, the whole point of mergers and partnerships is to derive cost savings through the ability to use larger quanties of common parts or to sell more items that use a same number of common parts (same difference really). Since DaimlerChrysler (DC) owns about a 1/3 of Mitsubishi (MMC) DC decided to have Mitsubishi and Chrysler work together for small and medium sized automobiles. A twin Neon/Lancer and a Galant/Sebring/Stratus sibling platform. Sounds like a good idea to me. Yet now, DC wants to get out of the partnership?

Last week DC was talking about outright buying out MMC! I wonder if it would have been another hostile takeover...er 'merger of equals' that occured back in 1998 when Mercedes and Chrysler merged.

Here's the question, given the amount of engineering work that has already occured for the next generation of vehicles (it takes 3 to 5 years to design a car) how will this sale off/pull out affect them? Is all that work down the drain or will the current plans go through?

Happy Earth Day

Please remember to put your empty pop cans in the recycling bins. Many schools and grocery stores have huge green recycling bins next to them. Once you know which ones handle newspapers and which ones handle magazines you can consider it an easy Saturday chore to recycle. Plastics, glass, and cardboard are also recyclable. Many battery stores and big box shops like Wal-Mart and Meijers offer places to drop off you old batteries.

How well does it work? Once I started recycling I have a hard time coming up with a full 13lbs bag of trash a week.

I'll trash the Kyoto Protocols another day.

Smart vs. Smartass

I figured it out tonight. Why do people hate lawyers? One reason is that lawyers tend to be smartasses. No one likes a smartass. Confident is good; cocky is not; knowing when to shut up appears to be impossible for some, i.e. being a smartass. So here is a tip to all my faithful readers: smart is good; smartass is not.

Here's hoping I fall into the former and not the latter.

Have We Forgot About MEN?

Quick study break requires me to do something useful. So I hopped online for a couple of wedding registries that one of my best friends is on. After 6 years of dating the girl he finally popped the question and the joyous day is Saturday. As I'm at Bed, Bath and Beyond I notice that most of the gifts are cute house-type stuff. Bed sheets, cooking pans, various kitchen utinsels, etc. Nothing really manly. I couldn't stand the thought of getting him a bathroom towel knowing that he would think of me every time he used it. It's not right.

Thank god he's registered at Sears as well! They had plenty of the cute stuff as well, but tools and yard equipment was there as well. MANLY STUFF! *grunt* Levels, Shop-Vacs, Broken screw extractors, and other manly things. An entire line of products called Crafts-MAN! If I could have found a double rigged leather belt that woudl hold two power drills I would have got that. Hey...that's a good idea to make one of those.

So I found something cool, practical, and with luck I'll get to use it sometimes when I come over to the house. If he things of me every time he uses it, well I won't mind with this gift. What will the future wife think? Eh who cares!

PS: you got to love online shipping. For $8 I don't even need to pick it up and wrap it :-)

Studying For Finals Suck

No need to elaborate on that. At least I get to smile at Kelly sometimes across the table to make this rainy day a little brighter.

Six forward gears for the lazy drivers

It's been in the design stages since 2002, but now Ford and GM are putting their money where their mouths are with a jointly developed 6 speed automatic transmission that'll come out in a year or two. As much as these two companies hate each other it's a stroke of genius to realize that they were better together than being independent in designing such a major component. 4% better fuel economy than a typical car that you're driving now which likely has 4 speed auto. That doesn't sound like much, but with increasing pressure to raise fuel economy it is a huge step. Combine that with better engines that use less gas to make the same horsepower, use of aluminum to lighten the vehicle, and other 'small' things and the average car in 10 years will be a lot more efficient without being a tiny tin box on wheels.

Of course I've always advocated learning to drive a stick shift :-)

The Simple Pleasures

It wasn't quite 8 solid hours of sleep, but at least I could roll back into bed from 6am onward. I had the bedroom window open to let in fresh air. It's amazing how stale air becomes during the winter when you trap it inside for months. The only reason I closed it when I woke up the first time was just to drown out the cars driving by as I didn't mind the chill. It felt good against the sunburnt arms. Odd how heat and cold interact and become pleasing to experience.

