For Peter's Sake

How to Waste Time, part IV

2008-07-07T07:38:00.001-05:00

A couple weeks ago I saw this fun gadget on another blog and I decided to give it a try. Wordle is a Java applet (a program within your browser) that takes a bunch of text or a website and creates a word cloud. I made this one of my blog last week, so it's a little heavy on the Calvin & Hobbes. I might have to extract the whole text of my blog for the past few years and create a word cloud of of that. It would be interesting to see what words came up the most since 2004. You should give it a try and see what it does to your blog or something you wrote.

Movies in June, Part Two

2008-07-06T12:55:00.000-05:00

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Mr. and Mrs. Smith is a relatively entertaining action flick about two assassins (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, ostensibly before they were an item) who are married to each other. The only problem is, neither one knows that the other is also an assassin. As you may imagine, they find out and lots of shooting happens. But so does a lot of entertaining humor about relationships, trust, and marriage troubles. Mr. and Mrs. Smith has its best moments when the banalities of American suburban living are juxtaposed with the glamorous and deadly world of international assassins. Particularly funny is a scene where Pitt and Jolie take on a team of hit men while driving the minivan they stole from their neighbors. As is often the case, the ending is more over-done than funny, but the movie still has its charm. It's a good summer movie; I'm glad I finally got around to seeing it.
∗∗1/2

The Break-up

If you like Vince Vaughn, you will probably like The Break-up. This is basically all his movie, and it practically drips with his unusual humor. Fortunately, he is usually kept in check by an impressive supporting cast and a couple capable writers. The funniest moments of The Break-up happen when Vince Vaughn's humor is carefully tempered and honed to some good lines, rather than the rambling and often crude schtick that fills the out-takes and deleted scenes.

Vaughn's idea of doing the anti-romantic comedy is intriguing, and even though it isn't always entirely fun to watch, it's interesting to see the classic genre played in reverse. Vaughn's character and his girlfriend (Jennifer Aniston) slowly enter a downward spiral after an argument, but both refuse to move out or give up. The result is awkward and mostly comical. My favorite scene is near the beginning, when they have their big argument. The writers managed to craft a dialogue that included almost every line relationship cousnelors will tell you not to say. I didn't like everything about The Break-up, but it had some good moments.
∗∗

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

After the amusing and light-hearted success of the first National Treasure movie, a sequel was sure to follow. And like so many other Jerry Bruckheimer movies, the philosophy for the sequel was to throw in more money, more big-named actors, and less plot. The first movie flirted with the edge of absurdity, but it stayed just on this side of the line. Book of Secrets marches past the line and never looks back. Despite the addition of Ed Harris and the fantastic Helen Mirren, this movie is just plain silly. But it is kinda fun, so if you are willing to utterly suspend your disbelief, you might like it.
∗1/2

Persuasion (2007)

Persuasion is actually my favorite Jane Austen novel. (Yes, I have a favorite. Yes, I know that makes me a Girlie-Man.) The book follows Anne, the daughter of a spendthrift nobleman, who has no money and no marriage prospects. (That should sound familiar to any Austen readers.) There is a previous movie version of Persuasion that has lots of fans, but it isn't fabulous. So the BBC did a new version of the book last year. The new movie does a lot of things I like. The new male lead character is a lot better looking than the guy from the old movie, but he seems a bit young for the part. I would say that the new one is better than the older version, if it weren't for a utterly foolish and unnecessary sequence at the very end of the new BBC production, in which Anne runs in a panic all around the the town of Bath. Despite that last sequence, I liked the movie well enough, though I still would like to see a definitive version at some point.
∗∗

Sense and Sensibility (BBC Miniseries)

The BBC undertook another well-loved Jane Austen book earlier this year, this time in a mini-series. The three-hour length allowed for a slower pace, and the performances were quite good, but this version just isn't as good as the Academy Award-winning version by Emma Thompson and Ang Lee. Still, I liked this version a lot, and it is inferior only because the 1995 version is so excellent. I would recommend this version to an Austen fan.
∗∗

P.S. I Love You

These last two movies have something in common other than being romantic comedies. Both movies begin with the death of a husband or fiance, and deal with the emotional fall-out the woman experiences. P.S. I Love You is the stranger of the two, but it was also the better. After her husband dies of a brain tumor, a young woman (Hillary Swank) becomes emotionally unstable until she begins to receive posthumous letters from her husband. He knew she would be devastated by the loss, and he plans out tasks and activities for her to do. In the process, she begins to cope with the loss and let go. Part of the movie takes place in Ireland, so the scenery alone makes for some good watching. It has some really stupid parts, but P.S. I Love You also has some charm.
∗∗

Catch and Release

Jennifer Garner stars as a woman whose fiance dies in a fishing accident the day before their wedding. She then discovers that he had a secret life she never knew about, with some good and some bad consequences. Catch and Release is a very underwhelming movie in most respects. It isn't all bad, but the story is absurd and the performances unconvincing. Jennifer Garner's character never really shows much emotion, even though she lost her soon-to-be husband and goes through plenty of drama with his friends afterwards. The best part about the movie is some of the scenery, since it takes place in Boulder, Colorado. The rest of it you won't miss.
∗

Movies in June, Part One

2008-07-02T16:05:00.004-05:00

Becca likes to do a book report at the end of every month of all the books she read. I feel lucky if I find the time to read one book. But ever since we got a subscription rental, we have watched a lot of movies together. I like books better, but the time commitment is a lot greater for a book. So here's some of the movies I've seen in June.

