Thank You Mom

I printed off my final today and my retired mother agreed to deliver it to school. I just didn't trust the mail. Once again I am WELL UNDER the page limits. Hopefully I eliminated lots of fluff and simply stated good reasoning. We shall see.

At least I can honestly say I am finished with school. At least for 6 weeks or so. I have earned my resprite from school.

I do love being employed. I'm earning money which is always a good thing. I grade 11th grade standardized math exams. As a temp job it isn't bad. I enjoy it to an extent. Once upon a time I was so good at math that I was a PHYSICS major. Grading this exams fires up long dead neurons in my brain. It's nice to work on something totally unrelated to the law.

Although some of these children I do fear for. Some do great work on the problems. Others do okay. Others struggle mightily, and others will be serving french fries to me in a few years. As a society we better start focusing on remedial education soon.

Luckily my mom didn't need to push me too hard in school. Others may have too. I can understand having difficulty with the slope of a line problem, but the inability to add 3,500 miles to a car odometer..oh boy!

You Advertise What You Post

Noticed this the other day, on Blogspot the banners at the top tend to advertise things related to what you've recently posted. I currently have Spiderman themed ads. Someone who went to China had Chinese and airplane related ads. Someone else has commented on seeing the latest Moore movie and now has Micheal Moore and liberal themed items on the banners.

As a computer person I am concerned about the amount of tracking software tha blogger and sitemeter lay onto my computer all the time. It is very annoying to continually delete cookies. If I try Ad-Aware it kills the webpage of sitemeter automatically. It had software that wants to poke around in my PC. Yet if I block that ability I can't access many webpages.

Damned annoying quandry isn't it?

The Student's Prayer

Now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray the prof, my final to keep.
And if I go insane as I wake.
I pray my writings inane the prof do take.

Take Out Finals

Still working on a take home final. You might not see much here until Wednesday. Just warning you all.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to work on a final when the weather is absolutely perfect like this weekend?

I'm Almost Tempted . . .

My front door was DIRTY! I finally got tired of all the grunge on it and I wanted to avoid my take home final for a few minutes. Between a good brush and a garden hose I figured I could get the worst of the dirt of my front portal. My front door is original to the building so it is a dark orange. Ugly, but a good landmark to guide people with. The garden hose not only got a few pounds of dirt off, but it also chipped some of the orange paint off. It appears I have a white door underneath it all. I'm almost tempted to borrow a power washer and see if I can hose off the rest of the ugly paint! The only downside is the plastic decorations appear to be a dull yellow plastic underneath the ugly orange paint.

Umm..I could always just pry those things off.

Battle Of The Soundtracks

I'm always hesitant about sequels. It's rare that a sequel is as good, much less better than the original. Yet I feel safe to say that the underwhelming Spiderman soundtrack has be superceded by a vastly superior Spiderman-2 soundtrack. There are easily 5 hit songs on this soundtrack

Spidey 1 had the dour, yet massively awesome, anthem of Hero with Chad Kroeger & Josey Scott. Possibly the best song of 2002 IMHO. Out now as the first released single of Spiderman-2 is Ordinary by Train. This song just might give Hero a run for the money.

whose eyes am I behind
i don't recognize anything that i see
whose skin is this design
i don't want this to be the way that you see me

i don't understand anything anymore
and this web that i'm tired up is taking taking me up these walls
that i climb up to get up to your story
is anything but ordinary

and when the world is on it's knees with me is fine
and when I come to the rescue i get nothing but left behind
everybody seems to be getting what they need, where's mine
cause you what i need so badly
but i'm anything but ordinary

can you save me from this world of mine
before i get myself arrested with this expectation
you are the one look what you've done what have you done
this is not some kind of joke you're just a kid
you're all ready for what you did.

and when the world is on it's knees with me is fine
and when I come to the rescue i do it for you time after time
everybody seems to be getting what they need, where's mine
cause you what i need so badly
but i'm anything but ordinary

i think i'm trying to save the world for you
you've been saving me too
we could just stay and save each other

i'm anything but ordinary
ordinary
i'm anything but ordinary
ordinary

I really need a movie this weekend, perhaps The Terminal. Tom Hanks is always good. Maybe Harry Potter, but you know that The Life Of Brian is at Key Cinemas this weekend? I'm having fun this weekend one way or the other.

Salsa: Part Deux

I enjoyed my 2 hour workout after work. In celebration of being gainfully employed and just running/sliding/swishing a combined 5.6 miles I headed down to Broad Ripple. The Jazz Kitchen had a nice bench outside and I waited a bit in case my open invitation netted someone. Sadly, no one loves me :-( The weather was perfect so I elected to eat on their covered deck and people watch. I'm in a brand new shirt that I discussed two nights ago. I ready to BE SEEN. This shirt is so stylin' that it's made out of two materials I've never heard of.

The chicken etoufee has a excellent sauce that has an nice afterburn. Not enough to make you reach for the water, but enough to let you know the stuff is good. The two glasses of the house reisling was just right. Between the food, the music, and in good weather the outdoor deck, The Jazz Kitchen is a great place to take a date, sig other, or whomever. Trish, the cool waitress, got her 20% tip :)

Until 10 till 9 there were less than a dozen people there. I wondered if the coming storms were keeping people home. Suddenly people descended upon the entrance. I guessed near 30 people were inside with the ratio well tilted towards the ladies. The dancing instructor couple asked how many of us were newbies and it was most of us.

Before I go any further I must give a description of my physical ability to those who don't know me. Light and graceful have never been words used to describe me. People, upon seeing me, assume I played fullback in high school football. I'm built like a tank and walk like it. Though I'm quiet and stealthy and have snuck up on many a classmate to their surprise. 7 years of marching band also instills a certain power and order into my gait. The fluidic movements of salsa go completely against such conditioning. This was going to be interesting.

Think of it as 8-step movements: 1-2-3-pause-5-6-7-pause. Here's the kicker, steps 2 and 6 aren't steps, but shifts of weight that bring up the heel of your foot up a bit, but that's it. Left foot forward, shift weight, left foot back, pause, right foot back, shift weight, right foot forward, pause. Ladies mirror image the guys so they start right foot back. It's very difficult to unbreak the habit of wanting to take a step or at least having that foot mark time during those weight shifts! Then came side steps followed by the spins. Unless you were in band you'll not understand this comment: these are not turn-to-rights!

We managed to get the basic steps down. I almost got the combinations of basics down. Then three things happened to kill me: one, we started to dance to real music that had an uptempo beat; two, I started dancing with a partner; three, that combined 5.6 miles of exercise I had a few hours earlier let my calf muscles know that salsa was not a good idea at this moment. Both of us were newbies so this was going to be interesting. We can handle the back and forth steps fairly well and I can spin her fairly easily. Her immediately spinning me back was proving to be the hard part. We figured the problem out though. Unlike the first female spin where our hands, my left & her right, are always together as she spins to the right, in my spin she has to toss my hand from her right to left and at some point completely let go as I continue my spin. To make it even more interesting my right hand eventually finds her left hand as my back is to her! For the third spin, she spins to the left this time.

