The Jinks of We

Fishing for company

2008-10-28T11:14:00.001-07:00

I just sent the following to my uncle, aunt, and grandmother:

Subject: On the off-chance that anyone remembers -

Body: that I was born on October 28th, I join you in wishing myself a happy birthday.

Cheers, fam.

Love,

-A

This betrays the completely sour mood I'm in. I don't usually care about these things. Proof positive? You didn't know it was my birthday until I posted, didja? No. Because I don't post these things on Facebook.

What a freaking horrendous day.

So here's to my continuing mission to get older and avoid the alternative for as long as possible. Holding steady at 24 now.

Skoal and much love to all,

-A

"Joe" for President

2008-10-16T09:12:00.000-07:00

I think he had the most stage presence during the third presidential debate. And during that part where the politicians discussed how they had hurt each other's feelings... well let's just say that I practiced my scrawl for that write-in slot.

All hail "Joe", for he of the 15 namechecks during the presidential debate shall rule the Earth.

This thing is giving me a migraine, but it's like a train wreck. I... can't... tear... my... eyes... away...

Shanah Tovah U'metukah

2008-09-29T14:01:00.001-07:00

... and a happy new year.

Best wishes to all for tremendously joyous, fulfilling, and a positive year to come. Gmar chatimah tovah.

All my love,

-A

Baruch Dayan Emet

2008-09-26T12:01:00.000-07:00

This man was one of the best, truest, and dearest influences on my life. He was, as I once said in a tribute to him, a great mentor, teacher and friend to me and many other of his students.

A word of advice before I retreat into my cave for a few hours: don't ever wait an extra week to do the bi-annual phonecall. Sometimes you very unexpectedly lose the chance.

Front... and Right

2008-09-25T14:33:00.000-07:00

Just another smattering of proof positive that newspapers love Obama (looking atcha, Ben). If you look all the way, way, way, way down, that would be what the NY Times considers the other presidential candidate.

Yeah, McCain's name is first in the caption (click the pic), but this is preposterous. Bush is hardly prominent in the picture and he's still running the country. Obama's the most noticeable guy in the depiction of the newest economic Justice League.

Use the wide lens and deflect the criticism, Times boys. This arrangement is just too obvious and cheap.

[Ed. Note: It has come to my attention that someone on the Corner on National Review remarked on a similar picture today. Truly I'm starting to get the hang of this punditry thing.]

[Ed. Note 2: The photo credit may go to a wire service a la AP or Reuters. I need to re-check. If it is the doing of some nefarious news giant, then the criticism goes to them for snapping the picture and the NY Times for running it in the manner that they did.]

No. No. No. Go back and do it again.

2008-09-25T07:12:00.000-07:00

If Palin had been groomed for the veep position just a bit longer, picking her would have been an even better idea. She has yet to find her sea legs with only a short way to go until the election, and it's not like anyone in the press is going to shirk their responsibility when it comes to illustrating that where they can.

Nobody came out asking Obama substantive questions when he first hit the national stage. Some might say that the mainstream press is still shying away from doing so. Certainly where the substance of the issue has been hair-raisingly negative, they have shied away from doing so even more.

Yeah, I gripe. But the fact is that the blame here doesn't go entirely to the press, especially because they shouldn't be faulted for asking susbtantive questions (they should be faulted for extreme bias). The issue here is the stupidity of the Republican camp for throwing Palin out there as 'just as or more experienced' than Obama where it counts, while failing to take into account some very obvious and significant facts that impact her presentation.

Obama's had a couple of years to build up the stage persona, and certainly has a better team of puppeteers and speech writers behind him than Palin does. In addition, the press is almost entirely and solidly in his camp. This means that he can sit down with a Couric or a Gibson (and let's not even discuss Chris "Tingling" Matthews and Keith Olbermann) and get away with dodging questions and blatant lies. In order to come out of an interview looking 'bad', he'd pretty much have to grunt, spit, and start eating the set. And even then, MSNBC might portray his actions as a brilliant new take on the environment and a recommendation that we return to our roots.

Palin... well, other than hardcore conservative base, I'd say she's still "gaining acceptance." And that means that you don't put her in a position where she comes off looking like this because she's still in her political diapers.

