2003 wrapup
I've never been terribly interested in or moved by most end-of-year wrapups... I mean, important things happen every year, but how often is their importance directly tied to the fact that they happened in a certain year? occasionally, for sure... and reflection can be a good thing... but is the general notion of 'what happened in 2003' terribly relevant? not so much... the events themselves? sure... but as a collection, not especially... on the other hand, the end of the year is as good a time for reflection and cataloging as any...

before this entry veers completely off the tracks, I'll stop making no sense and use gooder words and a smaller amount of awkward phrasing and sentence structure that is more readable and make a statement with a level of certainty greater than a vague generalization and stuff...

for me, 2003 was a good year... and that's pretty exciting, considering that during this past year my car went up in flames, my kitchen (and house?) nearly met the same fate, I was fired for the first time, the pirates took a giant step backwards, and my stereo, laptop and cellphone went haywire requiring expensive replacement parts...

so what was so good? first off, school... the spring 2003 semester went swimmingly and the grades were quite good (A- average!)... more importantly, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now! only one more semester until graduation! then no more school ever again!

on top of that, I think I've finally accomplished something that I set out to do in law school: figure out what I want to do when I grow up... back when I decided I'd like to go back to school, I really had no idea of what I wanted to do for a living and I hoped that I'd be able to figure it out in three years... sure enough, the notion of being an attorney - an immigration lawyer, even - gradually caught my fancy this year, and I'm more certain about wanting to do that than I've ever been about any professional decision... time will tell if I'm right, but at least I have a direction... you have to walk before you can run...

I've also gotten to know a lot of new people and places this year... it started with a trip to oberlin where I discovered that entire square mile of the world (including one of the best burgers I've ever had) as well as the existence of entenmann's outlet stores (which are continuing to provide me with lots of inexpensive-but-fantastic breads and pastries)...

I also discovered a lot of neato restuarants like kaya, kelly's and the green forest churrascaria... craigslist also opened a pittsburgh site this year... oh, and I had my first dri-fit experience this year... *drool*

I met a bunch of people this year too, one of whom inadvertently and unknowingly turned me into a 'glass-half-full' type person... definitely a better perspective...

last but not least, is the light at the end of another tunnel: I'M ALMOST HEALTHY!!! after three years of significant problems with my hip flexor, I'm just about ready to get started on getting into shape to play ultimate again... the greatness of this cannot be understated... beyond that, something as simple as walking feels a lot different... it's wonderful!

the coolest thing? I think 2004 is going to be even better...

When do I get to be on the money?

What Famous Leader Are You?

Merry Christmas to all

a reporter on the local news just reported that a student who was murdered today was "well known amongst his friends"... really? the unanswered question: was he well known among strangers?

I am soooooooooooo done with another semester!!!!!!!
and you know, with exams being over, the world is a better place...

Tell me why I don't like Mondays...

what a dreadful day today has been... first I've spent all day (and I'm not quite done yet) working on my ethics final... and then on top of that, the pirates got totally raided in today's rule V draft... it should never be the case that a team with as little talent as the pirates have what MLB general managers consider 5 of the top 6 players not good enough to merit a spot on their respective teams' 40-man roster... it's just a complete travesty of management... but that's something I'll save for another day... I have a final to finish... and sleep to get...

head and shoulders, knees and toes... knees and toes!
head and shoulders, knees and toes... knees and toes!
eyes and ears and mouth and nose...
head and shoulders, knees and toes... knees and toes!

(god, do I love procrastination!)

*whew*
jumping jehosefat yehaaa!!!
the first two finals - land transfer & finance and evidence - are over... actually, they have been since noon yesterday... and well... they were easy... a little too easy... maybe it's that I was really prepared or maybe the tests really were easy, or maybe when you're a third year, you're pretty used to law school finals and they all seem like a walk in the park... or if they're not, you don't notice because you know the grading is all random anyway... whatever...

so since I finished that evidence test, I've been relaxing... after all, all I have left is two take-home exams and the immigration law test I plan on acing... but you see, I might be relaxing a little too much... the good part about getting the hard part out of the way is that you're happy to be rid of it... the bad part is that you tend to take the rest of the tests too lightly... must not do that...

Haven't seen that before
survivor entertains the hell out of me... it's so fascinating! above and beyond all else, it's a game... it's not building a society, it's not so much about actually surviving, and it's about more than just lying to other people... it's about strategizing and changing your strategy to adapt to changing conditions...

this season, the amount of strategizing going on has been amazing... and I guess this is just part of a trend in the survivor series... but it seems as if every week, each player is playing the game out to its end and not just accepting other people's assurances that they will be 'final three'... if you do this enough - work through all the permutations - no matter who you vote out, you have no chance of winning... at least until you get to the endgame, which is plenty confusing in and of itself... and in a season that has been horribly disappointing as far as the people who've been voted out (nicole, ryan s, and of course rupert), tonight's episode was a breath of fresh air... and I think it was also the first time I've seen survivors openly celebrating someone getting voted out... after rupert got voted out, I thought there were no more deserving winners... now if sandra or darrah win out, I'll be happy with the result...