You see where this suddenly gets very complicated, especially if all 3 spins are done in about 7-8 seconds. I've actually given you enough info that you can try this out at home. It is not an impossible skill to learn, but practice is required. The neighbors will think I'm weird again as I do funky moves by the window for practice. I will get the lower body to disconnect from the upper so I have some semblance of grace.

For a first time being completely by myself I had a good time. But after 40 minutes I was bored, not to mention the calves continued to remind me of their complaints. It's a good idea to be there with friends so you can practice or at least laugh at each other. Did I conquer salsa? Hardly, yet I did a good recon and that's valuable info by itself.
If I can get these moves working I may have to go back again by myself. A 3:2 female to male ratio is nice at times.

Salsa: It's more than something on nachos

On Thursday, in celebration of my first working day on a paying job, I will decide to do something different and break out of my shell a little bit. I am going to The Jazz Kitchen in Broad Ripple. I'll have a later dinner, but before 8 so I don't have to pay cover charges, and then I'm going to learn how to dance one of those nice latin dances.
Anyone who wishes to have fun with me is more than welcome to come. Some of you I would love to learn how to dance with you.

Anyone just want to meet there around 7:30?

DNR Interview Went Well

I had my interview to be an intern for the Indiana Dept. of Natural Resources today. It went great. The chief legal counsel is a pretty cool lady. Our school is so good to have as many programs as it does such as the Program in Law and State Government. This is one advantage of being in the capital city as opposed to that other institute in Bloomington.

Water, Soil Reclaimation, Forests, Nature Preserves, Oil and Gas, Fish and Wildlife, Historic Preservation and Archeology, Outdoor Recreation, State Parks...man they cover a lot! It does make me wish I had paid more attention in Administrative Law though. One perk that I'm looking forward to is going on field trips. Sometimes the lawyers and the administrative law judges go to where the issue is instead of being completely deskbound. I may need to keep a pair of hiking boots in my truck just in case.

The state government complex is only 2 blocks away from school so this will be an easy walk to and from those places. I also only have classes on Mondays and Wednesdays in the fall so I can be very flexible about my internship. I can spend all day there so getting hours for this won't be a problem like it was for last semesters internship. The only downside, no office with big window for me as I go to cubeville again. Oh well. Here's to hoping the third year will be the best year!

Countdown to SpiderMan

Just a tick over 2 days before Spiderman 2 comes out Friday.
Who's coming with me Friday night? Dinner and movie anyone?

EDIT 6-23-2004: damnit! Spiderman2 doesn't come out until June 30th which is next Wednesday I think :( However the first Spiderman is being show at the Indianapolis Museum of Art for the Summer Nights festival. Gates open at 5:30 for picnicing, cost is $7, and film begins at dusk (around 8:30 or so this week) so the question remains: DINNER AND A MOVIE ANYONE?

I Have To Wonder If They Are Connected

Analyzing the network traffic to Confessions again. I have a hit from Ford.com. I also had a search request concerning "toyota quality." Ummmmm???

Search engines are useful, but not the smartest things in the world. No single post has anything close to the phrase "what wood is president reagan's casket made of" but somehow by piecing together a few different posts that person got led to me.

Got a hit from af.mil the online domain of the U.S. Air Force. Sir or madam, thank you for your service to our country. I hope you found it interesting here at Confessions.

Have hits from New Zealand, Australia, India, and Alaska!! Have a few hits from the Mountain Time Zone as well. Interesting. What a small world.

Truth In Advertising

Former President Bill Clinton's biography hit bookstores today. In typical fashion the former president was 30 minutes late to his own signing. My only question is this: is the book listed under biographies or fiction?

Evolution Of Man

Talk about being the perfect counterpoint to the previous post:

I have an extensive t-shirt collection. I bulked up a bit on dress shirts, slacks, jackets, and suits due to my requirements of being well dressed for my court internship last semester. My dress casual clothes have taken quite a beating though. Through age and wear many have small holes, rips, missing buttons, or just don't fit well anymore. For the good polo shirts or short sleeve button downs I'm usually a Kolhs or Galyans kind of guy. They have relatively inexpensive and decent looking type of clothes. That is who and what I normally am, a wash-and-wear kind of guy.

But I needed some new decent shirts for the summer and decided to see what a new favorite had in stock: The Men's Wearhouse! TMW was where I had acquired the suits, dress jackets, dress shirts, and ties that make me appear like a lawyer instead of a computer guy or band jock. I have to admit, when I wore the gray suit I felt like I could kick legal ass! Here's your brief, objection hearsay, counsel is badgering the witness, the fact of the matter is you murdered your wife! Yes, the clothes made the upgraded man to an extent. I wondered what they had in casual wear.

I immediately zoomed towards the Hawaiian shirts. The kind that were expensive and made of silk instead of my typical cheesy, exploded peacock, rayon shirts. Okay, they're likely floral print shirts, not Hawaiian, but my brain translates all such shirts to Hawaiian! TMW had this nice silk button shirts. TMW had this nice...ummm...I want to call them really thin, short sleeved, sweaters, but my life experience doesn't provide me with the proper vocabulary word to name them. The prices on all the good stuff was easily twice what I would normally pay; however, I have to accept that someday I'm not going to be man with the old Ford Ranger pickup truck, but the man with Chrysler 300C (got HEMI?) luxury sedan. At times I'm going to have to be classy or at least look the part. It feels good to sometimes be dressed well, but not formally like at a party.

Luckily I avoided all the things that were dry-clean only. Still, none of the things I picked up were the 'wash-and-wear' variety. 'Wash-separately,' 'dry flat', 'dry clean preferred', and other such damned nonsense. I hate having to pay attention to laundry. I like my simple rules of: color wash cold and whites wash warm. It's easy to follow! This year I've slowly acquired things that I need to pay attention to before I do laundry. Damn that's annoying!

At least I picked up one nice shirt (gulp loosing manliness quotient) on clearance and also had a coupon for the rest of the sale items (am I fiscally crafty or still loosing manliness points here?). This legal experience is forcing me to be professional and appear in ways not normal for me.

I'm evolving in ways that are becoming more clear to me as I age. I can't always be what I was before. That's just being stagnant and I refuse to be that. It's okay though, even when I get the 300C I'll still have CDs of Metallica, Van Halen, and AC/DC blasting through the stereo. I may evolve somewhat, but I intend to stick to my roots.

Power Clothes

Summer school is over. *smile*
I have to admit there is one thing that I do miss about it. Often times I was reading, or blogging (d'oh), in our awesome Reading Room. As it's mostly glass I could look out upon the sidewalks and people watch. Many of my classmates have summer associate jobs this summer so they're dressed nicely in professional-type clothing. From my perch I could watch my nicely dressed female classmates in black skirts, tan powersuits, charcoal blazers, and assorted colorful blouses walk to class. OMG, I get to be in the company of highly intelligent women who also max out the babeolicious scale on a daily basis! Brains, beauty, and well-dressed is a deadly combination. Is my taste in women shifting or merely the taste in clothing?

