Impending Relief?

Looking forward to coming home tomorrow. I can’t wait to see my little rascally four-legged companion and really, really can’t wait to play the Pirates of the Caribbean game, Even though my sister has the movie captive at her house and is undoubtedly studying it on a nightly basis to maximize her chances of winning.

Man, ever since Mom bought me a new pair of Saucony running shoes, I’ve stopped getting blisters on my feet. I think this weekend I’m going to have to go back and see if they have another pair, so I can alternate pairs on different days and make them both last twice as long.

There’s an article suggesting that, within the next few years, we could pay as little as $1.15/gal for gasoline. How AWESOME would that be?!

I must be out of my MIND signing up for Moot Court.

Research Trail

Haven’t checked in for quite a while... things are moving along. I’ve been scraping together every spare second to hide out in the Westlaw Research room, where we’re allowed to ferret out and print case precedents to our heart’s content, sans charge. The outline for our argument is due on Friday, so the time has come to get cracking. We have a meeting tonight about constructing oral arguments, which I hope will provide some insight.

I do have to say, I must be out of my mind. What am I thinking, signing up to voluntarily participate in the process that just about killed me last time? All right, I guess I’m thinking it will be good for me and provide valuable experience, but the entire notion still smacks of stupidity.

Season Six of the Gilmore Girls comes out today! I know no one except for me cares, but I’m stoked. And then next week is the season premiere, rah!

What a gross day outside. It’s so gloomy and overcast, like the sky has a sore throat. It makes me think of that OutKast video where all the flowers are singing with faces juxtaposed upon them and the sun smiling and dancing as Big Boi drives by in a big ol’ tan Cadillac.

In other local news, the fourth novel in my beloved Hannibal Lecter series comes out in December: Hannibal Rising. It allegedly follows him as a child and explains how he became so mentally diseased. It sounds really interesting.

Today in tax while taking notes I accidentally misspelled “more” as “moiré” and spell check didn’t pick it up, so of course I had to go look it up. Turns out it’s a wavy fabric. Learn something new every day.

And just in case anyone’s interested... in Intellectual Property we’re finishing copyright today and starting in on patents. In Tax today we finished gifts and fringe benefits, and will start scholarships and grants tomorrow. In Evidence we’re covering the admissibility of a defendant’s prior criminal record and previous questionable conduct to establish guilt in the case currently on trial. And in Business we’re learning how to create limited liability partnerships.

Respondeat Superior

“Here is one of the few remaining loopholes in property transfer: die. That’s how you avoid taxes. Now, I’ll admit the transaction costs are pretty high...” - Professor Colombo

Hard to believe it’s Thursday already. I sure hope the dog isn’t too mad at me or give me the cold tail tomorrow. It sounds stupid, but the little booger is like my best friend. At Petsmart last night I got him two long loofah dogs (the ones from the commercial), this time in purple. I also got a set of tan rawhide bones rolled with red stuff inside, and three long rods. I guess it seems like a paltry set of acquisitions, but each of the items were about seven bucks… it was a forty-one-dollar trip. They also had obedience classes going on, so there were little critters scampering all over the place. It was so cute! Of course, the college girls had scrappy little things bouncing around at the end of pink leashes, yipping spectacularly, but there was one Golden Retriever puppy in a dark green harness that was sooooo cute...

We’re discussing respondeat superior in Business Associations and the topic always makes me nervous for my parents. Considering all the morons deficient of common sense they employ, it really irritates me that they could be held accountable for the stupidity of the pea-brained Frankensteins. I guess that’s the hazard of owning your own business, but it still grates me.

Lightning Thrice

Professor Colombo: “...and everyone else in the class is thinking, ‘Good Lord, do I still have time to drop this course?’”

It seems utterly unfair to have a final exam on a Saturday. But apparently that is to be my fate. Final exams run from December 6 to the 14th, and I have a Federal Income Taxation exam on Saturday, December 9.

One of the casualties of writing band bios is that when I research the act, I visit their website and force myself to listen to at least one of the songs. Most of the time this experience is either a nonevent (James Blunt, etc) or excruciatingly painful (GWAR), but every once in a blue moon I’ll come across a band I’ve never before heard of and wind up really liking them. It happened with the Killers and Panic! At the Disco, and now lightning has struck a third time with the Finnish band HIM. It’s a relief because Fuel disbanded and I’ve had a deficiency of aggression in my music collection ever since. What kills me, though, is this band is comprised of a bunch of guys from Finland, yet they speak better English than half of the people I know.

There’s this crazy new music video spinning on MTV called “Mama’s Room” by Under the Influence of Giants. It has the verisimilitude of an origin in the 70’s - rainbow lights, era-appropriate clothing, a relic of a song. Very impressive.

Still can’t believe the Crocodile Hunter is no more. I wonder if that tape is going to leak out. It would be awful to see, but roughly akin to a horrible accident on the side of the road: you can’t help but slow down and gawk. I wonder why God took him? What was He trying to tell everybody? It’s not like the Croc hunter was doing anything particularly stupid or egregiously careless... except, I suppose, for being in the area in the first place... filming a documentary for the World’s Deadliest Creatures... okay, maybe it was kind of stupid. But I think the environment and animals nationwide will suffer for the loss.

The Koreans were cooking last night as I slipped into slumber, and the Plant Man’s wares were out in his driveway this morning. I feel better now.

In Mathematics Land!

“Mr. Schneider. You look like you have a hemorrhoid.” - Professor Columbo (Income Tax)

Yes!!! Life is good! I just want to announce that in tax today, Professor Colombo referenced Disney! My stupid obsessions (Disney, Monty Python, etc) came back to help me again! He said, “See? Tax is just mathematics. Who’s seen Donald in Mathematics Land?” (I was the only one who raised my hand.) “See? One person’s seen Donald in Mathematics Land.” He looked at the person currently under the fire of the Socaratic Method. “You haven’t seen Donald in Mathematics Land?” The guy shook his head. “That’s… that’s sad. You’ve lead a deprived childhood.” So it seems like a small thing, but any brownie point I can tally is a good one, right?

You know, just when I’m tempted to resume disliking John Mayer for being a potentious suck-up, the guy issues a song that makes it just impossible to hate him. His new song “Waiting on the World to Change” starts so slow and mopey I really wanted to dislike it, but the lyrics are so spot-on and clever I just can’t. From whence does he mine them? Is there a place to purchase a piece of that inspiration?

I was so disappointed last night in Panic! At the Disco’s performance - the band was excellent, but the singer wobbled from key to key with absolute abandon. It was horrible. They did win Video of the Year, though, which they deserved. Thankfully, the Killers ended the show with their “When You Were Young,” and were absolutely fabulous. Strange. Panic’s performance was pretty but, technically, junk; the Killers were kind of boring to look at, but excellent from a critic’s standpoint. I was surprised Shakira didn’t win anything.

Our tax class is about half full today, if that. I’m sure everyone is just skiving off early to go on vacation or whatnot. There’s a group of people going fishing/boating in Iowa who are cutting right after Tax. When I heard about that, this image of Sassy from Homeward Bound thrashing about in the river came to mind.