And then there was...
NBC is coming out with a new 'reality' series (a misnomer I'll explain another day) where people compete to win an apprenticeship under donald trump... at the eliminations, there's some type of hokey ceremony where trump tells the person that they're fired... on survivor, when jeff probst says 'the tribe has spoken, it's time for you to go...' that has a certain hokey element to it... but it was original... everything else just seems like a ripoff from that...

Things that make you go hmmm...
walking out of my first final today, I thought the test was pretty easy... and it scares me, because it wasn't the "I sure knew everything there was to know on that one!" notion that it was easy, but rather the "It really couldn't have been that simple... could it?" type of easy... on one of the three equally-weighted essay questions, I literally spent half an hour simply looking for an issue to write about... what did the professor want to hear?? thankfully, the people I talked to afterwards seemed to have the same comments on the test... interestingly, they mentioned many, but not all of the same things that I mentioned... I may actually have spotted all the issues on the exam... I didn't write much and had plenty of time to read the hypos over and over again... I think I got most of everything... I might have done really well... but on the other hand, I might have totally missed the boat... it all goes to show that you never really know how well you do on law school exams until you see the grade on the wall... now if only potential employers would remember this when perusing my resume...

'Tis the season
it's finals time again, so my posting schedule is likely to be infrequent (which is to say more of the same)... of course, I like to procrastinate, so you might also get a fairly up-to-the-minute description of what I'm up to... mostly, it's studying and thinking about the changes I'd like to make to the blog over the break... lot of excitement, huh?
I'd write more now, but I'm tired and my first exam is tomorrow morning... oh well...

I am just an ordinary guy...
I used to be afraid of living in apartment buildings/complexes because it meant that I'd have to worry about every dumbass in the place and whether or not they put their cigarettes out before they crawl into bed, whether they have sketchy wiring, etc... haven't thought about that in a long time... until today, when my roommate managed to set a plastic collander on fire by failing to ignite the appropriate electric burner on our stove (for about the 15th time)... I just don't know what to say about this... you'd think the little stove burner indicators would be easy to understand - especially for someone actually admitted to a US law school... apparently not... I'm still shaking my head in disbelief...

Awesome new catch phrase
I pulcini scavano l'accento

What we're listening to...
so I'm not always hip to the latest thing that's happening in the music world - especially if it is kinda popular... sometimes I am, sometimes I'm not... but I really missed the bus on radiohead... after hearing so many choruses about how great they are, I decided to give them a few listens recently...

at first, I recoiled in horror... I could barely understand any of the lyrics - a sure sign of old age! "it sounds good... but what the hell are they saying?!?" talking to a friend who is a radiohead afficionado, I found that most of their lyrics aren't meant to be understood, but rather just to be sonically pleasing... and that's exactly how they work... do they make sense? maybe... if I could understand more of them, I might be able to pass judgment... but damn if they don't sound good, and isn't that what music is about?

beyond the incomprehensible vocals, the guitars really tear it up... the acoustic sounds on Just are a little soft and pleasing... and then another guitar comes in and plays a hard-raging scale on the chorus... it's brilliant... and so much of the guitar work sounds like a metal-ized version of surf music with the guitars moving fast and furious... sounds really polished and well-done...

then you have Electioneering and its cowbell that would make Bruce Dickinson proud... kinda makes me wanna make an all-cowbell mix... bottom line: radiohead = good... count me on the bandwagon (if a little late arriving)

then there's Dressy Bessy... light, fluffy pop music that's a little more than what it appears to be (but not too much more)... the tracks I've heard have been a little inconsistent... Bubbles (from an album of tunes inspired by the powerpuff girls) and If You Should Try To Kiss Her are two recommended choices... I haven't heard a whole lot, and they're definitely worth investigating... website says they're in cleveland on the 11th... if I were there, I'd go...

Today's food intake
just as a little update to yesterday's eating adventure, I still felt full most of the day today... one meal was good for two day's worth of food!! (kids, don't try this at home... or at least if you do, don't tell anyone you got the idea here)... so the sum total of today's food intake: bagel with cream cheese (22 hours after I last ate) and some wheat thins... and I'm not hungry at all...

ouch
so those of you who know me know that I don't really drink... I've had a drink here and there at various times in my life, but never had I been drunk... until today... and how much alcohol did I have today?... not one drop, thank you... I got drunk on meat...

you see, I went to an all-you-can eat meat restaurant tonight - the green forest currascarria... and I ate and ate and ate... really, I didn't think I ate that much... but apparently I did, because after dinner the feeling of fullness I had didn't stop growing... I was getting even more full AFTER I HAD STOPPED EATING!

in the end, I felt quite nauseous and needed much water to ward off dehydration... things like walking - or even moving at all - were not pleasant... as my roommate put it, I was "drunk on meat"... and the analogy is totally appropriate... as I was eating, I "went the extra mile" simply because the people I was eating with didn't think it was possible... now I should also clarify that I didn't actually feel terribly full at the time, although but for the audience, I very well might have stopped... it was kind of like drinking just too much because people are egging you on... oh well... in any case, if this actually is what being drunk is like, I feel pretty comfortable that it's not something that's for me... not a pleasant experience...