Here's a question for my female readership: does a man in a good suit and tie have the same effect on you?

EDIT: I meant 'professional' in the lawyer/business sense, not in a East Washington St after hours sense! Geez some of you people are sick! I'm providing an illustrative sample below.

The Right Stuff

Take $20 million, the man who designed the Voyager aircraft which flew around the world on a single tank of gas in the 1980's, a whole lot of imagination, a whole lot of engineering simplicity, and one pilot with a lot of testicular fortitude and you have today's launch of SpaceShipOne.

A privately built rocketplane managed to get 100km into the air making pilot Mike Melvill an official astronaut. It was beautiful to watch on CNN. Hopefully getting to space will be cheaper over the next several years, because I'm going up before I die and I'm humming 'Battle Hymn of The Republic' on the way down!

Good Karma

The gas pump wasn't wanting my credit card. Being rather POed someone came out of the Village Pantry and explained that someone had prepaid $10 on this pump, but then left. The computer wouldn't let him just cancel the prepayment so it had to be used. Guess who got to be the lucky customer to use it? I ended up paying only $4.50 to fill up the tank of the Mighty Green Ranger. For once the luck goes my way!

Behind Blue Eyes

It's Father's Day today and suddenly there are many more fathers in my life. Up in Chicago last Saturday little Ian came into the world via Beatles loving tuba player and lawdog wife. This Friday little Anna comes into the world via the Slums of Geist. Within the past year there has been little Kylie and Samantha. Within the next month or two will be another two babies in my extended circle of friends. It is good to see a child brought into a loving two parent family. The excitement and joy brought about by this new generation brings a smile to my face.

I was asked recently if I wanted children someday and why? I answered yes. The why was simple. When I looked into the eyes of these new children I see ourselves and the way we want the world to be. Though the blue eyes of these tiny babies that I've held in my arms I see our potential of a better world.

Sadly many children have fathers that were simply a Male Genetic Donor. The one time the letters MGD is a bad thing. It's a shame on this beautiful sunny day that these MGDs are not truly a father. A shame that their own eyes won't see the wonder they helped create.

I find it amazing that I can experience my own duality between Friday and Saturday. One day I explore the darkness of alcohol induced personal destruction. The next I find a sunny world with a new life in my arms squinting at my own bespectacled blue eyes. It was a good reminder that there is light in the darkness; that there is hope that we may yet create a better tomorrow from the mistakes and triumphs of the past. It was a good reminder that we go on.

Confessions Of A Drunken Mind

I'm on my fourth beer and a margarita. I take no responsibility for any spelling errors that spellcheck fails to find. On the other hand I'm living up to my Harry's Chocolate Shop t-shirt logo: Beer Medic. Drink Them Healthy! Sadly it's a very false lie no matter how much I want it tonight.

Have you ever had a day, or a week, where so many things go wrong or enough bad things occur that you simply don't care at the end? That's been tonight, or possibly this entire week or month or so. There wasn't much time to study for the Sales final. I don't believe it was difficult, but you needed to be familiar with the material and know how to apply it. A six week summer class covers too much material in too short a time. You're really breezing through concepts and Uniform Commercial Code isn't the most exciting thing in the first place. In typical fashion the thunderous roar of keyboards clicked while I was jotting down a few notes in the bluebook. The staccato beat of the drums from IndyJazzFest simply added to the insanity of a final exam. NOTE TO THE SCHOOL: can you try to schedule finals around the Jazzfest in the future? After 2 hours or so I have a whopping two and a half pages of type written text. That included some space hogging math formulas. I'm so screwed. On the plus side, a 2 credit course will barely budge my GPA.

I should have looked at the artwork on the floor from the accounting students. I have friends in there and I would have looked for their stuff had I realized what it was. What did you come up with Kelly?

I'm trying to leave the building and discover the new class rankings are up. Would someone please knock me in the head next time? Frustrated and already depressed is no way to look at new rankings. I must be a sadist, or am I a masochist? I get them confused and the 5th beer isn't helping. Listening to someone complain about 100th of a point on their GPA makes me even more surly. At least I'm not on the third column where academic probation reigns. It's like a classmate said: D is for Diploma!

Why is it the harder you try the worse you fall?

Oh yes, back to the complaining 100th of a point. Law school is not an entitlement. Law School is not meant to be easy as it is supposed to weed out the weak. Yes, sometimes the rules change and it screws you over. That's life in general to be honest. Maybe you won't get on law review because of that 100th of a point? Maybe all three reviews will be screwed by going after the same small pool of applicants to staff themselves with? Who knows, but it'll be an interesting time for everyone. We survive through adversity and disappointment; in the end we slog through it because we have too. I'm simply thankful I got the chance to participate before the rules changed.

I know exactly what my problem is: I am burned out! I haven't stopped since the fall semester began. Winter Break wasn't a break as I didn't tons of school related things. Spring Break wasn't a break as I did tons of school related things. I went from the end of finals, finishing up two projects, and going directly to summer classes and looked for a job. Human beings can't continue on like that. The mind needs variety or else it'll close around itself. I need more variety than the library of Inlow Hall. When you can identify a chair by a specific squeak you have been there too much.

I need a vacation! I've come back as a new man from previous burnouts when I go exploring for a week. Perhaps I can save a little money from the job next week and go somewhere for a weekend before classes start up again. My mind must wander someplace new if only for a few days. That was the beauty of Bacharach last year. For about 2 days I'm by the River Rhine wondering through vineyards with nothing to do and away from computers, televisions, legal books, and discussions about the fate of the world. For two days I stopped, smelled the air and listened to the waves hit the shore. There are a few islands on Lake Eire that sound interesting. I'll check them out online.

I don't know if this is one of those introspective thoughtful posts that people like. Seems interesting to me, but I'll admit the beer goggles are the strongest I've had on in months. Bottle number 7 to be recycled in a few minutes for those playing the home game. As an aside, never look for the truth or revelations through the bottom of bottle. You're rarely find anything, and if you do find something you won't like it. Water and Tylenol sound like a good idea before bed. There's a helpful hangover tip for you all. Good night folks.

Nothing To See

Studying for my Sales final. No blogging today. Move along, move along, there is nothing to see here.

If you're needing to get ahold of me call! Especially if you're wanting a ride to avoid Jazzfest.

Goodbye Comcast

At $52 a month the cable bill had to go! I would swear two years ago at $40 a month I could justify TV, but now it's just too damn much money to justify spending. That could be two to three weeks of gasoline. Comcast really wanted me to keep having cable and offered a 3 month special of $29. That wouldn't solve the long term problem.

Without the distraction of TLC, History Channel, Discovery Channel, Sci-Fi, Spike, TNT, and HGTV perhaps my grades will improve?

School is ultimately about sacrifices. This is just another one.