The Fountain

It's hard to describe The Fountain in a simple phrase. The film follows three story lines with some of the same characters in each story. The first and most concrete plot is a present-day man (Hugh Jackman) who is working to find a cure for his wife's brain tumor. The second plot takes place in the book Jackman's wife (Rachel Wiesz) is writing, about Queen Isabella and a Spanish conquistador searching for the Fountain of Youth. The third and most abstract plot apparently takes place far in the future, where Jackman's character travels through space in a bubble with a sentient tree. All three plots meld together by the end, and it isn't quite clear which, if any, was the real one. The Fountain is a very strange film, but it is also gorgeous and mysterious. I wasn't quite sure what to think of it at first, but as it settled in my mind, I liked it very much.
∗∗∗1/2

Ocean's Thirteen

Ocean's Eleven was the kind of movie with plot twists and surprises that audiences love. Ocean's Twelve went too far, with a plot twist at the end that negated almost the entire rest of the movie. Ocean's Thirteen swings back the other way with almost no plot twists at all. By this time, we all know that Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his photogenic band of thieves are going pull off the heist. The only question is how. That might not be a fatal flaw in the movie, but the "how" in this case really wasn't that entertaining. Their motive in this case is revenge on casino owner Willy Bank (Al Pacino) for ruining one of their own, but the movie didn't make me care much about why they were doing it. Even the adition of Al Pacino didn't add much to the movie; his character was supposed to be powerful and menacing, but he was outclassed by the likes of Andy Garcia. Still, Ocean's Thirteen was better than Twelve, and it was a fun summer movie that didn't require me to think much.
∗∗

Becoming Jane

This is just the first of four Jane Austen-related films I watched in June. If you're not a fan, just skip these parts. Becoming Jane imagines the life of the woman behind the famous English novels. I wasn't really that interested in this movie (I'm not an Anne Hathaway fan) but it was okay. The film is loosely based on the brief engagement of Jane Austen, and it imagines how that relationship might have been and how it influenced Austen's writing. (And by "writing" I mean Pride and Prejudice, since that's all this movie seems to focus on.) I never got too invested in the characters, particularly because Austen's love interest, played by James McAvoy, was really just a scoundrel. I guess I was immune to his good looks and charm. Still, I liked the movie well enough to recommend it to other Austen fans.
∗∗1/2

Dreamgirls

Dreamgirls made a splash at last year's Academy Awards, with former American Idol singer Jennifer Hudson winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. The whole cast is quite good, including Eddie Murphy and Jamie Foxx. Even Beyonce Knowles is pretty good, which perhaps isn't surprising, since she's essentially playing herself. But Hudson definitely stole much of the show -- who knew the girl could act as well as she could sing? I also liked cameo appearances by John Lithgow and John Krasinski.

Like the Broadway play upon which it is based, Dreamgirls tells the story of a Supremes-esque singing group as they rise to the top, with plenty of drama and conflict on the way. The movie was good, but I got very tired of the music by the end. Maybe it's just not my preferred genre, but by the time Jennifer Hudson got to sing her voluble farewell solo halfway through the movie, I couldn't really appreciate it. Overall, I thought the movie was good, as were the performances, but it wasn't amazing.
∗∗∗

The Jane Austen Book Club

After seeing Becoming Jane, I got interested in re-imagining some of Austen's literary themes, so we rented The Jane Austen Book Club. The movie follows a group of people who form a book club to read all of Jane Austen's works. They all come to the club for various reasons, and they all have plenty of baggage. The participants in the club mimic many of the themes and characters of Austen's books, and like all Austen stories, they all have happy endings.

The movie has an excellent ensemble cast, and the screenplay does a good job of not neglecting any of the characters. I got a little annoyed with how transparent the characters sometimes were, but I suppose it was necessary to keep all the plots going. It wasn't an fantastic movie, but it was fairly entertaining and it got me interested in reading Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park, the two Jane Austen novels I haven't read.
∗∗∗

Æon Flux

There's no good way to say this: Æon Flux is a really stupid movie. It is loosely based on the gritty MTV miniseries of the same name, which featured a bondage-clad assassin, graphic violence, and some kinky sexual fetishes. Since that probably wouldn't translate well to the silver screen, the film adaptation got an airbrushed gloss that took most of the life out of the story. The result was a shiny sci-fi/action flick that had plenty of skin and special effects but very little plot or writing. I actually agree with a lot of the plot changes the movie makers made in adapting the series to the big screen, but they did a lot of dumb things too. None of the characters were believable, and I can't even count how many times the heroes got shot and then got back up to fight. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
∗

I'll do the rest of the June movies ~~tomorrow~~ Friday.

Fast mapping

2008-06-30T19:35:00.008-05:00

Since we’ve seen a lot of new people and done a lot of new things in the past few weeks, Lindsay’s vocabulary has virtually exploded. She says a couple new words a day, and I can’t keep up with all the new words that she knows. Her recall is good too. She learned the word “boat” last night in the bathtub while playing with her toy boats, and this morning she saw a picture of Noah’s Ark and correctly identified it as a boat. The little tub toys really didn’t look much like the illustrated ark, but she understood what a boat did — it floats, and sometimes people or things go in the boat. I thought that was actually pretty perceptive.

I’m also interested to see what names she uses for things or animals she doesn’t already know. This morning she was watching an animal video, and she thought for a moment and then made a guess at some of the exotic animals. She called the otters “kitties,” which makes some sense because of their whiskers. She called a water buffalo a cow. More interestingly, she called a lizard a turtle. I thought this was interesting because the shape of the lizard is really quite different from a turtle, but she already identifies that the lizard and the turtle are related. I’m not sure she quite understands the concept of reptile, but she’s on her way.

Language is such a fluid thing, so I’m continually entertained and impressed with how fast she picks up the words. Her retention is really improving. Speech and language are part of what sets humans apart from the rest of the animal world. The ability to learn and immediately retain words is sometimes known as “fast mapping,” and it’s fun to see it in action with Lindsay. I recently learned of and read an article in Science Magazine about a few dogs who have been found to have this same fast mapping ability. Of the hundreds of dogs they have examined, scientists have only found two dogs with this ability. Both are border collies, a breed which has been bred over hundreds of years to understand and obey a variety of words and signals as part of their animal herding duties. So while only the most intelligent and carefully bred dogs have this ability, any old two-year-old can fast map thousands of words. People are very clever animals, and our little animal is fun to watch. If anyone else likes nerdy stuff like this, the Science article is here and the radio article where I first heard about it is here.

Away message

2008-06-25T10:34:00.003-05:00

*BEEP*

I'm sorry, I can't come to the blog right now. I'm busy at a family reunion. Once I'm done hiking, climbing, and offending my in-laws, I'll post another blog post.

*BEEP*

Calvin y Hobbes

2008-06-20T22:10:00.004-05:00

We have a fantastic used book store near where we live, and every time I go there, I check out the Spanish language section. Most of the time it just has a bunch of popular English novels translated into Spanish and a bunch of religious texts, but occasionally I find some good Spanish or Latin American literature. Last night I found an illustrated copy of Doña Bárbara, the best-known work of Venezuelan author (and former president) Rómulo Gallegos. I was quite pleased with my find and I almost turned away, when something else caught my eye. It was a Calvin and Hobbes collection, En todas partes hay tesoros. I couldn't resist.