Damn it, people. You make it so hard to vote with a clear conscience these days.

More later. School time.

-A

Thoughts and the Devolving Monologue on Chemical Castration

2008-09-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

Given that Jindal apparently did sign the bill referred to in the post below, I decided to do a little research on the matter. And by a little, I mean "Wikipedia."

So Wiki says a couple of things that leave me wondering as to the point here.

The first is that this penalty already exists in five other states, including California and Florida. The second is that people that are treated with high doses of the relevant chemical still experience sexual arousal and fantasies. This means that they need to be dosed with hella lot of the stuff, and there are potentially severe side effects.

Ok. Bad. Very bad and uncomfortably so.

On the theoretical level, it seems a pretty just punishment for the commission of sex offenses against minors (which, I think, is all that the Jindal measure targets). For me, the question is how badly and irreversibly you screw someone up when you've made a mistake. It's the same issue that presents itself with capital punishment. Life for a life seems to make sense, but only if the system works perfectly. Which our current justice system most certainly does not. If you want to learn just how flawed it is, go to law school and be amazed.

All that said, the same argument could be used when speaking about incarceration and it's not as if there are tons of advocates for scrapping the penitentiary system. It's just that someone at some point decided that inflicting jail - the deprivation of liberty, freedom, and time - was less objectionable than any physical punitive measure. I can't say that I disagree with this, personally. But the entire concept does seem to reflect a general societal queasiness rather than any inherent consensus about what is just. No one regains the time lost in jail, or necessarily rids themselves of the lasting physical and mental effects resulting from the experience. What's done is done and the consequences are relatively acceptable. I think it might have to with the directness of the damage. One is straight up - you kill, you are killed. The other is - you killed, we will put you in a place where we're safe and things may happen to you but it's not our responsibility.

This is the first time I've thought seriously about the issue, so please forgive the sophomoric rambling. It will coalesce into a point within several days.

Anyway: many of us were raised to admire Patrick Henry's declaration of "Give me liberty or give me death!"

Of course, it was said in an entirely different context and - viewed in the light of American history- certainly a much more positive one. But the current interpretation implicates freedom of decision and freedom from both physical and mental restraint (usually). The right to life, liberty and happiness calculus changes when someone violates societal norms, sure. But leave that aside for a second.

Ancestors of this nation equated liberty with life and the loss of that liberty to a fate equal to or worse than death.

Interesting how things have changed and what caused them to do so....

Late now. G'night.

-A

Doth Wonkette Post Truthiness?

2008-09-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

If I wasn't in class, I'd fact-check this. In the meantime, is there anyone else who wants to take a few minutes to clear Bobby Jindal's oddly endearing name?

Alternately, does anyone want to start funneling mohels down to Louisiana?

This is Nice

2008-09-22T11:03:00.000-07:00

I made Dean's List last semester.

Somewhere along the way, I should have realized this. But three or four months later the knowledge is just as sweet, even though learning it was a sheer accident.

Finally, I'm an 'achiever' again. Said with a touch of irony, and a massive helping of relief.

Back in action

2008-09-22T08:40:00.001-07:00

So it's been awhile. But for all three of you that still care about reading a generally defunct blog, I've decided to get back to the virtual scribbling.

That said, things are kinda busy, so I reserve the right to be completely irregular about posting. And anybody who hasn't yet heard about my utterly ridiculous summer and wants to hear all the gory details will have to get them from me directly.

To start off with something that is both timely and extremely neutral: I just moved to a new place and am missing the mezuzot from my last apartment. Where do I go in town to rectify this situation, other than the interweb?

Other things that I am open to comments on:
1) Looking for a legal job to enter into upon graduation. Have a few very fine people who are already guiding the search and giving great advice. Feel free to join them in doing so if you can. You will earn my undying apreciation as well as an invitation to a Shabbat meal at some point in the future.
2) Currently taking a full courseload, interviewing and applying for jobs, starting to help out with the Cookie Minyan, and teaching Kaplan LSAT prep classes in order to make some extra cash... in addition to living the rest of life. So who wants to the be the first to punch me when I start to whine about having too much work? The line starts *here.*
3) The potential to dupe GPS. Something Cheesy This Way Comes, I'm looking at you. for an idea of the implications of this... Not that you read this site or that I have the technical knowledge to further inquire on this matter. But one can always dream.
4) וְאִם-אָסוֹן, יִהְיֶה--וְנָתַתָּה נֶפֶשׁ, תַּחַת נָפֶשׁ עַיִן תַּחַת עַיִן...
5) The economic crisis. If anybody wants to explain how it works (or doesn't work) in 5 easy steps, I'm all ears.

