Inspired

I don't find much that is more inspiring than agreeing with yours truly, and I had a such a moment today. I'm dedicating this amazing work of procrastination..I mean, um... art to Osler and Pankratz. Enjoy.

Oi. I need to just cut my losses and go to bed.

Paper Lace

Have you ever let the fact that "The Night Chicago Died" just came on on the radio stop you from going to class?

I have.

Gentle Reader

Lest you wonder why posts have been so sparse this week, I submit to you that it's been a long one. Beyond the regular class/stuff/junk, I've had moot court and then worked three hours in the last two days. I'm witnessing for someone tomorrow, three people to tutor tomorrow night, and then more moot practice for Friday.

Don't judge me for not writing.

Judge me for still having my Christmas tree up.

If...

...my television choices are predictive of my next round of grades, I'm going to get three Fs and Lauren and Heidi are breaking up unless Spencer dies first.

Quote

"What Nussbaum called a 'generation gap,' Chaudhry called a 'significant generational shift in levels of narcissism" where "it is hardly surprising that the less gifted among us are willing to fart our way into the spotlight.'"

Maybe this is why I haven't been discovered.

The Cruzin' Cooler

Wow. This is so cool. Need one.

Someone Will Die

The next season of The Simple Life will feature Nicole and Paris as camp counselors. One week's theme is fitness and weight loss.

I hope they will be counseling guys and not girls, because I'm pretty sure that these are the last two people you want to throw into a room full of hungry fat chicks. And I can call them that because I wear my inner fat chick on the outside.

In a totally unrelated note, I got the shoes this morning and they were everything I hoped they would be and so much more. :)

An Open Letter to LexisNexis

Dear LexisNexis,

If I try to get a document by citation from the U.C.C. Rep. Serv., and you don't have it, please just tell me so; it kinda ticks me off when you give me another document instead.

I'll see you in my office Monday.

Warmest Regards, etc.,

Oso

Oh, Shoes!

I JUST CHECKED THE TRACKING ON THE PRETTY, PRETTY SHOES AND THEY ARE ALMOST HERE!!! THEY'VE SCANNED JUST AN HOUR AWAY! TOMORROW THEY'LL BE HERE!

Look at the Pretty Shoe

Sigh. I want to wear it right now.

More from Spring Break 2007

This week is not going as planned.

Monday was simple enough--lots of time spent with Fiance which is always good.

Tuesday, we left for his hometown. It's about a hundred miles away, and all the parents, grandparents, siblings, and other pertinent relatives live there. About the time we were leaving town, it started raining like mad. Fiance turned his windshield wipers on and the one on the driver's side promptly shot over to where his side view mirror was and stayed there. He got out and yelled at it, and I think he may have hit it too, all to no avail. We turned around and switched to my car and enjoyed a dismally rainy drive for the next two and a half or three hours behind every truck on the interstate. We were rewarded for our efforts once we got to his grandparents' house with fresh pork tenderloin and a new dice game ("You Blew It!") As I crawled under the duvet I thought, "Well, that was worth it, at least."

Wednesday, Fiance wakes up with fever, sore throat, a headache, and body aches. Hooray. He's caught my disease. I call his mother to see if she has a doctor in her pocket that she can call and get Tamiflu prescribed. The response: Go back home to University Town. You see, Fiance's great aunt has cancer and is on chemo right now. His germs are rather desperately not needed. So, we get up, pack, steal as many homemade muffins as we can fit in our pockets, and head for the nearest doc-in-the-box. After probably an hour and a half at the doc-in-the-box, Fiance is pronounced ill but not en-flued and given two prescriptions to fill--one for codeine cough syrup and another for an anti-inflammatory. We fill them and stop by his mother's house to steal a blanket and say goodbye to the eighteen year old cats being put down this week. We mope back out to the car, Fiance already wrapped in the blanket, and so begins the drive back home.

We have a Fiance family wedding to attend on Saturday, so back on Tuesday I had ordered a dress and shoes online with expedited shipping. Wednesday, I received notice that the dress was in back-order, so I re-submitted an order. Today, I just received notice that the shoes had shipped. We leave tomorrow. Argh.

Spring Break: Days 1 & 2

I'm not counting Friday since Friday was spent narrowly avoiding deadline disaster.

Saturday and today ought to be tossed out too since they were both spent in the same way: Trying to escape from the IKEA store. For those of you who have never been inside of one, they are massive, and they are built specifically to prevent you from simply breezing through one or from finding anything you are looking specifically for with anything like ease. They are large and full of inventory, and you can't really make your way around without following the little arrows on the floor. I'm not sure what happens if there is a fire in IKEA, because I promise you that you would have to zig-zag your way out through all the cheap furniture, maybe being fortunate enough to find the shortcut to lighting that promises to be near the end of your frugal adventure/trek/camping trip. It was pretty exhausting, on the whole, although I did really enjoy the "Living in 25 Square Feet" displays.