Today I read through the strips, and it was a weird experience. I'm quite familiar with almost all of the Calvin and Hobbes cartoons, but I have rarely read them in Spanish. Some of the humor really doesn't translate very well; other times it's almost better in Spanish as the result of some clever Spanish colloquialism. I find myself critiquing the translations of some strips. A lot of the humor is dumbed down a bit, since some of the subtle social commentary doesn't translate well. But some of the most complicated subtexts come across quite well. It's been fun to see a new side of "Calvin y Hobbes." I could almost never get tired of these guys.
_____________________________
The dialogue for the strip above is the following:
Panel 1 - Calvin: Want to see something incredible?
Panel 2 - Calvin: Look, you put the bread in this slot and lower this lever . . .
Panel 3 - Calvin: You wait a few minutes, and out comes toast!
Panel 4 - Hobbes: Wow! And where's the bread? Calvin: I have no idea! Isn't it incredible?

LSATflashback

2008-06-16T14:46:00.004-05:00

Today is the LSAT, the Law School Admissions Test, which is required for every student applying to law school. About four years ago I was sweating hard in a large examination room, after six months of study and preparation. As I walked into the law school, I saw a bunch of signs about the exam and I instantly had a flashback to the bad days leading up to the exam. It doesn't seem that hard now, after taking a few 6-hour law school essay exams and preparing for the Bar Exam. But at the time, the LSAT was just about the most frightening thing I could imagine.

Of course, you know I didn't do too badly on the exam, because I got into my first choice law school. That's all ancient history now, but I still can't help but feel a twinge of pain for all the kids working hard downstairs right now. Their minds are swimming with fact patterns and logic problems. And I feel even worse knowing that many of them will end up in law school as a result of their taking this test. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Daddy day

2008-06-15T19:47:00.005-05:00

This year was the first year I head a real Father's Day. Last year I was technically a father, but Lindsay was basically just a noisy little lump. She couldn't talk, play, or laugh. This year I felt much more like a real dad, and we did some great real dad things. Becca got me some grilling utensils, which I have wanted ever since I got my grill. I got a grilling spatula, tongs, fork, and grill scrubber. Of course, we had to try them out, so we had shish kebabs for dinner. Marinated beef, fresh zucchini, new potatoes, chunk pinapple, and marinated artichoke hearts--delicious!

Speaking of grilling, here's a picture of the grill I got last month. It was the last thing I ordered with my points from Westlaw. It's the perfect size for a small family like ours. I can't really leave a grill outside, so I can just take this one inside when I'm done grilling. It's also portable, so we're planning on taking advantage of that later on. Little charcoal grills are really cheap, but it's so handy to have a gas grill. I know charcoal makes it taste better, but it's hard to be the convenience of a gas grill. Instant, even heat, with very little mess to clean up. Now that I have all the equipment for grilling, we'll definitely be doing it more often. It was a good Father's Day for me.

Book stack

2008-06-11T16:15:00.005-05:00

I always wondered how many books I gathered during law school, so a few weeks ago I stacked them all up on the table to see how high it went. It was a pretty big stack, and I couldn't even find several of my books. It would have been almost a foot taller if I had all of the books in the stack.

I didn't include my bar preparation materials, which would have added 36 more pounds and about two more feet to the stack. In fact, the weight of the book stack was worrying me when I took the picture, since I had the book stack on our hand-me-down kitchen table.

I did want to provide some sense of scale for the book stack, so I put Lindsay up on the table to for reference. I don't know why I thought Lindsay would be a good standard unit of measurement, but at least she thought it was funny.

Fall Creek Falls Panorama

2008-06-09T10:00:00.004-05:00

About a week ago we went to Fall Creek Falls State Park with some friends. Becca did some great blogging of our trip, so I won't go over it all again. But I did want to post some of the photos I took at the top of the fire tower. We went to the fire tower for a virtual geocache. I usually don't like virtual caches, but this one was a great excuse to visit a part of the park that we would have never explored otherwise. I wanted to try to make a panoramic picture, so I stood in one place and took a bunch of photos. The picture above is the result; I think it looks pretty cool. The view wasn't spectacular, but it's nice to get a full perspective of the whole scenery. This is a relatively low-resolution version, since the full image was huge.

I got the idea to make a panoramic picture from a Lifehacker article I read a few weeks ago. I used a program called AutoStitch, which was incredibly easy to use.* The program was developed by a guy at the University of British Columbia, and you can download a free version. You just put all the photos in a folder, tell the program where the folder is, and it puts them all together and blends the edges. Then all you have to do is crop the section you want to use, and presto.
_________________
* AutoStitch only works on Windows, but there are other programs, like Hugin, which work on Windows, Linux, and Mac. However, I think AutoStitch is a lot easier to use. It seriously did all the work for me, which was pretty cool. Another fine product of Canadian ingenuity!

Someone is a Texas fan

2008-06-05T12:27:00.004-05:00

This is a real discovery order from federal court. I'm not even making this up. The original document is here.

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS
AUSTIN DIVISION

RUTH WAGGONER, INDIVIDUALLY
AND AS REPRESENTATIVE OF THE
ESTATE OF WILLIAM H. WAGGONER
AND RONALD WAGGONER,
PLAINTIFFS

V.

WAL-MART STORES, INC, THE
STANLEY WORKS, INC, WAL-MART
STORES TEXAS, LLC, AND STANLEY
ACCESS TECHNOLOGIES, LLC,
DEFENDANTS

CAUSE NO. A-07-CA-703-JRN

ORDER

Before the Court in the above-entitled and styled cause of action is Defendant Wal-Mart Stores Texas, L.L.C.'s Opposed Motion for a Protective Order, filed May 29, 2008 (Doc. #26). Apparently, the parties are unable to agree if the deposition of Wal-Mart's corporate representative should occur in San Antonio, Texas or in Bentonville, Arkansas.

The Court is sympathetic with Defendant's argument. Surely Defendant's corporate representative, a resident of Arkansas, would feel great humiliation by being forced to enter the home state of the University of Texas, where the legendary Texas Longhorns have wrought havoc on the Arizona Razorbacks with an impressive 55-21 all-time series record.¹

On the other hand, the Court is sympathetic with Plaintiff's position. Plaintiffs might enter Arkansas with a bit of trepidation as many residents of Arkansas are still seeking retribution for the "Game of the Century" in which James Street and Darrell Royal stunned the Razorbacks by winning the 1969 National Championship.²

Because the Court is sympathetic to both parties' positions, it has found a neutral site, intended to avoid both humiliation and trepidation of retribution.