That's all for now. Best regards and such.

-A

Just so it's a matter of record...

2008-04-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

I'd like to name one of my future kids Raphael. Best if it's a son, but I'm flexible on these things.

Don't get freaked out, boys. Girls think of these things way in advance. My sisters have certainly thought of this (one of them having a perverse attachment to the name 'Mathias', which is really preposterous) , and at least a few friends.

In any event, Raphael is a good name. It's got a great meaning, it includes the name of God (my own preference),it's easily shortened (Rafi/Raful) and in cases of emergency it can also be Anglicized -Raphe or some such nonsense. Sure, the Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles desecrated the name like there was no tomorrow. And yes, the kid is going to be made fun of. But that's a risk I'm willing to take.

I'm also a fan of Michael (said in the Hebrew way), Yael, Talia, David, Gideon, Ehud, Ilana (my grandmother's codename from way back when), Uzi (my grandfather's codename from way back when), Yaakov, Ilan, Yochanan, Mor, Elad, Amichai, Amitai, Yerushalem, Golan, and Yair.

The vast majority of these names are already dispersed among my family members, unfortunately. They'll just have to deal.

The vast majority of these names are also geared towards men, so I suppose that reflects some sort of weird kink in my thinking. There are also a hell of a lot of names, but please do NOT take that as any indication of where my mind has gone. I like to think in abstracts and have lots of options to choose from.

Besides I like the current size of my hips.

And with that... back to listening to class?

It's Official

2008-03-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

Every presidential candidate has convinced me that none of them are worthy of the presidential office, yet again. Kudos, guys. You've practically moved me to tears. And not in that good "I'm so emotional" kind of way. Not even in the "I hate chopping onions but t least this food is going to be really awesome when I'm done" kind of way. More in the "this has got to be a joke, under any definition of the term" way.

Ha.

Ha.

Blogworthy?

2008-03-15T20:34:00.000-07:00

I had possibly the spookiest experience of my adult life last night. It was laden with all sorts of stuff. I'm wondering if I should blog about it to get it out, but I don't think that people will understand what I'm talking about unless they're parents, and it's not something that I'm taking lightly. Shabbat was difficult because I was with people constantly but covering for how incredibly freaked out I was by this thing. Let's call it a vivid, persistent, waking vision.

While this site's supposed to be for more than the occasional link and wisecrack, I just don't know here...

Will decide soon.

In the meantime, if you haven't gotten my walrus email, you should let me know. Because it was damned good. And that is certainly something that people should see. Thanks to Ben for originally posting it on Facebook.

We're cat-sitting, by the way. Now that the mice are finally gone. Kitty Claudia is super cute, and that's coming from an avowed 'dog person.' I'm contemplating getting a cat when I finally settle down post-law school. A puppy would be better, but not compatible with firm life. Unless anyone has any ideas on how that might be handled?

Be well.

at land's end

2008-03-04T12:19:00.000-08:00

i feel like i'm in a book in this place. there could not be a better spot to sit and think, and if i believe that the universe conspires to bring you what you need, i am only reaffirmed here. there is a sun porch here, and a deck, and looking out you can see the little marshland with the inlet that leads to the sea, and straight across the bay and marshes to the lighthouse at harbor town, three miles away, where i bike every morning when i wake up. this morning i went twelve miles, all the way to harbor town and the back halfway to home, and then out to the end of sea pines, past all these golf courses and beautiful homes and turtles and spanish moss hanging from the skinniest pine trees you can imagine.

it is cloudy and windy now and about to storm, and the rushes are blowing all toward the beach, and there are egrets in the water, and it is quiet, and peaceful. here we stay at the part of sea pines called "land's end" and i feel it. we are at land's end. when it starts to rain i will go sit out on the deck and think as it is bound to be a warm rain and warm rain is good for thinking. i wish i never had to leave. i wish i had enough talent to be a writer, so that i never had to leave. as it is i have to admire h, who has so much poetry in her that it practically leaps from her fingertips, and go back to writing about law, which is, i think, for people who can write well, but not about anything beautiful enough to make them poets. at least, that is how i think of myself.