Reading the newspaper with a hot cup of coffee. This morning I can read the articles I want to instead of skimming them. Now begins studying for finals, but at least I feel ready today. Well, I'll be ready after I shower :-)

EDIT: one more simple pleasure to note. Using a brand new razor blade to shave with. That feels so fine! Yep, I'm a new man today.

Milestone

Officially had my 1,000th visitor today. Considering this blog started on March 4th I think that isn't too bad. Thank you whoever you were. I have no idea what the difference is between visitors and page views, but I'm at over 1,200 of the latter. I hope everyone has been enjoying their time here.

More Tylenol Please!

I can tell I've skipped the last few two-hand touch football games. I am sore and stiff and not in that pleasant way. When I was going to the games on a regular basis I evolved into a decent short-yardage tight end type. A big target that on a crossing route would get enough yards for a possession. When I caught 3 passes in a row like that during a game I suddenly merited better coverage.

Yesterday I was just slow and had stone hands. I'm also trying to figure out this out. When the two largest people on the field collide, how did all the energy from the impact transfer to only me?

I'm working out tomorrow!

Last Day of Classes

It is the final day of classes. Then IU-Indy goes into Finals. Posting will be on and off as I need to be studying for finals, writing some memos for the two judges that I intern with, and I suspect doing some last minute wrangling for a friend's wedding that is this weekend.

Yes, I am quite exhausted. I became burned out during the Spring Break of Doom and have honestly never recovered. This year required so much energy to simply get through. Internships, publishing my paper, organizing a trip to D.C. for a moot court competition. I've had to go full throttle this entire year and it shows. After finals are over I may go see some friends that are out of town that I haven't seen in awhile. Chicago, Elkhart, Cleveland, I don't care. Just a few days away from here. Just a few days of peace.

Which Idiot Is Worse?

Here's my own version of a poll. We're in the library reading room where it is supposed to be quiet. Luckily someone, Idiot #1, was smart enough to put his cell phone on VIBRATE mode instead of letting it actually ring. However #1 left his cell phone on the table as he walked away to do whatever he wanted to do. Leaving small personal electronic devices in a public area is not the smartest thing IMHO.

Idiot #2 calls the cell phone and it vibrates, annoying 10 of us that are nearby. Then the phone vibrates again. Then the phone vibrates for a third time! I seriously doubt that three people suddenly decided to call this phone number in a period of 5 minutes so it's most likely that someone was redialing the cell phone in a attempt to get the person. Here is a clue, LEAVE A MESSAGE and wait for person #1 to call you back! Please don't keep dialing. If you have to try again don't immediately call back. That's just silly.

Oh well.

Happy 40th Birthday Mustang!

April 19, 1964: A day that will live in infamy. Ford introduces the Mustang at the World's Fair.

It's amazing how this car threads itself throughout my life. My friend Scott has a cherry red '65 (I think) coupe. There's nothing like crusing Broad Ripple on a nice night with the oldies station on in that ride.

My car in college was a black '84 Mustang with the 3.8 liter V-6. It couldn't corner worth anything, but in a straight line it was okay. The hatchback design was perfect as I could move half my dorm room in it by myself. I could also squeeze Scott into the truck so 6 of us would see Dracula when it came out. I'll never forget him screaming that not only was he underneath the stoplight, but could also see the 18-wheeler bearing down on us!

My friend Katie had a cherry red '96 (I think) GT convertible. A woman with a V-8 powered convertible and knew how to drive a stick shift; that is grounds for a marriage proposal! A woman who understands that cars are more than appliances are to be treasured. Everytime I see a red Mustang convertible with the '94 - '96 body style I think of her and still wish that she could have survived the World Trade Center.