ACCORDINGLY, IT IS ORDERED THAT unless the parties agree otherwise, the deposition of Defendant's corporate representative shall occur at 9 AM on June, 11, 2008 on the steps of the Texarkana Federal Building, 500 State Line Avenue, TX/AR 71854.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED THAT each party is to remain on his or her respective side of the state line.

SIGNED this 3rd day of May, 2008.

[signed]
JAMES R. NOWLIN
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

______________________________
¹ It is worth noting that the Razorbacks, who disgracefully retreated from the Southwest Conference into the gentler pastures of the Southeastern Conference, could have likely learned a lesson about stamina and perseverance in the face of battle by visiting the Alamo in San Antonio.
² The Court takes judicial notice that the "Game of the Century" for the current century occurred on January 4, 2006 when Vince Young and Make Brown led the Longhorns in a 41-38 win over the USC Trojans, thus securing the 2005 National Championship.

Via Eugene Volokh.

Excuses, excuses

2008-06-04T14:51:00.001-05:00

Whenever someone says something happened or didn't happen "due to unforeseen circumstances," it is almost invariably a lie. The circumstances surrounding the error or omission were almost always foreseeable, usually long before the deadline. The "unforeseen circumstances" is just a cover, a verbal shield to obscure the fact that someone (often the speaker) screwed up.

Case in point: the grades for my last semester of law school are past due, but we still haven't received them. By my memory, this is the third time grades have been late in the last two years. I got an email today from the registrar telling everyone that grades would be late. We all knew this, of course, because they were due to be released two days ago. The registrar cited "unforeseen circumstances" for the delay. This is, of course, utter nonsense. Not only were the circumstances foreseeable, they were almost probable. Certain professors are notorious in their failure to comply with a deadline. In fact, if you asked the students, they would probably give you a list of the professors who were most likely to deliver grades late, and that list would probably be fairly accurate.

Additionally, the registrar's office has never been known for its superb organization or punctuality. There was a spat a year ago when the then-registrar failed to end a exam on time. This can be a big deal, since most law school essay exams are structured so that you have less time than you want to write. An extra ten minutes can make a significant difference. The registrar's office also has a long history of schedule conflicts, registration errors, and various other administrative goofs. Given the serial tardiness of some professors and the track record of the registrar, it was almost inevitable that the grades would be released late. That whole "unforeseen circumstances" bit is bollocks.

What I'd really like to see is an up-front admission of responsibility, followed by specific identification of the offending parties. Something like, "We didn't really get around to telling you this until after the deadline because we're disorganized, but we though you should know that Professors Doe,Wossname, and Fulano turned in grades late. For your convenience, their email addresses, office numbers, and home addresses have been attached below."

Secular saint

2008-06-02T14:24:00.006-05:00

Last week we watched Ocean's Thirteen. I know it came out a long time ago, but I just wasn't that motivated to see it. I was very entertained by the first of the remake series, but Ocean's Twelve was pretty dumb. It was just a bunch of famous people having fun together on camera. I guess a lot of people liked that, because it grossed more than $350 million worldwide. But I wasn't a fan, so I never saw Thirteen. Basically, unless someone brought the movie to my house for me to watch it, I wasn't going to see it. Except that's exactly how Blockbuster and Netflix work, so we got it and watched it.

There really isn't much mystery or plot to give away in this movie. The same crew of thieves get together in order to rob Willy Bank, a Las Vegas hotel and casino owner played by Al Pacino. He's a ruthless businessman who ruined one of Danny Ocean's friends and put him in the hospital. During the entire film there is never any doubt as to whether Danny Ocean and his team will pull off the heist. The only question is how.

At the end of the film, after the crew have successfully bilked Al Pacino's character for millions, Danny Ocean walks up to him and told him they had done it to teach him a lesson. In that scene Danny Ocean, played again by George Clooney, says a line that I found very interesting. He gives Willy Bank a few reasons why Bank will never be able to get back at them, and then says, "You shook Sinatra's hand. You should know better."

I thought this was very intriguing. It's like Frank Sinatra has become some sort of secular saint, and to have shaken his hand is to be held to a higher standard. The movie certainly suggests that this is the case in Las Vegas. Sinatra apparently embodies the ideals and glamor of old Las Vegas, and as far as the Ocean's trilogy is concerned, that is basically secular religion.

The concept of a secular saint is fairly well known. For example, if you've ever seen The Apotheosis of Washington, the fresco in the eye of the Capitol Rotunda, George Washington is depicted ascending to heaven. Washington was a decidedly secular figure, but only 50 years after his death he was already perceived in a mythic and transcendent light. Likewise, the rhetoric about Abraham Lincoln after his assassination describes him in messianic terms, calling him the Savior of the Nation.

In a country with a wide variety of religious and ideological beliefs, it's nice to have some secular saints to which all citizens can look with admiration. But I think it's fascinating that our new secular saints are people like Sinatra. Don't get me wrong -- Sinatra is absolutely an icon. But I think it's strange to use exalted language when referring to a swing singer who died less than 10 years ago. And old Las Vegas wasn't exactly some gambling Garden of Eden; it was ruled by organized crime, and Sinatra only became the patron saint of Las Vegas by keeping close ties to the mob.

What's even more interesting to me is that I can think of another secular saint, one that doesn't really even exist. I have heard several people express fervent wishes that "President Bartlet" could be president, referring to the fictional character from The West Wing. At least in many law school circles, this is practically dogma. I'm not sure that it's healthy to idealize fictional characters with carefully constructed character traits, human flaws, and scripted lines. Nonetheless, a lot of people would take President Bartlet as their patron saint if they could.

If any of you have some suggestions about other "secular saints," feel free to leave them in the comments. I'm interested to hear what other figures guide our society.

The next step

2008-05-28T21:35:00.004-05:00

I got this in the mail today. It invites me to "take the next step" in my life by enrolling at Draughons Junior College. I've never heard of Draughons, but it apparently has four locations in Tennessee and Kentucky. However, I'm not exactly sure what makes them think that the next step for a top-20 law school graduate is to get an associates degree in dental assisting or pharmacy technology.