I Bought Schug and Shoko

2008-02-24T21:57:00.000-08:00

First off, Koshermart is basically how I imagine heaven. It's all kosher. It has gummie bears. There's all this Israeli-brand junk and spicing and cheesy Jew music. Maimonides had this whole theory about incorporeality and learning Torah once you ascend, but in view of the sheer high I got just from buying chocoloate spread today I'd say the facts are backing me up just a bit more.

On the stupid side of things, if you ever do go to Koshermart, don't do what we did (Metro, walk there, cab back, get stuck on the Metro, cab back from Dupont after dropping the glass dressing bottles, spend the remainder of the day vaguely stinking of ginger).

Make friends with someone who's mobilely upward. Use a damned car.

Help the Culinarily Challenged

2008-02-24T07:02:00.000-08:00

We're trying to make a falafel and shawarma Shabbat meal for next week. Where do we go for the spices and necessary other components?

Sometimes all-kosher all-the-time NY has its advantages.

There wouldn't happen to be a Middle Eastern place with a good selection of hechshers around here?

and on the dress there would be a picture of a beautiful woman

2008-02-22T13:36:00.000-08:00

ah, last night was lovely -- margaritas at cactus with good company, which is one of my most favourite things in the world to do. after a few days' relaxation in california, it was good to be back and catch up with everyone, and especially nice to see h and tay, since tay has just moved up here (finally!). of course this led to lots of catching up and h told us this wonderful story about how she had a conversation with her little four-year-old cousin this weekend, which went something like this:

h: if you could have any dress to wear, what would it look like?
cousin: well, it would tie at my neck, and it would be pink, and on the front there would be a picture of a beautiful woman. and i would have a sweater to go with it, and on the front of it there would be a picture of a beautiful man and a beautiful woman, together.

clearly, the child has a future in fashion design. but that got me to thinking, because it is really a very nice idea for a dress (even though i can't make the dress, because that would be stealing her idea, although maybe i could make the dress and then give it to her and she would be happy?). well, i don't know how one even gets prints onto a dress like that. i imagine i could figure it out; we'll see. i have been meaning to learn something useful like how to make nice clothes.

anyway, i was thinking about it more today, and i think i would want this one to be the beautiful woman on my dress. but if i can't have her on a dress, maybe i'll get a framed poster for my room? i am starting to think i am going to need a whole wall devoted to lichtenstein and warhol. at least it'll mesh well...

New and Improved

2008-02-22T09:47:00.000-08:00

I only just figured out that A and j could post separately if the blog was arranged correctly. So that's what's happening.

The rule is now this: all future posts should have the initial of the author at the end. All the old posts have my initial at the end because they were written under my profile, but can be distinguished because only I use capitalization in my writing. And of course, because we have completely different personalities and writing styles, but I wanted to keep the differences simple.

Clarity is good in life. :)

When I have something more useful to write about, you'll all be the first to know.

Cheers -

-A

From My Grandmother in Jerusalem...

2008-02-16T18:51:00.000-08:00

The President of Iran was wondering who to invade when his telephone rang.

"This is Mendel in Tel Aviv. We're officially declaring war on you!"

"How big is your army?" the president asked.

"There's me, my cousin Moishe, and our pinochle team!"

"I have a million in my army," said the president.

"I'll call back!" said Mendel.

The next day he called. "The war's still on! We have now a bulldozer, Goldblatt's tractor. Plus the canasta team!"

"I have 16,000 tanks, and my army is now two million."

"Oy gevalt!", said Mendel. "I'll call back."

He phoned the next day. "We're calling off the war."

"Why?", asked the president.

"Well," said Mendel, "we've all had a little chat, and there's no way we can feed two million prisoners."