The completely revitalized '94 was Motor Trend's Car Of They Year and if I had any sort of decently paying job upon graduation I would have nabbed that baby insurance premiums be damned! It was tugging on my heart at the Ford dealership when I was looking at the Ranger that I could afford and did like, when across the floor was a perfect V-8 GT in the shade of green that I lusted for.

Interestingly enough a brand new redesigned 2005 model with a 300 horsepower V-8 will be introduced this fall. I graduate again in 2005. Seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same!

Motorcycle Mania

As this was one of the first sunny and warm weekends of the year, all the motorcycles are out for their first rides it seems. I've attempted to take an ABATE class where they give you a motorcycle and you go through driver's ed in a weekend or a week. That didn't work out so well, so I need to find the time and money to have the class again. A friend also gave me some lessons a few years ago.

If I can get used to the absolute freedom of being on a bike without the realization that I'm completely open and exposed to the world I would love to have a motorcycle! Quick, nimble, excellent gas mileage, and enjoying the fresh air. Who WOULDN'T like that!!! I figure a good welterweight bike in the 500 - 600 cubic centimeter range would be the perfect bike. Not too powerful to get into trouble with, but big and strong enough to be fun and adequate in the real world.

If I learn to ride would anyone want to be a co-rider :-)

Missed Opportunities

Thursday I missed the Homeless Shelter Discussion and a grand chance to see an explosion :-(

Today I didn't hear my phone ring and missed a chance to talk with someone that I very much wanted to talk with. Why do cell phones sometimes catch an incoming call and sometimes not?

EDIT: someone needs to teach me how to pinpoint my hyperlinks. Explosion didn't go to Thursday April 15th to see the story. Good read though and I totally agree with Chuck.

What's In A Name?

Sounds like Ford should have have some copyright and trademark lawyers look into potential car names BEFORE naming their new vehicle lines! Maybe that could be a job for some of us when we graduate?

I'm glad Ford is keeping continuing names to be the same. Who could rename a Mustang!

B.M.F.!!!

Found this from Josh's site.

Bonus points for those who can figure out what 'B.M.F.' stands for.

Things heard last night

Six men, 6lbs of polish sausage, an unknown quantity of kielbasa, a 24-pack of Miller Genuine Draft, and a 12-park of Miller Lite. You KNOW some good quotes are going to happen!

I don't know, is this like a third bachelor party?
If we go to some strip clubs it will be.

Oh, I can feel my Polish heritage. Oh wait, that's just gas.

Okay, if you go all postal and shoot us you better kill me or else I'm going to be really mad.

Dude, you're management! You don't have to go in tomorrow.

I'm a Saturn V!
So you're ridiculously expensive; break up into 3 pieces; burn up on reentry and were used only 18 times in 8 years!
I know, par for the course.

FINISH THAT BEER SO WE CAN BREAK INTO THAT 12 PACK! There will be no superfluous beer!

Dude, can he stay awake past 10 pm?
I don't know but maybe he turns into a pumpkin later.

Hey last time [T] passed out he almost landed in my crotch!

One of THOSE days!

I should have just stayed in bed.

Drive downtown to finally get some reading done; reach into backpack and discover the laptop is not packed. Drive back home where laptop is. I think I'll just stay here for a bit and read.

I am so burned out and making so many mistakes now that it is not funny. Let this semester be over soon!

Got Check?

Ironic on Tax Day that my reimbursement check from the school arrived today :-) A group of us went to Washington D.C. for a Moot Court competition in late February, but all of our hotel rooms got put on my credit card! It is SO GOOD to have some money to pay that thing off, or maybe put down 50% for my summer class tuition. That bill arrived yesterday.

Money not coming in, and money is going out. I NEED a job soon! I can do typical handyman stuff for $10 an hour in case anyone is interested.

Happy Tax Day!!!

You better file today or the IRS will steal all your possessions in that nice friendly way of their's.
You know the deck is stacked against you when the IRS is the only agency with its own court.