My best guess is that they got my information from the company that rented out caps and gowns for graduation, and they think I just graduated from high school. If so, they need to improve their mailing pool accuracy. They're not going to get much response from someone who already has a bachelors and a J.D.

Awkward humor

2008-05-27T14:46:00.001-05:00

Between bar review classes and visiting family over the Memorial Day weekend, I haven't written much. But I have plenty to blog about, so there's more to come. For the moment, here's something I was thinking about over the weekend.

We got Dan in Real Life in our Blockbuster-By-Mail queue, so we watched it this week. It had some funny moments, but it could have been a lot funnier if it wasn't so unbearably awkward. Steve Carell has a knack for awkward moments, but they really aren't that funny sometimes. Most of the time they're just painful. Dan in Real Life is just one example -- The Office is similarly awkward. The best moments of The Office are the ones without Steve Carell. I know he won a Golden Globe for his role on the show, but I watch it in spite of Steve Carell, not because of him.

Everyone I know who watches The Office doesn't really like the awkward humor. They are much more interested in the Jim/Pam romance or the Jim/Dwight rivalry, or the Dwight/Angela/Andy love triangle, or the off-the-wall moments of the many other cast members. No one I know really likes the excruciatingly awkward moments by Michael Scott, Steve Carell's character. Sometimes those moments are the catalyst for funny commentary or hijinks by other characters. That's okay. But basing an entire episode (or, in the case of Dan in Real Life, a whole feature-length film) around painful moments usually isn't that entertaining. Life is painful and awkward enough. While there's plenty of humor to be found in those moments, you don't need to draw them out.

Zombies

2008-05-20T14:41:00.006-05:00

As a graduation present, my mother-in-law got us a 6-month subscription to Blockbuster By Mail.¹ The first movie we got was I Am Legend, which we watched last week. I wrote my customary little review of the movie, but it got me thinking about something that was only tangentially related, so I thought I'd talk a little more about it.

I Am Legend is essentially a zombie movie. Will Smith is the last man alive in New York City, and the "zombies" come out at night. Of course, these aren't your traditional movie zombies that can't move faster than a slow walk. That just isn't scary enough. These are wild, ferocious, feral monsters that can break through walls and leap up buildings. You will never see these sorts of zombies dancing together in a music video.

It seems to me that there have been quite a few of these new zombie movies in the last few years. In 1990 there was a remake of the Romero/Russo 1968 cult classic Night of the Living Dead. I've seen bits of the 1990 version, and the zombies in that movie were still fairly slow, although a bit faster and deadlier than the older version.² But the recent zombie flicks like 28 Days Later (and its sequel, 28 Weeks Later) feature more mobile zombies. The Resident Evil trilogy of movies, like their video game progenitors, feature fast and vicious creatures, like those in I Am Legend. I also think that it's interesting that the zombie trend seems to branch out beyond the horror film genre. All the above films are visions of the relatively near future. And the cult sci-fi series Firefly, with its accompanying movie, Serenity, also featured a rabid group of people (called "reavers") that bore a very strong resemblance to the new zombies.

I'm not sure exactly why the new zombies have been so popular, but I have a few guesses. The first reason is because the old zombies just aren't that scary anymore. People don't go for suspense or anticipation anymore -- they want the blood and guts. The old, slow, shuffling zombies that appeared in Thriller and were lampooned in Shaun of the Dead don't draw the crowds. So movie makers feel the need to up the zombie ante.

My second guess as to why movies have super-zombies is because of video games. Zombie video games have long been popular, in part because it's a good excuse to blow away a lot of people without making it seem too dehumanizing. Honestly, what other possible scenario would make a shotgun-wielding, trigger-happy homicidal maniac a hero? But in order for the games to be more challenging, the video game zombies can't just shuffle around. That would be like a Duck Hunt of the Living Dead.³ So the zombies get a little more energetic. Obviously, this hypothesis works well with the Resident Evil movies, since they are based on video games, but I think it also affected similar movies of the genre.

My third guess as to the reasons behind the new generation of zombies is based in the common reason given for the existence of zombies. In the old zombie flicks, there wasn't always a reason given as to why there were a bunch of dead people wandering around, eating the living. It was unexplained or identified as black magic, and left at that. The new zombie films usually identify the reason as some mutation, genetically-engineered virus, experiment gone wrong, nuclear disaster, or some other post-modern disaster. These sorts of zombies are less based in the original concepts of zombies taken from voodoo and other Haitian traditions, so they need not be restricted by the previous zombie conventions. In fact, mutations or viruses might provide some fictional rationale for a super-strong and super-fast zombie group.

Finally, I think the new zombie movies have super-zombies because special effects make it possible. Half of the summer blockbuster movies in the last decade seem to have been made just because technology now makes it possible to render the images contained in the movie.⁴ Some writer or movie executive says, "Hey, we can make fast and scary zombies with computers. Lets' do it!"

My reasons may be way off base, but those are my hypotheses. Clearly, I have given this topic far more thought than any such frivolous subject merits. But I'm not alone -- you should see how many zombie fan sites there are on the Internet. And a few years ago a man named Max Brooks published a fanciful how-to manual called The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead, which laid out in impressive detail how to survive during a zombie apocalypse. Maybe it takes someone with no life to write about a group of monsters with a similar problem.

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¹ Seriously, best graduation present ever. I love my mother-in-law. She knows that I can count on one hand the times I've been to a movie theater in the past three years. I have a lot of movies to catch up on. Actually, if you can think of a movie that you liked in the last three or four years, suggest it in the comments and I'll put it in our queue.
² I intentionally omitted Army of Darkness from this brief review of zombie flicks because I don't think skeleton warriors qualify as zombies. However, since the horror genre is just about my least favorite, I'm sure I missed some good zombie movies. Anyone have some other examples of the increasingly mobile zombie evolution?
³ Although that could be a kinda fun game. With all the zombie fans out there, I thought someone must have made a flash-based zombie shooting game. Sure enough, there are several. So many, in fact, that there are sites that aggregate all the zombie games. For example, here's a top 10 list of zombie games.
⁴ How else can you explain Wild Wild West, Anaconda, The Phantom Menace, Alien vs. Predator, etc.? Someone should tell movie executives that just because it is possible to make a movie, that doesn't mean that it is advisable.