Why I Should Not Watch Morning TV

Having coffee and Fox59AM interviews someone from People Magazine about the 50 most eligible bachelors. Hey, I'm not on this list! They got the typical Hollywood crowd and the two guys who invented Google at least. I'm nice, I'm intelligent, I'm witty and humorous, I'm generous, I'm adventuresome, I ride my bike and play football, I treat ladies nicely instead of backhanding them across the room, and most importantly I'm eligible. I should have at least been interviewed. I coulda been a contender!

Perhaps we should come up with a more localized list. Top 50 in Indy or something like that.

Good Movie: Bubba Ho-Tep

I wasn't going to have another post today but Kelly got me thinking about movies. It never got a distributor and it circulated among the art house circuit last year, but now Bubba Ho-Tep is out on DVD! It's a comedy horror staring Bruce Campbell (Army of Darkness fame) as an aging Elvis stuck in a Texas nursing home dealing with his lost fame. Elvis' only friend is Ozzie Davis who thinks he is JFK. Yes I know Ozzie Davis is black, but it's explained in the movie. They dyed me this color! Elvis and JFK have to fight a soul sucking mummy wearing cowboy boots and hat.

I know it sounds stupid, but not only is it a funny movie it also has many poignant moments on what it means to be alive, relationships, fame, and misfortune. With Army of Darkness at an A+ of campy horror movies I give Bubba Ho-Tep a solid B. It did win many film festival awards, but it never got to a mass audience. Who wants movie night at my condo?

Call For You Thoughts

ambivalent imbroglio has a post wanting student thoughts on blogging and law school. If you feel like giving your two cents then do so. I'll ponder something up later.

Breath of Cold Air

The MGR has air conditioning again. I didn't mind the lack of AC as long as I did errr..the speed limit...on the interstate, but stop and go traffic was deadly! It's a good thing I don't have a job because showing up in a wrinkled, sweat stained suit would have been embarrassing.

Condensers and evaporators are expensive little buggers. I keep thinking to myself, if I had gotten into law school the first time I would have graduated this summer and still have been just as poor and unable to replace the MGR. Oh well, at least as a third year I'll have a good reliable vehicle now. Every major component has been replaced by now except the engine. Hell, when that sucker blows I'll just Fred Flinstone it with a turbo-gerbil assist for hills. I figure a few of those critters in a flywheel should do okay to power the MGR.

Calendar year 2004 has been a horrific year for the MGR. Rear ended, new shocks and struts, scraped sheetmetal, replacement taillight, replacement differential, replacement AC. When it rains, it pours. Speaking of which: STOP RAINING!!!! I do not have the Ford amphibious option installed!

It'll be over tonight

Read 68 pages of Business Associations in 5 hours today.
What is left of my brain is slowly oozing out.
At least this will be the last day of one of my classes.

EDIT: upon looking at the take home final. Oh boy! I'll just start studying for Sales as that final is Friday. The prof had an interesting comment: If you want the final you'll need to sign it out. Does that imply that we could have not taken the final?

My Final Conflicts With WHAT!!!!!

My Sales final is this Friday at 5:30. DIRECTLY across the street will be the Indy Jazz Fest, an event that is pretty popular. Odds are our parking lots will be full of JazzFest attendees. Several of the streets around school will either by shut down or have very limited access.

Looks like I'll need to rumage around campus and park a few blocks away and arrive way early!

EDIT: 6-16-2004 - I knew I had a final on Friday. I knew that IndyJazzFest was occuring this weekend across the street. Yet I still did not put 2 + 2 together! I swear sometimes that getting this law degree is making me stupid!

Yet Even More Space To Lose Things In!

Umm..GMail offers 100MB quota for email account and now suddenly my Yahoo email accounts do as well. You got to love competition.

EPA wants it both ways.

The EPA fields customer complaints. That's fine. The EPA also promulgates rules on consumer goods, such as gas mileage ratings. Yet when the complaint received, bad gas mileage, is a reflection of the tests that the EPA mandates, then I have a problem when the EPA wants to scold the auto manufacturer for promoting the EPA gas mileage results!

Drivers of new hybrid vehicles are upset that they aren't getting the posted EPA gas mileage ratings. Hello, no car ever gets those ratings because the EPA tests are unrealistic of a real world environment!

"The Environmental Protection Agency has talked with hybrid makers "about our concerns over the complaints," says Chris Grundler, deputy director of EPA's transportation and air quality office."

However "Most of our cars get 10% to 15% less than the EPA (rating) in the real world," says Toyota spokesman Mike Michels. "A 10% to 15% variance looks a lot bigger on a 55-mpg (hybrid) car than on (a gas-power) one that gets 15 or 20."

Part of the problem is not only the unrealistic testing parameters, such as not running the air conditioner, never going above 55 m.p.h, and other things that would occur in normal use, but it is the hybrid technology itself doesn't mesh well with the testing procedures.

Under my regime I'm telling to EPA to promulgate rules reflective of the real world and common sense versus the numbnuttedness they currently do in all sorts of things. Admin Law gave me insight into the mind of the agency and it scared the hell out of me.

Sadly I need to blame consumers a little bit on this as well. We have this expectation that new technology will be a silver bullet to all sorts of problems, but we don't research the tech to figure out what it can and can't realistically do. I'm not saying the average consumer needs to do a Ph.D. paper on hybrids, but they can certainly ask around and peek on the internet! Just a little bit of effort please.

Happy Anniversary

My Mom and Dad have made it 36 years together today. Sad to say that seems so rare these days. Vegas odds on J.Lo. and Marc Anthony making it 36 years are officially infinity.

Red Lobster

You know you're sunburnt when you decide to sleep on top of the covers.

Fashion Advice From Brian

This will be the one and only time where I will scoop Lawren on something fashionable. However, this also falls under automotive tech so it saves my manliness quotient! Ladies, here is a fashionable, yet tough, handbag for you. It is the original Seatbelt Bag! It has a magnetic strap to keep things secure and the seatbelt material can "hold up to 2,000lbs of necessities." I don't think any person could fit that much in there, but hey you have to love the overkill. The threads even meet NASA specs.

I'll leave it up to the ladies to discuss which colors and designs they like.

PS: I found this by watching Autoweek on Speed Channel. Okay, there, I have kept my manliness intact!

Spring Redecorating

Doing a few changes with the format. I just didn't like the orange. Added a few more links of worthiness. What do you folks think?

Festivaled Out!

I went to the Middle Eastern Festival. It was fairly small, but became more crowded as I was leaving. The horrific thunderstorms of the morning likely didn't help attendance. When the weather radar picture looks like a child threw his paint set onto the screen, it's not a good sign. I'll have to go back again next year to see if the festival is better when it is more crowded. I have to admit that the food was pretty good, the live band did a good job playing traditional music, and it was interesting to see a Orthodox Christian church. Parts of it felt like pictures I had seen of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. I can also say that I have now consumed wine from Lebanon. What kind of post would this be if I hadn't mentioned alcohol somewhere?