One advantage of earning only $65 last year is that I don't have to file anything! Sometimes it is good to be a po' student. I'm so po' I can't afford the other O-R!

Final Thoughts

Some ramblings before going to bed.

I knew it! The single post that would generate the most comments here was going to be a somewhat political one. Strangely enough it is why I don't delve into politics too much here. I spend all day doing that with other groups and it's exhausting!

It sure was a nice day for some of us to play hookie :-)

Angel: Underneath I'll get into tomorrow, but it was definately a transitional episode. It's setting up big things for the final story arc of the series.

Honey, this thing coming after you; how bad is it?
On a scale of one to Terminator.

I'm going to miss such witty lines.

The End of Treegate...maybe! I wish I could have attended the meeting. It would have been interesting to see if anyone learned anything.

Insipid Reality that kills Inspired Fantasy

Reality shows are cheap to make. Reality shows are incredibly popular. Reality shows are everywhere. I can't stand them. 'Reality' to them is putting ordinary people in either extraordinary situations or celebrities in a normal every day situation. Paris Hilton is a spoiled twit in my opinion. She certainly didn't need her own show. Yet we, as an audience, were stupid enough to watch it and it make money as far as the networks were concerned.

Scripted shows, especially dramas, are becoming rare now. Hence, the beginning of the last 6 episodes of the best drama out there now starts being shown tonight: Angel. It has tons of fantastic elements: demons, vampires, gods, and inspired humans just running around in the middle of it. Jess Whedon was able to explain the greatest of human dramas by putting it in the middle of such fantasy. Betrayal and honor. Death, life and rebirth. Love and revenge. The wimpiest of characters slowly falling into the grays and blacks of our emotional spectrum. The darkest and broodiest of characters slowly seeing the best and brightest in ourselves.

Angel is a show that made you think about the human condition through the eyes of a souled vampire and his companions. The writing was not only dramatic, but extremely witty, topical, and always made you think and wonder. It's a shame we no longer want to reward creativity. We just seem to like manufactured reality. Go see the last 6 episodes starting tonight. Reward yourself.

Pet Peeve

This has been going on for at least several years, and it annoys the hell out of me. Since when did we start referring to the President of the United States as Mr. Bush especially in newscasts and newspapers?

To me this is a huge mistake. People do have titles and I feel we should use them. The President is more than a man, or woman someday, the President is an office as well. When we refer to the office as 'Mr. So-and-So' it demeans it I feel. I don't recall ever President Clinton or the first President Bush referred to in a story as 'Mr. Clinton' or 'Mr. Bush.'

President Ronald Reagan thought so highly of the office that he never took off his suit jacket while in the Oval Office. The POTUS is more than a person, it is a reflection of our country. Whether or not you like the person currently occupying the office, that person is a reflection of our achievements, sacrifices, honor, and history as a nation.

Stupid reporters need to stop being the news and simply report the news and remember that a duality exists between our offices and the people in them. I don't recall seeing a judge referred to as Mr. or Mrs. So-And-So. It is Senator Bayh not Mr. Bayh, and Congresswoman Julia Carson not Mrs. Carson. Those offices have the respect of the title.

When did that respect slip away from the President?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Brian, I wished you talked more in class. What you say matters and people listen to you.

It likely isn't an exact quote from a friend this weekend, but I think it expresses the core of her thoughts. While I may goof off with my mostly humorous musings or daily dairy postings here I stay fairly serious at Sapere aude. It appears that I've sparked discussion and commentary among readers there and sometimes here.

Brian, you express the thoughts everyone is thinking, or you make us think about what you say. or something close to that.

That was the reason why I signed up to post there. I wanted to give my own off-beat yet serious commentary about our lives and concerns. I wanted to raise the level of discussion about the important things in our lives. I wanted us to stop and wonder about our own ideas and philosophies.

Brian, many people may not know who you are, but you influenced them already with your words.