Paperback

2008-05-14T09:14:00.004-05:00

My wife's grandfather is an avid reader, and almost every time he visits he brings a book or two for us to read. We've discovered some fun books that way, although I haven't had the time to read anything he's brought by in almost a year. But I did read the back cover of a book he left for us a while back, and it cracked me up. Here's a portion of the teaser:

An ambitious young congressional assistant, Jim Dillon has discovered a time bomb hidden away in America's Constitution—a provision that could be used to wrest power from the Chief Executive; a long -forgotten clause that could incite a devastating constitutional crisis. . .and plunge the country into chaos.

Whoa! Sounds like exciting stuff! And with recommendations from Stephen Coonts and Rush Limbaugh on the cover, how could I resist reading this book?

I found that paragraph laughable, although I may have to explain a bit of why. First of all, the U.S. Constitution is one of the most scrutinized documents ever produced, perhaps surpassed only by some religious texts. It's not that long of a document, so it really doesn't have much to hide. As it turns out, the "time bomb" to which the author refers is Art. I § 8, which states in relevant part: "The Congress shall have Power . . . To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water." One may safely surmise that in the course of this doubtlessly thrilling novel, Congress will try to usurp power from the President using that clause, or some other such dramatic political gambit.

The only problem is, it just doesn't work that way. When one branch of government (or an agency/commission within a branch) asserts a power that it does not have (or it received through improper congressional delegation), the other branches don't sit idly by. Every high school student who slept through less than half of the civics classes understands that the separation of powers doctrine and the checks-and-balances structure function to keep each branch of government from exerting too much power. What they don't realize is that "constitutional crises" happen slowly and undramatically for the most part. When the situations actually blow up, it's a political crisis, not a constitutional crisis. Desegregation, Watergate, and the Clinton impeachment all had their bases in a potential imbalance of power among the branches of government. But the legal underpinings of those situations were largely ignored. Which isn't surprising, because let's face it: legal stuff is boring. It takes an imaginative writer to make legal stuff seem interesting. Even John Grisham's legal thrillers are only thrilling because of some other plot, like murder or intrigue or suspense. So even though the author is a University of Virginia law grad, I don't have high hopes for any exciting legal parts. Because law is boring.

I still might read that book, though. It's summer, after all, which is a good time to read silly, pulpy novels. But if I do read the book, it won't be because of the legal aspect. It will be because Rush Limbaugh recommended it.*
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* Words can't even describe how much I'm joking when I say that.

Eye doctor

2008-05-13T08:06:00.005-05:00

I got my yearly eye exam yesterday. I've needed corrective lenses since I was about 10 years old, so this has been an annual ritual for most of my life. Eye exams have changed a lot since I first got glasses. They seem to be faster now. That may be attributable to my perceptions of how long they took when I was 10 (I have never been a particularly patient person), but more likely, I think this is an actual change that results from better equipment. The machines get pretty close to my prescription, and then the doctor and I get to play the "which is better" game. That's always a fun part of the exam. My eyes may be in between prescriptions, because I'm never sure which lens works better. As a consequence, over the last ten years or so, I've bounced back and forth between prescription levels. Last time I went to the eye doctor he said that I was a good candidate for laser surgery because my eyes aren't changing. I like the idea of not having to wear corrective lenses, but until I get good insurance, it's not gonna happen.

Even though I've been to the eye doctor many dozens of times, I had a new experience yesterday. Since I'm nearsighted, he wanted to dilate my eyes so he could check to make sure there was no strain or tearing of the retina. He said I wouldn't be able to focus on something close up without taking off my glasses, and that I would be very sensitive to light, but that those effects would fade in an hour or two. I didn't need to do any reading that day, so I had him do it. He put a drop of solution in each eye. I assume that it contained some sort of muscle relaxant, because after 15 minutes my pupils were HUGE. Seriously, you could hardly see the iris at all. It was kinda creepy-looking. It reminded me of the pot-head kid that sat next to me in middle school. His pupils were almost always dilated, among other symptoms. :-)

My eyes checked out fine -- no tearing or worry signs -- so the doc sent me home with a prescription and a pair of "solar shield" sunglasses. (Think old man sunglasses and you'll know what they looked like.) Becca was outside playing with Lindsay when I came home, and she burst into laughter as soon as she saw me in my slick shades. They weren't exactly what you would call fashionable. In fact, I kinda felt like an old man, because I had to peer over my glasses to see anything up close. I felt like I needed bifocals. I closed all the blinds in the house because everything was so bright to me. I couldn't really do anything like write, cook, or type, so I ended up just watching TV for part of the afternoon. I have this week off, so it worked out okay. But the doc apparently underestimated how long the drops would last; it was almost 4 hours before I stopped needing sunglasses. I'll keep that in mind next time the eye doctor wants to dilate my eyes; it wouldn't do for me to walk into a job interview or conference later that day, looking like I just dropped acid.
Photo credit: deqalb.

On bad government

2008-05-12T09:11:00.007-05:00

Today the government of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) allowed a U.S. plane with relief supplies to land. Nine days had passed since Cyclone Nargis struck the nation, but the military junta in control of the country had previously refused U.S. aid. The current official death toll is somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000, but some estimates predict that it will rise to above 100,000 once aid workers reach the remote areas.

Allowing one U.S. plane to land doesn't do much good, unless it is followed by a larger-scale end to restrictions on foreign aid. But the generals in control of Myanmar continue to deny visas to foreign aid workers. They fear that if they let the foreign relief workers in, they won't be able to maintain their iron grip on the country. As the New York Times noted, "By keeping foreign assistance out, though, the generals must be ready to accept the deaths of hundreds of thousands more people, according to foreign relief officials. At the moment, this is the choice it appears to be making." The generals even had the audacity to put their names on the few boxes of aid they had allowed to enter the country.

I've thought a lot about the role of government and human suffering. Mostly I've considered it in the context of government corruption or the stereotypical Latin American dictatorship. You often see officials running off with millions of dollars while the majority of the population lives in poverty. But the situation Myanmar is bad governance on a grand scale, with about 1.5 million people in urgent need of basic necessities. This isn't a situation in which the government mis-allocates funds or wastes resources. This isn't a matter of inaction. This is a situation in which the government is taking affirmative steps to prevent the welfare and safety of its citizens. This is selfishness and power-mongery taken to the extreme. Myanmar officials would rather sit idly by and watch 100,000 of their citizens die than risk losing control of the country. I can scarcely think of a more damnable behavior, with the possible exception of ethnic cleansing or government-backed genocide. Unfortunately, the result in this case may be the same.