I had never been to the Talbot Street Art Fair, so this seemed as good a year to go as any. Art is a personal taste, some things look nice to you and others don't. I was very pleasantly surprised. I'm not a huge art person, but I found a few pieces that were interesting. I just wish I could have afforded them. I acquired a few interesting pieces. When in doubt put a Shetland Sheepdog on it and I'll notice.

In typical fashion I spent over twice as long exploring the neighborhood as I did actually at the fair. Since people were parked everywhere I figured I wouldn't look out of place exploring. To put this in perspective I did all of Herron-Morton, except for Central Ave. Yep, 6 blocks by 5 blocks in my hiking boots! I was seriously prepared for some mudding today! Some parts are less gentrified than others. Those were the good blocks for me. With some houses for sale and others boarded up I did a lot of window peeking.

There were two houses I'll name the 'jungle houses' because they've been abandoned for years and no one has tried to trim back the plants! The weeds were everywhere and you could barely see the house. I crossed a vacant lot along side it. Where the vines were I assumed a house wall was there; I had a vague idea of the shape of jungle house #1. By the alley were the remains of the carriage house's foundation. The vegetation was thick and you couldn't see more than a few feet through it. Charlie could have come out from nowhere screaming for my Yankee blood. I had that damned little black rifle ready. Err..wait a sec..sorry!! Past life regression of a 'Nam flashback brought on by the scenery. I could see a few tidbits of the house itself. A Queen Anne Victorian that could have potential, if I could napalm the jungle without burning down the house!

Jungle house #2 wasn't quite as bad as #1, but almost! I used another vacant lot to get behind the sucker. Where before was flat concrete I was surrounded by three concrete walls! The garage was sunken into the ground to keep the entry level with the alley. The grade was easily 5 feet above the alley! A sidewall had the remains of an entry door. I could peek through it and go up a few inches of dirt. As I couldn't see anything past the door other than leaves I thought, isn't this were the monster rips the guy's head off in the movies? Luckily no monsters appeared, but I couldn't move more than 2 steps up as some decaying wooden pallets blocked my path up. This house had a brick bottom half with a stucco, timber frame upper half, I think? It was rather hard to tell. Luckily I stuck to sidewalks and alley's most of the time so I didn't have too many cross-country adventures. I'm so glad I wore my boots.

I'm insane to want some of these dilapidated houses, especially the jungle ones. Yet nothing worth doing is easy. Those were huge challenges, yet if they could be pulled off the rewards would be that much sweeter!

*sigh* Who am I kidding, it will likely be 3 years realistically before I can even get a house :-(

See Lance Ride

I know Deb loves this commercial. Sometimes television can be an art instead of commercial slop. You have your own yellow jersey dear.

Evil Professor Brian

Just came up with a very evil thought. It wouldn't work on a essay exam, but what if someone made a multiple choice exam and made all the answers 'C'? The student would freak and be extremely paranoid by the end. Oh I'm evil!

Indy Cultural Tidbits: Strawberries, Arts, Wine, and Foreign Cultures

The post is a continuing series to remind ourselves as natives of this great city and to potential visitors that Indianapolis has lots to offer culturally.

A little earlier than normal, but some of the stuff has early bird discounts!
Why does EVERYTHING need to occur this weekend! I don't have the time or money to do ALL of these things.

Strawberry Festival on Monument Circle:
Given that Thursday will be a very hot day it'll be perfect time to get strawberry shortcake sundaes. Screw the diet as they're tasty and only $5. Come around lunch, but it starts in the morning and goes till 5 or 6pm.

Indianapolis Middle Eastern Festival
Hosted by St. George Orthadox Christian Church (remember when Istanbul was Constantinople?). If you order before Friday you get a discount. Friday afternoon and night and pretty much all day Saturday. This has all the details including where and how to get there. Oh, turn the sound down on your PC if you're at work as they have sound on the webpage. A little north of 38th and Sherman on the east side. Wow, check out how to get a free ticket if you buy one. Does anyone want Middle Eastern lunch/dinner Thursday? Music, dancing, food, gifts, Middle Eastern knicknacks, it all sounds like a fun time to me. Does anyone want to be my 'date' and come with me?

Italian Street Festival
Hosted by Holy Rosary Catholic Church on the east side of the Lilly Corporate Campus downtown. You can park in the Lilly lots. I did go to this last year and it was a good time. 520 Stevens St is a Mapquest away. You even get to see a processional of some kind at 6:45pm Saturday. The priests walked by and people were carrying crosses and statues. Pretty interesting to see. Don't go for the Italian beer though. Otherwise, be Italian for the day!

Talbott Street Art Fair
This is always big and it is this Saturday and Sunday. From the school take New York east, turn left (north) on Delaware. Go up to 16th St. Talbott St is the next street to the left, but it'll be blocked off. The fair goes from 16th to 19th Street on Talbott. Just circle around the relevant few blocks and you can get some parking somewhere. Good spot will likely be 3 or 4 blocks east on Alabama, but there are plenty of vacant lots that will be available. Ah hell, just follow directions and you'll be fine. Over 200 exhibitors so there is plenty to see.

Vintage Wine & Food Festival
Wine, wine, and more wine! Indiana has a small, though well respected wine industry. Sort of like Oregon's. Saturday only though. Held on Military Park just across the street from school. Ample parking on our parking lots. You'll likely see Prof. Cooper there. If I go I'll be passed out in a corner with a big grin on my face :)

Ceremony, Pomp, and Circumstances

I was working out on the elliptical trainer at Ballys and one of the TVs had Pres. Reagan's procession in L.A. Another TV was blathering about something else. Luckily Channel 6 can be heard on the radio (88.7 FM in case you're interested) and I turned my walkman to it. In some ways I didn't need to listen to Peter Jennings blather. The images said it all: Air Force One sitting on the tarmac (okay Special Air Missions 28000 as the plane is only AF1 when carrying the current President), the long line of cars following the hearse, Marine Corp band on one side, military honor guards on the other, a huge crowd behind a barricade.

As the hearse parked the band played 'Hail To The Chief.' I found that odd at first and interesting. The song simply sounds happy to me. Such a disconcerting feeling. But the song honors the man in the flag draped casket. As the casket was carried by the honor guard, the Marines played 'Amazing Grace.' The tubas provided such profound bass to the chords, the rest of the low brass added to the harmony. You would have though the strength of those chords alone could have transported the casket to the plane.

Just before typing this I turned on the TV to channel surf. C-SPAN is showing the procession of people walk by Pres. Reagan's flag draped casket. Members of all five military branches (bet you forgot about the U.S. Coast Guard) are providing the honor guard as the face in towards the casket. It was weird to see the same image on Fox News. I went back to C-SPAN for a few minutes to watch. All that I could hear was an occasional squeak of a shoe on the highly polished, marble floor. No talking heads to discuss things; the silence of the images were enough.

Almost A Job

Interview and test given during the interview went well. I show up for training on June 24th barring something bad coming up in my background check. Yea I'll have a job in 2 weeks! I'm not sure what shift exactly, but hey we can figure that out latter. I'll be grading standardized tests for at least 5 weeks. Opportunity for voluntary overtime is likely.
Umm..if I can snag another part time job, such as research assistant for a prof, then maybe I can get some good cash for the rest of the summer. Things are finally looking up!