I treat the honor very seriously, which is why I haven't posted there lately. I've been crafting something big, yet it just isn't ready yet. The muses in my mind sing the thoughts I want to express, yet the words on the page hardly match my ideas. Perhaps it's mild writer's block or simple stress from the typical end of semester crap. I don't know.

So for now I thank you for the respect you've given me. I thank you for letting my thoughts engage your's. I hope we both come off better because of it.

Resolutions

It is the last week of classes. My law review Note was turned in the last week of January for grading purposes. That grade is for the fall semester. So here we are at the end of the spring semester and it is STILL an Incomplete.

I'm pretty sure I'm getting an 'A' but it still would be nice to see a grade! Would be nice to have a resolution to the fall semester by the end of this semester.

Elections Are Everywhere

People are having to vote for people to be cheerleaders for the Indinapolis Colts. It appears that we have students or spouses of students that are attempting to be a cheerleader for The Blue. Rather odd to see all the pictures up on people's computers as the select them. You would think we're a bunch of oogling folks for pretty faces, but I see it up on many women's computers. So we're just helping out fellow classmates. That's our story and we're sticking to it.

I'm also presiding over an election for next years Executive Board for the National Security Law Society. We actually have at least one person, sometimes two people, interested in every open position. Excellent. Now if only some people will show up and vote. That is the downside of being in a niche society, we don't have the broad appeal of a Women's Caucus, International Law Society, or an Equal Justice Works. I try to keep our society as non-partisan as possible, hey the issue of national security doesn't really change whether a Dem or Repub is in the big chair at the Oval Office, but we sadly seem to be tagged with an undeserved reputation of one sided-ness. So we tick off the liberals in the school.

Oh well, not my problem that some are so closed minded that they are not willing to listen and learn. I rather enjoy going to other organization's meetings that may be very different than my philosophical/political leanings and at least listening to them. Usually I'll get in a good question or two just to see if they can recognize different lines of thinking. I'm all for good intellectual debate and getting a beer afterwards. Got to go, as the ballots are printed and I need to start the election.

EDIT: I can see one of the first things to do in the fall is really try to boost up some membership. It is somewhat disconcerting to have an election decided in the single digits.

We'll also need to come up with some fundraisers. Feeding you guys pizza at the meetings is expensive! Yikes, I had no idea our slush fund was out of slush!

But I don't feel Southern?

Courtesy of my friend CO'B.

Yankee v. Dixie '04. You decide.


I was 61% (Dixie). A definitive Southern score.

But I don't sound like I'm in the Dukes of Hazzard. Go figure??

Heard it through the grapevine

It's amazing that I hear this story from a friend who is not in law school. It appears that my blog is very popular in Evidence. Four people in a row had it up at the same time and a fifth inquired about it. The fifth knows my friend and now it gets to me.

Cool :-) Nice to know it's popular. Feel free to smile and wave to let me know. Feel free to post comments. It lets me know what people think. I'm glad that a lot of people think there is some really funny stuff on here.

If anyone wants to post suggestions on topics I should think about, let me know. I'm sure I can Dave Berry something of an answer later.

G.I. Joe v. Ken

I'm needing a prop for our trial on Saturday. I need a toy gun preferably a small snub nosed revolver. As a real weapon would never make it through the security of the City-County Building on Saturday I went to ToysRUs to see what I could find. I found swords from Lord of the Rings, $20 would have gotten me a lightsaber with the cool sound effects (I may have to go back later), a ton of remote control tanks, cars and stuff in the G.I. Joe section, but alas...no toy guns. I found a sales associate who looked to be about my age and asked him if they had any toy guns.

No, we don't carry anything that would even resemble a gun anymore. I don't know what kind of world we live in now, but sometimes someone will come in and ask if we have any G.I. Joes without guns. I just tell them to go get a Ken doll.

Wow, what a wussified society we've become. Playing cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers, etc was one of the fun things I remember about being 5 years old. I had my sheriffs badge still made of metal back then and a little cowboy six-shooter. What more could a boy want back then?