Hopefully that one plane will be followed by plenty more, and the country will loosen up enough to save at least some of the cyclone victims. But I feel very sorry for the thousands of innocent people who are doomed to misery, starvation, and disease, just because they happen to live in a country governed by men who would rather watch them die than risk losing power.

Thoughts in the supermarket checkout line

2008-05-11T22:06:00.004-05:00

The biggest misnomer in the publishing world is People Magazine's list of the 100 Most Beautiful People. Are these people really the most beautiful? Of course not. They're just the most popular right now. Beauty has nothing to do with it. If Johnny Depp is really that attractive, he would have been declared the most sexy man long before he surfaced in Pirates of the Caribbean. Why wasn't he even on the list before his career took off? Could it be that beauty is a figment of popularity and not actual looks? Perish the thought. Although, if that were the case, the 100 Most Beautiful People list would merely represent those with the most recent and successful plastic surgeries. On second thought, no. That's gross. (See Goldie Hawn, etc.)
According to the tabloids, almost every couple is perpetually on the rocks. Bill and Hillary are about to end it. Brad and Angelina just had a fight. David and Victoria Beckham are splitting up. Pamela Anderson and whomever she's married to at the moment are on the breaks. Of course, celebrity couples break up so often that most tabloids can claim they were right all along.
Is there some sort of industry requirement that women's magazines have a "sex secret" or "sex tip" column in each issue? I don't remember ever seeing one without it. And are there really any sex secrets left? Each new issue declares some new trick that will inevitably "blow his mind." And yet, I find it extremely unlikely that these claims can be true month after month. Though there seems to be no lack of people willing to believe it. But practically speaking, if someone really did discover something new about sex, they wouldn't publish it in a two-bit weekly. They'd patent the process and make millions. (I love the idea of patenting a sex move. I also think the patent application would be hilarious, especially the discussion of the originality elements.)

My new jacket

2008-05-08T22:07:00.003-05:00

I bought a lightweight jacket last week for running. It wasn't a fancy jacket, but I didn't need a fancy jacket. I just needed something for when it's a little cold and it's raining.

I got a bit of a chuckle when I looked at the tag on the jacket, however. It showed people doing adventuresome things like roller-blading, dirt-biking, and running. None of those people, however, were wearing the company's clothing.

The label also showed a diagram of the jacket. It was designed to highlight the features of the jacket, such as repelling wind and resisting water. But if you look at the diagram, the bottom layer is your skin. I don't think your skin counts as part of the garment. Moreover, if you have to include the person's skin in the diagram, the garment probably isn't complicated enough to necessitate an explanatory visual aide.

To top it all off, the last portion of the tag declares that the jacket "guarantees that you stay dry with keeping a perfect body climate." That kind of diction and sentence structure is the sure-fire mark of a non-English speaker.

None of these comments, however, are meant to criticize the actual jacket. I used it over the weekend and it performed admirably. I stayed dry along with keeping a good body climate, and my skin functioned well with the shell material, just as the diagram indicated. Truly amazing.

Darwin Award nominees

2008-05-07T09:09:00.006-05:00

We've had family unexpectedly come into town, and have been extremely busy dealing with them. So no blogging lately. Here's a quick update, and a little humor.

Last Friday I turned in my seminar paper. It wasn't good, but it was done, and it's enough to graduate. Let's hope that the professor doesn't read it. (I don't think he will. I think he'll scan it, so I made sure that the headings looked good.) Yesterday I cleared out my locker and study carrell, the latter of which had over 20 pounds of paper in it. Most of it I threw out, although some of it is for ongoing research for a pro bono project, so I had to hold onto it. More junk on my computer desk at home.

Yesterday I also finished up a some paperwork and miscellaneous tasks for a few clubs. So I'm officially done with all of my student duties. Not that I won't be back -- I'm actually hoping to come back to school and help out with an career exploration program we started last year. But I'm basically done being a student.

Even though it's sort of lame and uncool, I still host this blog through Blogger. I still hate some things about it, but it works nicely with some of the other Google-owned services. They just updated Google Docs to allow embedding of presentations, so I thought I'd try it out and post a funny little presentation I found a few years ago. This is what you would call lazy blogging, but hey, at least I'm posting.

I have a brief story to accompany that little slide show. As most of you know, I used to live in Venezuela. One evening I was walking from a bus stop to a friend's house, and I saw some guys on the side of the road doing some repair work on a bus.¹ They had removed the gas tank, and were carrying it over to a work bench. The tank was open on the top and I could hear that there was still some gasoline in it sloshing around. That's when I realized that one of the guys was smoking.

I was still shaking my head at their stupidity when I heard a voice above me call out for some more wire. I looked up to see a guy who had climbed an electrical pole and was hooking up his house to the electric wires himself.² He was barefoot, wearing nothing but jean shorts, and he was trying to be careful not to cross wires or touch the big cables, which weren't insulated at all. I decided to walk a little faster; I didn't want to be near the bus or the electrical pole if something went drastically wrong. Things like that are part of why women in Venezuela live more than 6 years more than men, on average.
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¹ This was actually a pretty common sight. Most public transportation in Venezuela at the time was privately owned and only loosely regulated, if it was regulated at all. Most buses always needed some work, so the bus drivers or owners would work on them in the evenings when the temperatures dropped. The cigarette/gas tank combo was not a frequent sight, thankfully, although stuff like that happened all the time.
² The vast majority of people in Venezuela steal electricity. They just run wires up to the electric poles and tap in. It's especially common in slums, where nothing is regulated, but you see it more organized parts of the city too. I would hope that most people wear rubber gloves when the do it, however. Or at least shoes.

After finals

2008-05-03T23:26:00.006-05:00

I don't know how most couples split the domestic tasks, but we're pretty even about doing things. We both sweep, vaccuum, mop, etc. The single exception to this rule, however, is dishes. Neither of us like to do them, but Becca hates them more than I do. So the dishes are basically my job.

This last week has been a rough one. I had caught up with the dishes on Sunday, but I had a final on Monday morning and I had to turn in my seminar paper by midnight on Friday. I was at the law school library almost every waking moment from Monday afternoon until Friday evening, usually from 7 am to midnight. In the meantime, we had company over for dinner and the Babe continued to make her usual messes. So this is what I woke up to this morning:

It actually got a little worse after that. We actually used every single plate, bowl, spoon, and fork that we own. We had to have finger food for lunch. :-) I've done my duty now -- we still have some dirty dishes in the sink, but we at least have things to eat on.