Awwwwwwwwww!

2008-02-14T13:44:00.000-08:00

She exclaims as she melts into a pile of maternal goop...

Click!

By the way, just like flyfishing, golf, curling, and speed-eating contests, what you're going to see is not a sport.

On a Darker Note

2008-02-13T11:30:00.000-08:00

The next generation of 'networking' technology has arrived.

Uninhibited peeps with exibitionist tendencies, meet Gypsii. Gypsii, meet uninhibited peeps with exhibitionist tendencies. Because if you're silly enough to post your particulars on the Internet, you're silly enough do the near tech equivalent of radio-tagging yourself.

On a Lighter Note

2008-02-12T15:56:00.000-08:00

Steve Martin does magic. With his pants.

It's a classic.

Just to Decompress

2008-02-12T13:51:00.000-08:00

I've spent all day researching radical Islam and terrorism for a project at work. Doing this type of stuff used to get me hyped up on growing up to do something big in the way of protecting the world and my friends and family. Now it's just tiring and depressing.

Don't know what exactly changed, but there are days when I wouldn't mind being much more 'immature'. I'd like to think that the root cause is just a lack of energy, but after having dosed myself on caffeine and sugar all day, that is looking less than likely...

By the way, Tom Lantos z"tl, who I cited to in an earlier post, died yesterday. He held a lot of the wrong positions, in my view, but he vociferously defended what he believed in and has left his mark on the United States Congress. From penniless Holocaust camp survivor to Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He managed to ruffle a lot of feathers, but his passion and his wit will be missed. With any luck, there will be room for me and other Morlockish garage office staff at the memorial service on Thursday. I'll let ya know how that goes.

J has admitted she is as weird as I am in the post below. I just want that noted and re-noted for the record. ;-)

fine and dandy

2008-02-11T21:27:00.000-08:00

okay, so today was awesome. we pulled out an incredible last-second win over 'nova (actually, if you want to get technical, last 0.1 second win) which was just AMAZING to be present for. oh, j-wal, will you marry me?

and on another note, today b asked me in corporations if i was doing a book report on andy warhol. this is mostly because i have recently decided to get back in touch with my love of andy warhol, which chose to manifest itself in my surfing through artwork during the break in corps. pure proof that i am just as weird as a, though possibly in a different way.

this may have been prompted by my current obsession with the dandy warhols. mcn says my life can't be like a dandy warhols song because i'm not hopped up on the h. i have to think about that some. for the record, i am not hopped up on the h. however, we did determine last weekend that sugar seems to have a similar effect on me.

i want my andy warhol posters back. i bought some from the national gallery a couple of years ago and now my brother has them and i do not think he is using them. they say things that i like on them:

the idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting.

the world fascinates me.

i think everybody should like everybody.

art is what you can get away with.

on saturday, mcn said to me: "nobody ever accused you of being normal, did they?"

no, they didn't, and i'm glad of it.

"There Is No Day Sex Monkey Nut!"

2008-02-09T19:26:00.000-08:00

Someone was talking to me today about relationships. There was a point where he got very emphatic, and I heard him proclaim: "There is no day sex monkey nut!"

In some small amount of shock, I sort of blinked for a bit before deciding that I would respond with, "Indeed, that is a valid complaint." Which makes no sense, but therefore is precisely the type of thing I would say.

Then I though a bit harder, because there was no way in hell he had actually said that. So it took a few extra seconds of stunned silence, but finally I got it: "There is no deus ex machina!"

At which point, I proudly replied with, "Indeed, that is a valid complaint," which still made no sense, but on the scale of things the world was so much more coherent to me than it had been just a few seconds ago that it didn't really matter. Accomplishment is a relative thing.

You see what J has to put up with?