I realize that many stupid idiots started to use toy guns to attempt a robbery and got shot. My thoughts, you got what you deserved. Don't go trying to rob people and don't try to fake out someone with a toy plastic gun. It's just Darwinism in action.

So now I have the little day-glo orange plastic gun. It'll be perfect as a facsimile of the 'gun' used in our robbery scenario for Trial Practice. But I'm going to have a hard time not giggling when handling it for our trial.

Was this the gun used in the robbery?
Yeah, but luckily I'm color blind so the day-glo orange was something I didn't notice before.

P.S. I always had my G.l. Joe beat up Ken and drive Barbie's Corvette away. I'm sure the statute of limitations is over on that by now.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Before the day is over I need to say Happy 80th Birthday to Grandma T.
Be sure to talk with and enjoy time with your elderly grandparents. You'll be a better person for it.

I want THIS for my birthday!

Those who know my political and philosophical beliefs will not be shocked when I ask for THIS as a birthday gift. It's May 31st and the size needs to be XXL please though if the summer goes well I could be in decent XL size by the beginning of the fall semester. But shirts need to be comfy anyway.

I'm not a nut, I just love to collect historical things that make really cool noise :-) That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Rubber Duckey...

Was there any doubt I would get this result?
It's cute and go ahead and take the test.

Thanks to the fabulous B.B.B. Lawren.

Prepping for trial

Preparing for a mock trial is a huge time commitment. I'm filling out forms left and right, having to write out my closing statement, pondering questions that I want to ask my witness and questions that I want to use in cross-examination of the defense's witnesses.

I can already tell this will be the funniest thing: when getting volunteers to be witnesses we take what we can get. My witness is a 24 year old female 1L who's meek and mild and I need her to play the role of a elderly Italian-American man who had to defend himself at the robbery of his store. I'm going to have to stifle a gigle every time I call her 'Mr. Carletti'!

This will be fun!

Good quotes at school

Why Administrative Law is cool.
We have a great prof who always gives such great quotes

Vampire bats! Is that the way you want to go?
Trees get chopped down in Brasil and you're dead up here!
I guess causation isn't too attenuated for that because you're dead.

BTW: I STILL need volunteers!

Oh yeah, I still can use some volunteers for my trial this Saturday.
You can be a witness out by 11am or you can be a juror which would start deliberations no later than 1pm.

Email me if you want in.

Hit or Miss

I'm just letting my loyal readership know: I might not be on much this week.
I have to prep for my Trial Practice class and we're performing the trial this Saturday. I'm also trying to work on something for one of my judges and that hearing is next Tuesday.

So I'm F*ing swamped!

If anything really cool occurs I'll let you know.

Which is the lesser evil?

I don't know which was worse last night. Having the change a tire in the Marsh parking lot at 10:30pm (what a wonderful 30 minutes that was) or attempting to help my neighbor get a stupid cat out a tree at my place at 11:15pm.

Nothing like cold asphalt on you when you're trying to change a tire that late at night. My hands still have that lovely grime on them after 3 washings and a shower.

That SOB cat was 30 feet up easier in that tree, and my maglite shown on it perfectly. Rather fun to play with the focus feature on the maglite. I have no idea how it got down, but at 11:45 that stupid furball climb further up the tree and I went inside to sleep. You could hear that thing really meowing once it realized that going further up wasn't a good idea. Not my cat, not my tree, not my problem. They needed to use the grass alley between my patio, the fence, and the tree behind it, but hey I just turned up the radio so I didn't hear a thing.

I went out on the patio this morning. A cage, a ladder on top of it was leaning against the tree. No cat and no cat body. I'm going to assume the problem was solved. How do I get into stupid things like this?

P.S. Shetland Sheepdogs are great because they can't climb a tree!
P.P.S. Clink on the link and go help Timothy...OR ELSE!

Speeding Tickets In Reverse???