Thanks to Becca for coping this week. It's been just as hard on her as it was on me. But it's over now. We'll still have a very busy week next week, with company and graduation and all, but at least I'll see my family for more than half an hour each day.

Always read the footnotes

2008-05-01T15:57:00.005-05:00

The following is currently footnote 73 of the draft of my seminar paper:

The video game at issue in Davidson was StarCraft, one of the most popular PC games ever produced, with total sales to date exceeding 9.5 million units. Vivendi, Introduction to Vivendi Games 4 (2006), http://www.vivendi.com/ir/download/pdf/VIVGames_EuropeRoadshow_June2006.pdf. Widely recognized as one of the best real-time strategy games ever produced, StarCraft has enjoyed enduring popularity in North America and Asia, and helped launch Blizzard Entertainment to the top of the video gaming world. One of the keys to the game's success was the successful implementation of the Battle.net gaming site, which enabled users to play the game online or on a local area network. The Battle.net servers have expanded to also host World of Warcraft, the most popular massive multiplayer online role playing game, with over ten million subscribing users. Nearly ten years after its first release, there are still nightly StarCraft tournaments in South Korea, where the game has a large and faithful fan base. Press Release, Blizzard Entertainment, Starcraft® II Released (May 19, 2007) (http://blizzard.com/us/press/070519.html).

I'm not kidding; that's really in the footnotes. I've always wanted to put something like that in a boring legal paper, and I finally got a chance. It's actually somewhat relevant. We'll see if my professor notices it.

Bicycle

2008-05-01T08:46:00.000-05:00

I may have mentioned it once or twice before, but I haven't yet written much about my experience riding a bicycle to school over the past six months. When we moved to our current apartment last summer, I was looking forward to being so close to school. It's only a few miles, so I decided to buy a bicycle and bike to school as often as possible.

The last several months have been an interesting two-wheeled odyssey for me, so I thought I'd share a few thoughts and comments about bike commuting in a city.

Work. I immediately discovered that I don't have strong bicycling legs. I have one major hill I must go up and down every day on my way to school, and I almost didn't make it up the hill on my first day of biking. Thankfully, it's a more gradual ascent on the way home, but it can still be brutal in the mornings. Especially if I've already gone running or worked out that morning. You don't have to think about the physical side of transportation when you just jump in the car and drive. I've gotten much stronger over the past few months so now it isn't as big of a deal, but it still leaves me huffing and puffing some mornings.
Pain. After the second day of biking to and from school, I was actually quite uncomfortable. To put it delicately, I didn't want to sit down. Some bike seats are better than others, but mine was fairly solid and I ended up with a bruised backside. Fortunately, just like my legs, my bum toughened up after a few weeks. Now I don't really have a problem. But it goes away quickly. My first time biking to school after a long Christmas break resulted in another few days of bruising.
Dogs. When they see a person bicycling down the road, something goes off in a dog's brain. It's like the canis lupis part of the dog takes control, and the dog can't resist chasing you down. And compared to the other vehicles on the road, a bicyclist is the slower, aged member of the herd that will be easy prey.
Route. The route I take is carefully planned out to avoid traffic, busy streets, and narrow roads. I'm fortunate in that I have a bike lane that goes through much of my neighborhood. When I get to the larger roads, I sometimes switch to the sidewalk. I know bikes really are supposed to be on the road, but it beats the alternative.
Uncoolness. Motorcycles are cool. Bicycles are not. People in America like their cars. They always seem confused when they have to share the road with a bicycle. They may like Lance Armstrong, but they secretly think bike helmets look foolish. And the reflective bands I wear when it's dark take uncoolness to a whole new level. There is a certain appeal of riding a long under my own power, but in general, I am nerdiness on wheels.
Maintenance. I have spent a lot of time trying to keep my bike in working condition. It's not an expensive bike, but it has had a lot of mechanical problems in its short ownership period. I've had my brakes fail, I have had two flat tires, and I've had parts of the bike fall off while I was riding it. When I first got the bike I bought a set of fenders to put on it so I could ride it on wet days without getting a skunk stripe of mud and water up my back. The fenders proved to be extremely problematic. They required constant adjusting and I was never able to install them properly on my bike. I eventually removed them when I went over a curb one day and several of the nuts holding the fenders in place flew off simultaneously and were lost in a busy intersection.
Storage. I don't have a good place to lock up my bike. The only place I can lock it up is right on a busy street corner, which is just asking for it to be stolen. So I have to store it inside our apartment, which isn't exactly spacious. My daughter thinks it's a great toy and she likes to play with the gears, getting her fingers grubby in the process.
Cost. I'm not sure how much I'm saving by bicycling to school. I still have to pay car insurance because I still use it occasionally. My commute isn't that long, so I'm not saving a ton on gas. It does make a difference, but I don't know if it makes up for the cost of buying and maintaining the bike. If I used it over a longer period of time, it would definitely pay off in the long run. But for the past 7 months, I don't know how much I've saved, if any at all.
Weather. I have to pay attention to the weather report in the morning when I got to school. If it's going to thunderstorm, it's not a good day to take the bike. It's also pretty chilly riding to school on some mornings. I had to bundle up in the winter, although I ended up unzipping my coat by the time I got to the top of the hill because I was overheating at that point. The most important part of my biking gear in the winter were my gloves -- we picked up a cheap pair of leather gloves that were perfect for biking, since they are windproof. Biking without gloves in the winter can be painfully cold.
Satisfaction. Despite the problems with maintenance, storage, dogs, and crazy drivers, I like riding a bike. Even though it's nerdy, I think there's something attractive about moving yourself around on your own. You can really move quickly on a bicycle; my commute is only 5 minutes slower on a bicycle than in the car. (Those extra 5 minutes are probably due to the hill.) I like getting some exercise in my day, and I like that I'm avoiding road congestion and pollution.

My bike-riding days may be over for a while. Yesterday I got my second flat tire on the way home from school. I only have a few more days left at school, after which I will be taking bar classes and working downtown. I probably won't be able to bike to those places. Still, it's been an interesting experience, and given the opportunity, I might try to ride a bicycle to work.
Photo credit: Salim Virji