Fight For The Park

Just a quickie. I haven't posted my thoughts yet on mall-moguls Simon Property being given one-third of the Capitol Commons Park between the Statehouse and the Convention Center to make their new corporate hq. Suffice it to say I think the idea stinks on many levels. I don't have time for details, but it appears a battle is brewing to save the 4.3 acre green refuge from the rest of the concrete jungle. While I'm hardly a hippy environmentalist, I do like and respect our green spaces. Call it a quality of life issue for me.

From noon to 2:30pm today at the park will be a petition drive. The organizers are not Greenpeace, the Indiana Environmental Council, or some small campus group, but State Rep. Phil Hinkle and State Rep. Tom Saunders. Both are Republicans. Nice to see an issue that crosses party lines.

But public opinion has to fight Mayor Bart and the Simon brothers. The mayor is adamant that this project will move forward. A huge uproar, a battle against impossible odds and entrenched social/political forces, the little people stepping up to the plate: my kind of fight :)

I may have to swing downtown and scratch my name before my interview. Why don't you?

EDIT: 6-08-2004 You can't call me a hypocrite as I put my money where my mouth was, or at least my signature. You might have noticed me walking behind someone being interviewed by Channel 6. I had to track down one of the persons with the clipboard. Normally you have people running away from the clipboard, but this dude kept wandering away before I could reach him!

Almost like filling out a bar application

It's a good thing that my interview isn't until 1pm. This employment form is almost as detailed as the bar application form I get to fill out next year. It wants to know where I've lived for the past 10 years! This is a temp job!
So much for working out this morning.

How Kinky Indeed!

Analyzing how people find Confessions and this isn't as good a some of Lawren's or Chuck's, but ...
From the UK under Google the search paramaters were "smallville clark paddle"
Somebody has some interesting ideas on how to view that show!

What A Ho That J.Lo.

Warning: this is purely my opinion. I am not claiming this is a published or broadcast false and defamatory statement which damages the reputation of an individual. There I should be safe from any libel suit; besides what kind of reputation does she have at this point?

When bookies are saying you'll be divorced by the end of the year and are provinding 3-1 odds that just isn't a good sign for J.Lo. and new hubby Marc Anthony. Dude, you gave up a former Miss Universe and lay nuputials with J.Lo in less than 2 weeks? If you want to put your schlong in a woman that isn't your wife, then either resist the urge (novel concept I know) or divorce her if you're not going to be faithful.

On the other hand since J.Lo. gets married at the drop of a hat I might might as well get a hazmat suit for when she gets to me in January of 2011. The math is holding well that she'll get to me if I'm single at that time. Oh wait a sec....Marc Anthony wasn't single when they courted. Non-factor for my equation I guess.

It is hard to proclaim the sanctity and tradition of marriage when you see this kind of behavior. Maybe gays should be allowed to marry; can they mess up marriage any worse?

PS: those same bookies are offering 14-1 odds that Bennifer will get back together by the end of the year. No more Gigle please!!!

Variable Interest on Student Loans.

For those who aren't visitors to Sapere Aude, our I.U.-Indy law school blog, I've noted that there is a proposal in Congress to have variable rate student loans. Though it won't affect me, as this will be the last year I'll need loans I still feel this is a bad idea. Part of the idea is that they will cap the maximum interest rate at 8.25%. Every time the government comes up with a cap idea they tend to raise the cap later on. Income tax was NEVER supposed to be above 4%. Whoops!

D-Dayed Out!

Thanks to The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, Fox News, C-SPAN, CNN, MSNBC, and local news I went into D-Day coma by last night. Between D-Day rememberances and President Reagan rememberances I am exhausted of my patriotism.

Instead of Operation Overlord I have Information Overload!

Days Of Infamy: The D-Day Invasion

Today is the 60th anniversary of one of the most important days in world history. June 6, 1994 is truly a day that changed the course of the world. Instead of coming up with something to describe this day, I'll use my past words. Last year I was in France for our European Law program. Part of the six weeks in France included a trip to the beaches of Normandy and the towns surrounding it. Below are exerpts from my travelogue emails that I sent back to my family and friends.

PS: I am so glad grandpa never left England. He was a mechanic on jeeps and trucks. The only German he ever meet was the one who parachuted in front of him and his buddies while coming back from a British pub one night. German pilot doesn't know any English; Americans don't know any German. The comical tale of everyone trying to run away from the German is one for the ages.

Friday June 27, 2003

Roberto got the BGB [Big Green Bus] to the Normandy beaches. Before going to Normandy it should be required viewing of the first 30 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan" and all of "The Longest Day" to get a feel for what occured here. We walked around the ruins of the Nazi bunkers, stumbling up and down holes created by Allied naval shells on June 6, 1944. The small children with us just ran up and down the big holes and into the bunkers. I tried to explain what things were when they asked questions, but they just had fun and came up with "D-Day Golf" to make use of all the horrible divets caused by 14" inch shells. They were just too young to understand the meaning of it all and that was depressing.

A few miles away is the American Cemetary. The United States runs this place so the dominant language is English. Any French is below the English words for a change. The path goes up to a huge memorial that has a tiled map of the D-Day battle and the following 100-day Normandy operation. A huge marble semi-circular arch connects the two sides of the memorial emblazed with the words:

"THIS EMBATTLED SHORE, PORTAL OF FREEDOM IS FOREVER HALLOWED BY THE IDEALS, THE VALOR AND THE SACRIFICE OF OUR FOLLOW COUNTRYMEN."

Behind us were the 9,286 white marble graves. The gray overcast, the
blasting cold wind, and the foaming sea along one side all fit the
somberness of the place. Any conversations were in hushed tones, most were simply silent as they walked around the Roman Crosses or occassional Star of David. Some only had the name UNKNOWN on them. Though completely different in design, it felt just like the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor.

A large semicircular wall contains over 1,100 names. The names of those missing in action from the European theater of World War II.

At 4:30 pm is a ceremony. Patriotic songs are played through the
speakers as a team of people approaches both flag poles. The Star Spangled Banner is finally played and you can tell who the Americans are, they stopped and listened as the rest ambled on with their business. Though none at the poles were in uniform, you can tell that the people were either in the armed services or had been at some point in time. They lowered the American flags and struggled with the brisk wind to fold them into those perfect military triangles, but after a few minutes they succeeded. Each man, they were all men, saluted their flag and then handed it to a memorial official. If you're ever out here, be here at 4:30 pm.

Roberto got the BGB to a nearby small village where we wondered around
Omaha Beach. This stretch has no remains of the invasion. It looks like
any small French village near the English Channel. Our mascot Scooter
attacked the beach like an American G.I., he ran as fast as he could and dug up the sand whenever possible. It was a quiet bus ride into Caen to check into our new hotel.