I can see it now.
But officer, I couldn't have been doing 40 in a 25. I was in reverse!
Realistically, do we need a second reverse gear for our cars?
Though I must give kudos to the engineering that must have gone into this thing.

Happy Daylight Savings Time!

I think Prof. Wright is rubbing off on me. This will explain a few things in this post.

With little fanfare DST occured yesterday. With the exception of a few counties near Chicago and a few near Cincinnati, the rest of the state didn't notice as we don't have to change our clocks.

Personally I think DST is stupid. Let's have more daylight when we are awake by just fiddling with our clocks. When we go out and run into aliens in the next few centuries how will humanity explain to them that twice a year we 'spring forward and fall back' on our clocks just because we can? Daylight is daylight and I'm betting those alien death rays won't be set on stun after we give them an explanation of this goofy custom.

From a more pragmatic point of view, not that space aliens wanting to kill us is an important thing to dismiss, supporting a multinational corporation and having to continually explain to outsiders what time it is in Indiana was nothing but a pain in the ass! I wouldn't normally go for the Well everyone else is doing it type of argument, but let's get on with the rest of the country (exceptions to Arizona and Hawaii)

Indiana, we're geographically next to Chicago. Let's switch to the Central Time Zone then adopt DST. Despite a common answer against DST, I'm thing that in reality the cows wont mind. The cows in other states haven't reported any problems with DST. They just stay happy chewing grass and giving milk. Besides, I'm not giving deference to any animal that is my future hamburger and steak.

Let's get in step with the rest of the country so I always know what time it is.

The Things You Know. The Things You Learn

LLM came down to see me yesterday. The Thai Cafe in Broad Ripple is the best, and only, Thai place in town and she really wanted Thai food. We've known each other for 10 years yet we seem to keep surprising each other with nuggets of information that we didn't know. I learned this yesterday: LLM hates to drive and LLM also can get lost very easily if she is unfamiliar with the area. It is pretty easy to get to my place. I have no idea how You'll be on the interstate and get off at the X street exit. The exits goes up a hill and you'll need to turn LEFT at the stoplight. became one pissed off driver who turned RIGHT! I knew things were going bad when I called her to see where she was and the answer was We'll see and she hung up. That was the point of the call, to shepard her in the last 2 miles. 2 minutes later, my phone rings and LLM is exactly 2 miles the opposite direction. You know it's bad when I walk to the road to make sure I can flag down a car.

At least the rest of the experience went very well. The Thai Cafe produced yet another wonderful meal; I saw someone that I don't get to see as often as I want to; I got to bounce a beautiful 4 month old girl on my knee throughout lunch and give the mommy a break, and I discovered tickling the tips of an ear on a baby is a great way to make her smile.

The only problem now is that I haven't heard back from LLM that they arrived back home safely. I hope she didn't stay in the right lane and end up in Ft. Wayne?

Where's Drew Carey when I need him?

Strangely enough I was commenting last week on the fact that I very much enjoyed Cleveland and that it felt a lot like Indianapolis to me.

Take the quiz: "Which American City Are You?"

Cleveland
You are blue collar and Rock n Roll. You Work hard and party harder.

P.S. Indy wasn't an option. They only list 10 cities.

Pimps and Hos!

I found this on the fabulous Lawren's site so I had to share!
Go ahead and find out your Pimp Name.

I'm Pimp Daddy Brian Gates

Millions of bitches, bitches for me
Millions of bitches, bitches for free
WORD!

P.S. does anyone has any idea what the proper plural form of 'ho' is?

I've finally cracked

I think the lack of sleep is getting to me. I almost danced with Cookie Monster (yeah you know who you are :-) )while I was sitting down in a chair. You know how hard it is to twirl a girl while staying seated?