Doubt you can really top this story, but if anyone else has a slightly ridiculous broken telephone anecdote they'd like to share, please do. You can write it, or chance things and tell me by spoken word. :)

step up 3: if you're into it

2008-02-06T13:53:00.001-08:00

sometimes, i have inspired moments, and i had one today. i'm not sure if you all are fans of flight of the conchords (if you aren't, you should be), but there's this great little song called "if you're into it" which is just amazing. and since my friend r has a crush on this guy, whom she attempts to woo by busting a fly move, i modified the lyrics a little so that she'll have something to sing during the dance routine....

r:
if you want me to,
i could dance 'round for you
if i only knew
that's what you're into

j:
you and her, her and you
if that's what you're into
her dancin' 'round around you
you're watchin' her, yeah you're there too

r:
and if you want me to, i will step up on a car for you
i will step up on a car for you
if that's what you're into

j:
how 'bout her doin' moves
steppin' up like step up 2
steppin' up in front of you
is that what you'd wanna view?

r:
if it's cool with you
i'll let you do some dancin' too
we could hip hop for two
if that's what you're into

j:
is that what you're into?
her and you, dancin' too?
that's what she's prepared to do
is that the kind of thing that you think you might be into?

r:
and then maybe later
we can show our fly moves to a hater
take it to the hood if you're feeling antsy
do you think that might be what you fancy?

j:
dancin' round with fly moves
showin' haters that you're coo'
bein' fly, bein' coo'
we heard that's what you're into

r:
then on our next date
you could be my dance mate
i don't know if jules is keen to
but maybe she could bust a move too

j:
how 'bout you and two girls
bustin' moves, you, r and jules
dancin' with two chicks, bein' coo'
well, that's if jules's into it too

r:
all the things i'd do
things i'd do for you
if i only knew
that's what you're into

no, i don't really know where that came from. but i can tell you that r and i have an entire movie plot now based on this song, and since i will be in LA this summer, we plan on pitching it to the hollywood bigwigs. we're going to be rich and famous. the next damon and affleck, if you will. but we promise not to let the fame go to our heads. we remember what it was like to be the little guy too.

Take Me To Your Leader. Now.

2008-02-06T11:44:00.000-08:00

For all you fine folks who have seen me rubbing at my chestbone over the past day or so and maybe grimacing a bit, I promise you that it was anything but obscene. There's a painful spot right off the chestbone and the cause is apparently tendonitis. OF THE FREAKING CHEST.

I thought that was only supposed to happen to my elbows after a frenzied game of tennis. Which I don't play because it's a sport involving physical coordination. So basically tendonitis and I should never have had any association. AAAAAAAGH.

Full disclosure: it's a fairly small, focused, inflammation concentrated around the sternum and not the entire ribcage. Really though, this little parade of horribles is starting to get just a tad ridiculous.

Whoever is responsible, I'd like to speak to their manager, please. Pronto.

Blah...

2008-02-05T23:16:00.000-08:00

Having just finished typing up book notes on a mega-IP assignment (note to self: next time don't leave the typing for the night before and do the reading two nights before), I'm finally peeling myself off the floor and into bed.
And having caught up on the Super Tuesday results, basically all I can say is in the title to this post. It's not like I wanted anyone in particular to win, but I can't say I'm happy with who did emerge victorious. Can someone explain where the charisma is for Hillary? I'm not getting down on her, this is an honest inquiry. It really feels like she calculates every nuance in her speech, though she's bad enough at it that it comes across. As for Obama, I don't like him politics and policy-wise, but it's pretty easy to see how he could draw votes - he's an accomplished guy with good looks, a nice voice, excellent speaking ability, and skills with the crowd. I don't really believe he's any different than anyone else, but when he's speaking, he does allow me to think that for a few brief minutes. 'Inspiration' is not necessarily the ingredient for a successful next presidential term, but if it was, he'd certainly have the credentials. This massive upswell in support for Hillary baffles me, and it can't all be due to the fact that Bill is on her side. Or that she's a she and not a he.
Admittedly the most recent irritation is small - she claims to have been really concerned about the Superbowl and elated when the Giants won. Please, lady. I'd be surprised if you could define the term touchdown. There's also the fact that I've never seen her smile once where her eyes didn't open way wide before she began to grin. It really seems like an orchestrated movement, each go around. This may be a feature distinctive to her face, in which case I apologize for what might be an insensitive observation. Somebody explain the charisma to me.