Saturday, June 28, 2003

The morning had our one structured stop. After that the afternoon was
free to do whatever we wanted. We were tired of all the structured parts of our field trips. Hurry up and wait was the biggest part of our trips. You can't enjoy a cathedral in 15 minutes when it takes 5 minutes just to empty the bus, and 15 minutes just to round up the people. Le Memorial is a muesum in Caen that shows the period of time between the world wars, France during the occupation, the rest of WW2, and has sections on the Cold War, and a section devoted to world peace and all of the Nobel Peace Prize winners with memorial gardens. I don't know what our French overseer was thinking, but there was NO WAY were could see all of the meusem in only 2 hours especially since we had to see a film.

The film "100 Day in Normandy" is amazing. It's not in any language,
except for actual words spoken by historical figures like Churchill, Hitler, Eisenhower, etc. The screen gets split into two halves using mostly archival footage. The left shows the Allies getting ready to invade Normanday by training troops, boarding ships, etc. The right side shows the German polishing the embedded cannons, loading up ammunition, and whistling while they wait. Then the Allies showed up and guns fired and planes fell from the sky. Sometimes scenes from "The Longest Day" were used but mostly it was real footage. No Scott, our coolest Nazi German in ciema history wasn't shown, though the scene were the Allied fleet appeared on the horizon did. Sometimes computer generated planes flew over a map and showed the Allied advance and German resistance. They had before and after photos of towns in the area. Before the invasion was a picturesque city, show some fire blossoms then the after was the bombed out shell of what we saw a few seconds earlier.

Next to me was a French woman who appeared in her 80s. She couldn't
help but cry at those scenes. She was probably a teenager when her town was blown up. The dual screens continued to show their images and eventually they show the Allies win on the left, and Germany losing the war on the right. Then a third screen came from the middle and expanded out until it feel the entire screen. It was an aerial approach and circle around the American Cemetary that we had visited the day before.

Those giggling children we had the day before, may have finally
understood at least part of what happened here. They seemed to be quiet at the end.

Damn, President Reagan is gone

Best man to ever play the role of the President that I've ever seen. We'll miss ya Gipper.

Job Interview for Tuesday :)

I have a job interview for next Tuesday. The position is an evaluator of student essays that were taken in conjunction with standardized exams such as the ISTEP. I could be grading essays from third graders to high school seniors. It's purely a temp job over the summer, not back breaking labor, have around 40 hours a week of work and pay isn't too bad. Wish me luck on Tuesday :)

King of the B - students

Believe it or not my last four semesters at Purdue were almost straight As.
There was one B grade in my 7 class, 20 credit hour semester that the entire second floor southeast of Cary Quad wanted to put me out of my misery for. Not the fact I got a B, but because I was in 7 classes in one semester!

Law school has been very humbling in that respect. The fall semester was the best I had ever had. I was hoping to maintain that upward momentum during the spring, or at least stay where I was. When the first few grades appeared I knew it was going to be trouble for me. Between being in 6 classes, partial burnout, planning a trip to D.C., and suddenly realizing I had no idea what the Chevron rule of deference in Admin Law was I have no one to blame but myself. Evidence finally posted. The good news: it didn't hurt me at all. The bad news: it didn't help me at all either. It's not the worst semester, that honor is reserved for the craptacular first semester of school. I simply hate suddenly going back downhill gradewise again.

I'm not moping. As I've continuously told my inexperienced first years groupees, grades are not the measure of a person. There is far more to me, and other students, than a cumulative GPA average. It's the fact that, rightly or wrongly, many employers look to GPA as a arbitrary point on whether or not to grant an interview. It's the fact that so much of our law school culture does have a pecking order that is partially based on GPA. It's also the fact that in the end, I fail my own standards.

I've learned something over the past few months that is more important to me than a high GPA, I truly have the respect of many of my classmates. Respect is earned; a reflection of trust, confidence, faith, and ability. The past few months has shown me how much many of my classmates mean to me. Their respect, their friendship, their faith in ourselves is priceless and immeasurable in value to me. Let's hit a bar sometime guys and gals. The first round is on me.

Indy Cultural Tidbits: Music By The Canal & The Biggest Victorian Yardsale Of Them All!

The post is a continuing series to remind ourselves as natives of this great city and to potential visitors that Indianapolis has lots to offer culturally.

So many cool happenings, so little space.

The biggest Victorian Emporium ,a.k.a. yardsale, of the year is at the historical Woodruff Place neighborhood. Woodruff Place is located at the 1800 block east of downtown on 10th Street (2 way)and Michigan St (1 way westbound). Held Saturday 8am - 5pm and Sunday 10am - 5pm. Admission free and you can park in or around the neighborhood. I recall a Krogers or Safeway on the north side of 10th Street that should have ample parking. Over 200 stalls with antiques, art, food, music, and whatnot. Proceeds go to restoration of the fountains, antique lighting, and urns in the neighborhood. From the school head east on New York St, then once you get past the interstate take a left and head north until you hit 10th St, then hang a right. You'll be there in a few minutes at that point.

Concerts on the Canal: This continues through the summer so it can be something to do on a nice night like this one. The Indiana Historical Society hosts free concerts along the canal. The IHS building is on the corner of Ohio and West streets and is caddy-corner from the law school so you have no excuse not to go. Bring your own picnic and date or buy a meal from the Stardust Terrace Cafe. Thursday nights starting at 5:30pm to 7:30pm. Fridays for lunch starting at 11:30am to 1pm. If you're on campus head on over for a lunch or dinner break. The shame of it is the series ends right before fall classes begin. Most of the student body will have no idea such a treasure exists right next door to them.

10 Unknowns About Brian

Okay, it seems to be the fashion to come up with lists of little known facts about oneself on the blogs. There is no way I'm coming up with 50 things, but I think I can manage 10. Hopefully you'll find this amusing:

1: I'm left handed. There are people that have known me over 10 years and didn't realize I was left handed until a few weeks ago.

2: The vertical scar along the veins of my wrist are NOT the result of an attempted suicide, but from a on-the-job accident with a utility knife. I was attempting to cut off a plastic strap to a IBM Thinkpad box and the knife slipped! I drove myself to the clinic and no stiches were used. Luckily my watchstrap covers up most of the scar so no one notices.

3: I never stepped into a church until I was 21 years old. A certain Catholic girlfriend got me to attend a Easter service with her. As I went through the portal I was convinced lightning would come out of the clear blue sky and strike me down.

4: Speaking of girlfriends, I became a part of my high school speech team because I was trying to flirt with a girl who was on it. I was waiting out in the hallway when she came out with the coach. She was shocked to find me lurking outside, the coach was curious who I was and after a few minutes he conned me into joining the team. Not too long after incident Jennifer and I had our first date.

5: I played tuba for 10 years and marched with it for 7 years, all 3 years of high school and all 4 years at Purdue. At my best I had a range of 3 octaves. Now I can't hit Cs and Ds half the time on a Bb warmup scale :(

6: I also played some baritone in high school for a second concert band. I didn't want to take study hall. The experiment with a trumpet in Gold And Black Sound failed miserably.