It's proving impossible to sleep lately. My mind races with thoughts when I hit the pillows. I think of classes, what to post here and Sapere Aude, things I've talked about, things I'm going to talk about, etc. I wish I could tell the voices in my mind to shut up so I can sleep. When I awaken at Oh Dark Thirty my mind seems to fill with thoughts again and I can never fall back asleep. It seems the past few weeks I've been existing on 4 hours of sleep a night unless I take a Tylenol PM to crash me.

Right now I honestly feel drunk. I think I'll go home after class and just take a nap. I am looking forward to final exams. After those I can rest for a little bit, and maybe the voices will be quiet for a bit.

Easiest Class Scheduling Ever

The new-fangled system worked fine.

Summer classes are Business Associations II and Sales. Two good bar classes for 4 credits total.

Fall classes are Intellectual Property, Foreign Relations & National Security, Trusts & Estates, In. Int'l &Com Law Review Board, and Client Counseling Competition Board. So far that is 12 credits, with the 3 actual classes being on Mondays and Wednesdays only. The last two are activities without actual classroom periods.

I'll have 3 free days to do homework, other projects, and hopefully an internship in State & Law Gov't (3 more credits). I am SO hoping that all the work, effort, pain, and sweet of the last two years will finally pay off some for the third year.

A Hero Will Save Us

A few weeks ago I saved Kelly by giving her a floppy disk so she could turn in her Note. She was so happy she even commented on her blog. Thank you Kelly :-)

Yesterday the fabulous Kelly P. asked me to try to save her laptop. I dashed over during our break in Admin Law, yet sadly I couldn't revive the laptop. Microsoft has made Windows XP so complicated that you can't easily get it into a SAFE MODE. It appears the hard drive was actually dying so nothing I could do from a software point of view could be resolved by me regardless. I felt miserable. Normally I can fix most people's PC problems or at least jury-rig a decent bypass. Besides, the fabulous Kelly P. trusted me to fix it and I failed. I HATE failing.

Today, our crusader Deb had a disk that refused to eject from her laptop's floppy drive. It only took me 5 seconds to figure out that the metal sliding tab on the disk was loose and engaging with something in the floppy drive's mechanism. The disk could have been ripped out, but that would have left the metal tab within the drive itself rendering it useless. Luckily for Deb I was in my civilian clothes where I always have my Leatherman multi-purpose tool with me. In uniform I don't wear the Leatherman because security at the City-County building would yank it from me. Deb couldn't watch as I used the 3 inch blade to slowly work into the drive and attempt to either loosen the stuck tab or hopefully wedge the tab against the disk and slide it out. It took 10 minutes of work after Evidence, and I almost gave up twice, but I did it!

Brian, you're a hero!

Thank you ma'am. It's all part of the service.

You Can't Get There From Here

Last night I decided to cruise by a house I saw online. 1890's Victorian charmer that needed a lot of work in an up and coming neighborhood. Since it was on Market St. I figured I would just drive out on Market St directly to it.

Not so fast. Once you get underneath that huge onramp that gets you to I-70, Market St becomes a one way, the opposite way I wanted to go. At that point I cruised on a one-way street that went the way I wanted to go. Due to all the one ways the Holy Cross-Westminster neighborhood (sorry no weblink available) has I essentially did several loops around several blocks to get to the house I wanted to peek at. Aha, here is Market St. again, but it's going east this time. Loop around and discover I've gone too far and now Market St. is a one way west at that point. A police chase through that neighborhood would technically yield enough moving violations to kill a redwood.

I loved the potential of the Victorian cottage, but it had one major downside that I didn't notice until I got there: the entire lot was 40 X 38 feet in size! You had the house surrounded by a strip of grass or a brick sidewalk. I like to have some kind of yard. If I had the cash I could turn it into a good rental though with a good view of downtown. Oh well.

Gotta Share The Wealth!

All the reports on the morning news had people moaning about the sudden jump in gas prices. Seems like eveything around Indy is at least $1.75/gallon. Imagine my surprise when I found a little hole in the wall station on Franklin Road north of 38th Street that had REGULAR GAS at $1.45/gallon!

I so tanked up.