Don't get me started on the McCain win. All day I've been hearing about how wonderful he is because he's got an adopted daughter from a foreign country and he's a war hero. Excellent, I'll nominate him for Time Man of the Year; I have no objection to that. But being a naval aviator, being a former POW, being a caring and kind individual... those are all good things, but they are NOT necessarily portents of a good presidency. I respect McCain's vast contributions to the country, both in his youth, and later on as a participant in the Senate. However some of his more liberal policies and his increasingly brash and abrasive attitude on the campaign trail have been major turnoffs. Those things, combined with his age and lack of energizing speaking ability have sort of left me at less than lukewarm.
Surprisingly, Ron Paul turned out to be an appealing candidate, at least in his domestic policy. The foreign policy is entirely misdirected and misunderstood, and if implemented, would have disastrous consequences for the country. So I guess his fizzling, essential non-candidacy at this point isn't entirely bad, but there is a small part of me that is disappointed.
Huckabee surprised a lot of people tonight... McCain made sure to say good things about him... I wonder what kind of ticket is brewing over at the GOP...
Romney-wise, I think he's had his day and lost it. Given the results of today that seems like a fairly non-controversial statement, but does anyone else have any thoughts on that?
The observations got a whole lot shorter and more inane as I realized how tired I am. Sleep now. Good night, all.

let the nailbiting commence

2008-02-05T16:15:00.000-08:00

more on politics from me. come on, i go to georgetown, which means that my two spectator sports of choice are hoyas basketball (go hoyas!!!! here's knowing we'll bag our own super tuesday win against USF tonight) and the primaries.

the early exits have obama winning georgia, which brings a smile to my face as i wallow in agricultural subsidies (why am i wallowing in ag subsidies at 7.15pm, you ask? oh, the lovely WTO...)

all right, one down, 21 more to go.

but of course, this is shaping up to be the most obnoxiously protracted primary season since who knows when, so it doesn't all end tonight. yet, somehow, i'm praying for a miracle. especially in my home state...

okay, enough politispeak. here's something a little more lighthearted to chew on (did i mention that i dislike the pats almost as much as i dislike the red sox?).

Baruch Dayan Emet.

2008-02-05T06:07:00.000-08:00

I guess. Somehow blessings seem highly inappropriate, but the Jew manual says this is what you do.

Yes, I'm a little bitter. Most people involved or even tangentially so probably are.

On another note, I'm loving J's long post.

gobama!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-02-04T15:14:00.000-08:00

on the eve of super tuesday, i think i should deliver on my promised increased volume of political posts. this was prompted by a conversation with s about why i voted obama in the primaries and why i really really hope he will be our general election candidate and next president. now, i am not going to turn this into a "hate on hillary" post. but hopefully i will be able to sway a few of you who are busily postmarking your absentees or getting ready to head off to the polls tomorrow to vote for my guy. in fact, since politics is all about "messaging," i'll play like the politicians and give you my top three reasons to gobama tomorrow, and in the general.

1. the change candidate. okay, i am going to have to qualify this one. after 5 years of living inside the beltway, i have to tell you that i don't think being a washington "insider" is such a bad thing. realistically, any serious candidate, in order to be "ready on day one," needs to have a good understanding of the district's bureaucracy and connections that will make it possible to move policy along at a pace faster than a snail's crawl. but there's a reason that so many people have a problem with the "insider."

i'd submit that the problem isn't the knowledge of the bureaucracy or connections to it -- these things are necessary to function in washington, and if a candidate doesn't have them upon setting up shop at 1600 pennsylvania, he or she definitely will by the end of four years in office. the problem is the paternalistic nature of these connections and their manifestation to the general public. i am inspired by obama because he has convinced me that as an individual, i matter to the political system, and that, beyond that, even though the political elite controls so much out of necessity, if i speak with other citizens, i really do have the power to effect change.

that's the nice, sweet, heartwarming reason to love obama. but it goes a little deeper than that for me. hillary's campaign is, to say the least, a little nixonian (there's a great economist article on the subject that i wish i could link to here, but alas, i cannot). and while i understand the strategic need to stay on message, which is most easily achieved by controlling everything that every staffer says, there's a certain amount of information that i as a voting citizen feel entitled to. when the campaign denies me that information (ex. won't tell me who the environmental policy advisor is -- the only one out of 9 presidential campaigns that i contacted to do this) i start to get a little concerned.

it's that icky feeling again, the same one i've had for the last eight years: a clinton II administration thinks there's certain information i just don't need to know, and they're more than willing to tell me so. and it's not critical information, like where our nukes are hidden. it's information about who is influencing important policy decisions. it's information that affects how i'll choose to vote. and when i don't even need to call the obama campaign because that same information is prominently displayed on his website, i feel a glaring difference in style that might just make all the difference to me as a voter. which segues nicely to my second point...