7: My hair would almost touch my shoulders in high school. However it kept curling up upon itself so it never quite reached.

8: Last band thing I promise, I have played the world's largest sousaphone, Bertha! Had it decorated with garland and battery operated Christmas lights for a TubaChristmas in Lafayette. The big girl sounds very sweet.

9: I have never owned a front wheel drive vehicle. I drove a 79 Jeep Cherokee with the 401 cubic inch V8 and 4 wheel drive. Then the 84 Ford Mustang with the 3.8 liter V6 and rear wheel drive. Currently it is the 94 Ford Ranger with the 2.3 liter I4 with rear wheel drive again.

10: The first two movies I remember seeing are Star Wars (no bloody enhanced version) and Superman! Given my young and fragile mind is it any wonder I am the way I am.

World Wide Attention!

I use the free version of Site Meter. Even with the free version it provides some interesting data. I've found blogs from classmates that I didn't even knew existed. I can find how others have found my blog using various search engines. FYI: Angel, Buffy, Fraiser, and bachelor parties were the biggest reasons to find my blog apparently.

It's also interesting to see where people are. The vast majority of traffic comes from Indiana. This makes sense as it is mostly law school classmates and a few other friends located in Indiana that know I have Confessions. There are significant hits from the eastern time zone, which surprises me a bit. The Pacific time zone isn't as surprising as I know a few people who comment here and on other blogs are based out a L&C School of Law in Oregon. The French/Germany timezone is a bit surprising, but we have several schoolmates in Europe right now. England, India, New Zealand appeared when I talk about Angel or Cult Shows. That's pretty impressive to me. The hit from the Ukraine! Where did that come from? Someone in the freaking Ukraine found my blog! Wow! Whoever you were, sir or madam, I hope you found Confessions to your liking!

I may not have the greatest amount of traffic but I get a wide variety! That is the nice thing about the internet, it can bring people together from anywhere. Except China as the pseudo-commies block blogger. So much for Heidi and Kyleen saying hi this summer.

Blogging Hits The Big Time

It appears the Democratic National Committee has invited several preselected bloggers to attend their presidential convention this year.

These traditionally non-establishment social commentators will be chosen based on their professionalism, the number of readers who check their blog on a regular basis, and how much of their content is original.

Part of this is attributed to former candidate Howard Dean who demonstrated the power of the internet in modern American politics from a grass roots point of view.

"We hope to bring back to political conventions something of the spirit of the early American democracy, the wide-ranging, freewheeling, and raucous discussions about the state of the nation and the state of the party," Matt Stoller, the DNC's blog community coordinator, wrote in his first posting.

"They're just trying to pick up on what they seemed to have lost with Dean," said Alex Halavais, an assistant professor at the University of Buffalo's School of Informatics. "There was a luster associated with the Dean campaign - the luster of the grass roots - that Kerry hasn't quite managed to pick up on." Ahem...Brian's Note: could that be due to Senator Kerry have the charisma of a statue? I'm just sayin'!

Hey Josh did you get invited? You're pretty politically savvy and have huge readership. Of course the DNC might not appreciate your love poster of Tom Daschle :)

Sadly, this commentator did not get chosen as well :(

The Pacers

I only have one word to discribe my feeling concerning the craptastic play from the Blue and Gold during the Pistons series and especially from last night:

SONOFABITCH!!!!!!!

Why Kelly Is One Of My Favorites

My classmate Kelly is one of my favorite people. I wish I had more chances to actually talk with her. She's witty, soulful, and incredibly intelligent. She is so smart that as an excellent graduate from Indiana University she still realizes the best band in the 500 Festival Parade is still my own Purdue 'All-American' Marching band. It is also a little weird to think that Kelly would have seen me when I was in it. She just didn't realize it at the time.

Now if only I can help T realize she is a low brass player wanting to be free.

What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate

We're unable to agree on what words mean all the time. We don't hear what the other person has to say. Many times we're unable to articulate what we are thinking about or want done. Given humanity's great difficulty in communicating it's amazing that a big mushroom cloud hasn't consumed us all.

Brian, Here is your final note. Please e-mail me by May 28th if you have any changes.

Attached to the email was my note as a bloody Corel Wordperfect document! Unless MS Word has a converter installed such documents come up real messy. Luckily a few of the lab PCs actually have Wordperfect on them, but it is a major pain to find the right one. I'll admit is was my fault for waiting until Friday to start the edit, but I figured a it would be done in a few hours. I printed off a hard copy and compared it to the note I had submitted. Having two stacks of paper next to each other and comparing text is a tedious task! A few edits had been made, a few footnotes combined, a little text added to my original footnotes, typical editing stuff. I found a few mistakes that needed to be fixed, nothing significant. A red pen on the hardcopy and I was ready to head into the PC lab and edit the Wordperfect document before emailing it back. 5:30pm on a Friday night and I was done. Being a good boy I tossed my hardcopy with my edits into the recycling bin.

Monday I check my email for the first time and get a message:

Ok...ummmm...what were they? Did you just change the electronic file? I have
to have them separate - just e-mail them in an e-mail please. The publisher
will not take an electronic file back.

Do you have any idea how hard it was to not reply back: WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE! I had no idea what changes I had made. The COMPARE function in Wordperfect proved useless, I dug through the recycling bin in the lab to see if the original marked hardcopy was still there, and the Chinese LLM student looked at me like I was insane. So I had to do the entire process all over again, except this time I at least had a hardcopy of the document I sent back last Friday. 37 pages and 370 footnotes later I think I found all the changes I had originally made.
I LOVE doing the same job twice in 5 days!

Another good example is that I'm supposed to interview with someone for a class internship in the fall. I've emailed and called several times, and not gotten a response. I considered this a tad weird as this person had selected me to interview in the first place. Communications can be one way, but really it works better as a two-way medium. After much prodding I finally got a call back and have my interview...in 3 weeks. Here's a helpful tip to the wannabe-lawyers: always return phone calls and emails. It's the quickest way to avoid malpractice according to the ABA. Okay, I'm not a client, but I do like common courtesy. At least I get 3 weeks to study the position.

Another communications point to ponder: why can't the guy behind the counter understand that I said a chicken chalupa instead of a beef chalupa? Two syllable word with hard consonets versus a one syllable soft word. At least I wasn't overcharged so it wasn't worth the effort to fight it.

Another aspect of communication I remember in the first week of being a first year law student. I asked about the possibility of health insurance. The reply from the Dean of Students: We have some, but it's really bad! Talk about a direct point. That got proved today as well. The hospital has communicated to me how much money I still owe them AFTER insurance has paid them. OMG, we do have crappy insurance. I'm not sure it covered 40%. I could buy another rear differential with the money I owe.

That's the problem with communications: sometimes it is loud and clear, other times it is muffled, garbled, or completely silent. Never seems to be an in-between.

Tomorrow is a new day. It will be better than today. I'm communicating that to the fates of the universe right now in a most interesting way. Either a mushroom cloud or a lightning bolt will be the result I'm sure.