Caged Wisdom

So my Federal Income Tax professor banned laptops in class. BANNED. I can't tell you the freak-out that occurred in that classroom. There was wailing and gnashing of teeth. People got kicked in the face. Someone may have lost a few limbs. After the initial shock, I tried to actually take notes by hand for the first time in a year. It was a little weird. I hope my note taking doesn't suffer, but I can imagine that my IM conversations will be replaced by little stick figures in the margins.

Tomorrow I leave right after class for North Carolina! I'm pretty pumped. I'm going to Meet The Family. I'm actually not really nervous... yet. No, I've been assured by Mal that as long as I call him Stephen in front of his family and keep wrecking him as usual, I'll be in. Plus, I'm bringing them chocolate. They HAVE to love me.

Weather.com says it's supposed to be raining all week, but hopefully it will be nice for a few days or so. After all, I'm skipping a full week of school, it'd better be worth my while!

Everybody Wong Sun Tonight!

Today marked my first day as a second year law student. It was a pretty full day, and I immediately noticed a difference between last year and this year. Mostly in that this year, I don't really care. Well, I still care about doing well and learning, and all that crap -- I just don't care about all the stuff that comes with first year of law school. I don't care about being awkwardly polite with people I won't speak to within a month. I don't care whether the professor likes me or not, or whether he thinks I'm paying attention in class. I don't even care if I own the casebook to all my classes (which I don't, and I won't get PR because I hear that is The Thing To Do). I do still care about finding me some free food around the law school.

All in all, it turned out to be a pretty packed day. First up was Introduction to Intellectual Property, which I think will be useful but really dry. Second was my Constitutional Law of the European Union class, which I subsequently dropped while I was in my third class, Federal Income Tax. Eight people in one class? No room for slacking there. I picked up Criminal Procedure instead, so at least I get to hear Professor Dix say "chicken shit" about fifty times per day. Going back, FIT actually seems like it might be... not terrible. Okay, so I did the reading (I know, too much work for my 2L slacker ass) and the reading was pretty bad, but the professor seems to recognize that we hate numbers as much as he does and looks like he'll make the class tolerable. Finally, I had Professional Responsibility with The Big Dz, which is about as close to a blow-off class as you get in law school. Somehow I got myself BACK in a schedule that goes all day with no lunch breaks! WTF? I clearly hate myself.

I guess I shouldn't complain too much. Friday I leave for North Carolina to spend a good chunk of time with Mal and his family at a beach house they're renting in Wilmington. From there it's on to the Bender for the home opener against Penn State. Greatest week of my life? Quite possibly. The week after being the worst (in that I have interviews and have to catch up on missing a week of class)? Definitely.

Did anyone else watch Project Runway tonight? Who would've thought after that big blowup between Jeffrey and Angela that Jeffrey would win and Angela get booted off. I kind of feel bad for her because Jeffrey was such a jerk to her mom. Then again, Angela is crazy and Jeffrey did look like a rock star.

Okay, so this my return to the blogging world, now that I have something to procrastinate for. Anyone else going to PSU?

We've got SNAKES

Yes, my friends, what you see is true. I have just returned from a viewing of the highly anticipated Snakes on a Plane. We got to the movie theater a half hour before show time, thinking it would be packed... alas, the only people in line to buy tickets was a family of four, and when we got inside, we saw no line to enter the theater. A pretty decent sized crowd ended up coming, but I would characterize them as the entire senior class of Westlake High. Westlake High football rules!

As for the movie itself, it is much as you would expect from a movie titled Snakes on a Plane. As promised, there was a little added sexuality and a lot of added violence. Lots of snakes biting lots of people in lots of very unfortunate places. Would I see it again? I don't know... although, that may be more due to my inherent fear of snakes and my lack of desire to see them all over again. So, maybe I told Mal that I'd go see it with him... whoops! I guess Beerfest will have to do, along with a home viewing of Spymate, the chimpanzee that works for the FBI.

I'm nearly moved into the new place. Living by campus has turned out to be extremely convenient already. Today I took a little jaunt to the Co-op in the 102-degree weather. Good lord, it was sweaty. I had to take a shower in the middle of the afternoon, I felt so disgusting. Also, I have a few friends living in the same complex or nearby so I get my privacy when needed, but I also can bug people for company whenever I wish.

For now, I'm using the UT internet which is fairly reliable. I can't seem to get a hold of Time Warner, those bastards have put me on hold three times, and I can never get through until I just give up, throw my phone against the wall and pull out a sizeable chunk of my hair. So it may be a while until I get cable TV and internet going. For now, I am heading back to Houston tomorrow to accompany Philip on some family poker night, get my semi-annual dentist visit on, and bring back all my clothes that didn't fit in my car the first time around.

I promise to post something real soon

Not "something... real soon" but "something real... soon." I am heading to Austin tomorrow to move my stuff into the new place. Century Club, here I come! Due to unforeseen circumstances, my brother is not coming with me, so I'll try and trick one of my Austin friends to help me move stuff. While I don't have any recent stories to have the show down with Goat as promised, I will soon. For now, please enjoy this thoroughly hilarious scene from Extras.

Ricky Gervais--Extras

Hamazing

Behold, beauty in its truest form.

Temporarily in H-town

Thursday was my last day at the immigration court. It was a pleasant last day. I had a snooze button snafu on my cell phone and ended up coming in a half hour late. I doubt anyone noticed. I spent the part of my morning that was productive writing the testimony facts of an asylum case, then spent the rest of the morning on Slate or the People magazine website. Then it was a tasty lunch at Acenar, my favorite restaurant in San Antonio, and then we went on a field trip to St. Mary's law library to attempt to find a document I am pretty sure doesn't exist anywhere anymore. Since there was nothing left to do, I said my awkward goodbyes after that and rolled out around 3:30.

I am back in Houston, for now. On the agenda is a trip to the optometrist and getting my car serviced before I head to Austin on Wednesday to move into my new apartment. It should be lovely and sweaty, as it is Austin in August.

Now that I have a stable internet connection, I should post more frequently... should. And they will hopefully be more entertaining than this completely factual piece of shite.

Sad news

I think very, very few, if any people from Cy-Falls read this, but in case any do, you probably heard that Isaiah Ray passed away on Sunday in a car accident on the way to Austin. Feel free to leave a message on the guest book at the Chronicle's website.

Some quick updates

1) My boss is out of the office while his kids are sick. So far, I've finished a memo on temporary protected status. So I guess you could say I've been doing a TPS report. OH!

2) One of hte Immigration Judges just got back from like a month of vacation. His first case involves a guy who got caught being in the country illegally because he was caught molesting a goat.

3) Apparently some bankruptcy judge put the entire Billy Madison "...and my God have mercy on your soul." speech in a footnote of his decision because the lawyer's brief was so bad.

4) Who's crazier now -- Mel Gibson or Tom Cruise?