You're Not People Anymore, You're Lawyers

Tonight I am reading and correcting one of my student's papers. This particular one happens to be a Rogerian argument, and I never had to write one of those myself. Follow me on my crotchety and en-grouched journey.

I pry myself from my twenty-one-year-old recliner and grumble out to the car trunk with my germs to unearth the pertinent text book. Checking the index...Rogerian argument...okay, I've got it.

"Writing Rogerian Argument

To write Rogerian argument, according to Young, Becker, and Pike, the writer proceeds in phases rather than following set organizational patterns or argumentation strategies. These phases are as follows.... [steps 1 and 3 omitted.]

2. The writer shows in which contexts and under what conditions the opponent's position may be valid. Note that the opponent is never made to feel completely wrong....

4. The writer states how the opponent's position would benefit if the opponent were to adopt elements of the writer's position. An attempt is finally made to show that the two positions complement each other and that each supplies what the other lacks."

The way you know that it's finally true that you're not a person anymore is when you read a statement like this, call this "Roger" fellow a puss under your breath, and hope that whoever came up with this argumentation method never had anything important on the line. What of "letting the incandescence of your belief shine through?" Where is the advocacy? And if your position is lacking and you depended on the opposition to support what was lacking, how much are you going to be liable for when "The Big M" rolls around?

Contrary to my consternation at Good Sir Roger, I do understand where this tack comes from in terms of credibility and academic "arguments," but what kind of arguer are you really if you don't try to sink, no, obliterate all the other guy's battleships?

My fun has been dying for too long.

Click here to see why a law student code of ethics is probably a good idea.

I'm No Math Genius

But I know that Bell Curves shouldn't look like this--especially in an elective with an adjunct:

A 3
A- 0
B+ 15
B 12
B- 5
C+ 9
C 11
D 2

Greatest Movie Trailer Ever

Three new backgrounds!

Uggh.

I think I officially have the flu.

I Totally Have a Fever

The good news is that I have to bribe myself to eat. The bad news is that I do bribe myself--with home-made alfredo sauce which is like 100% saturated fat. If you don't believe me, here is a list of the ingredients: heavy cream, freshly grated paramasan, and a stick of butter. Now, I just want to sleep, but I think that I should keep myself up for a little bit while my arteries recover.

WooWoo!

New season about to start! YEA!!!

My New Bad Habit: Just One Among Many

I'm not quite sure at what point my weekends stopped being about sleep and started being about staying awake as much as possible so that I could make the most of that time, but I'm going to need to nip this in the bud. I feel like a kid who just knows she is going to miss out on something huge if she goes to bed--even at 3:16 AM.

Wow

I don't really know where or whether I should start with this, but a 12 year old child died Sunday from an infection that spread from an abscess in his in his tooth that spread to his brain. His parents didn't have dental coverage, and were concentrating on getting his brother to a dentist because his brother had SIX rotting teeth.

I feel that there is a lot that could be said about this on many sides (which the article takes full advantage of), but the more central issue is that someone out there lost their little boy very unexpectedly, and I don't really think that we should be using their personal tragedy as healthcare debate fodder unless and until they are ready to do so.

I've watched a lot of news this week because nothing else has been on, and I've noticed that maaaaybe twenty-four hours is too long to cover the news. This article isn't just a report of the event, it's trying valiantly to set the stage for a Medicaid expose' later on. The news doesn' t just cover the news; it covers Britney, and she could really use a little less [media] coverage right now. They even ran a video of baby tigers and orangutans today with the caption "Cheap Ratings Ploy!" rolling across the bottom of the screen. At least that was honest.

Mine!

My newest favorite way to procrastinate is by watching "Engaged and Underage" on MTV. The overwhelming majority of the soon-to-be-newlyweds on that show are nineteen years old. I used to consider it to be only generally true that nineteen year-olds shouldn't get married, but I'm starting to think that maybe I should firm that up a bit. I have never heard anyone say "Mine!" as much as these girls do. Every time one of them does not get her way, she starts saying, "But it's my ____________!" Usually it is not something big--a stripper-free bachelor party that she doesn't believe will be stripper-free (and inevitably is), adding another ceremony or reception to make things accessible to all the family involved (that the groom's family will pay for and plan anyway), and the like. Sometimes things even devolve into full-on tantrums. One girl even sat there and gasped out "Mine! Mine!" as she sobbed in protest to the groom's family's additional ceremony, even though it didn't infringe on the one she had planned in any way.

You know, the Fiance family and the Del Sol family haven't exactly seen eye-to-eye on very much at all re: the wedding, but I think I can honestly say that I've spent more time just trying to blend a happy medium among all the parents involved and hearing all of them tell me it is my wedding than I have spent running around telling them all that it is my wedding. Maybe that means I am not assertive enough in some people's books, but I'd be just as happy getting married in a closet with the lights out as I would be having a huge ceremony. These kids should realize that this is a big commitment and a big transition and that just because you want to get married doesn't mean that you are ready to get married. And its NOT a wedding; it's a marriage.

These girls are NUTS, and the young men are even NUTSER for marrying them.

Yep. Nutser. It's a word. As of now.