2. the change candidate. no, not the same as my last point. but it is connected. my biggest problem with the present administration (and believe me, i've got many) is the blind adherence to one policy and the refusal to change even with a striking amount of evidence and public outcry suggesting that this isn't the way to go. i want a departure from that mentality over the next four (and hopefully eight) years.

it's true that being president requires you to set policy and to stick to that policy while seeing it through. but it also requires some reassessment of strategies and policies at each step of the way. obama seems willing to undertake these kinds of assessments, and moreover, to (see above) be more transparent about the decisions that he is making and more willing to take into account a variety of opinions before making a final decision. i worry about hillary mostly because i think that she can be very rigid in her approach and unwilling to admit that she might have made a mistake (why it really bothers me that she still won't say that voting for the war was a bad call -- but you may disagree with me on this point). anyway the upshot of this is that my concern is that she will approach things the same way this administration did, just starting out with policies that i happen to like quite a bit better. but extreme operating style isn't ever the best thing, no matter how much i like the initial policies.

3. the dynasty effect (aka billary). it really spoke to me when ted kennedy endorsed obama last week. here's a guy who has worked pretty closely with the last clinton administration and knows the inner workings of that machine as well as anyone in washington. he also happens to be an incredibly well-respected senator. and he's saying that, having lived through a clinton I administration, he's not really interested in the sequel.

i have to say that i'm not that interested either. as much as i thought certain things about clinton I were great, bill seems to have gone a little nuts lately. and there's something to be said for the theory that just as bush I fans saw this administration as a chance to get in and correct the mistakes they made on the first run (and add a substantial number of their own), clinton I fans want a shot at eight more years sans lewinskygate. but times have changed and just as the bush II administration was a bit anachronistic, the dynastic swing might stick us back in 1992...the problem being that it's not 1992 anymore.

there's a lot to be said for the considerable experience that both bill and hillary have in their unique positions. but experience only takes you so far, and can sometimes hinder a fresh perspective on events. i'm not sure if we really want to spend the next four or even eight years looking at the world through billary-colored glasses.

so there you go, that's my two cents. but as i pointed out to mcn earlier, this is just my primaryspeak, and i'm sure i'll have a whole new set of issues once we roll around to general time. i can't really believe i wrote all of this out. i also feel like it's not as articulate as it could have been. but i usually feel that way about things i write. oh well. it is late and this is but a blog. try not to be too critical...

and with that, it's back to climate change reports and fisheries subsidies! and on an unrelated note, i should build on a's post re: illness by announcing that this apartment is apparently a den of sickness. after spending six hours in the hospital last week getting a CT scan and having various IVs pumped into me to determine whether or not i had appendicitis (i didn't) i am relatively convinced that things have to start getting better in the health department because it doesn't get too much worse. knock on wood, i don't actually want to end up with appendicitis here.

okay, now climate change reports and fisheries subsidies.

How Do the Doctors Not Get Sick?

2008-02-03T20:47:00.001-08:00

I spent much of the past 36 hours doing things with and for people heavily afficted with what is minimally the flu and maximally the plague. Now, I happen to be experiencing persistent muscle aches and a feeling of utter exhaustion.

So here's the question: are we now going to relapse into a flu on top of the fading pneumonia?

Stay tuned. This just keeps getting more exciting by the day.

P.S. A diagram of the past month looks something like this:

Flu --> Sinus infection --> Pnemonia (being treated by rest+2 massive IV treatments and 2 weeks of antibiotics)--> Flu(?)

I write it out because it amuses the somewhat twisted part of me. Oddly enough, it seems that my parents don't appreciate my sense of humor...

Truer Words Were Never Spoken -

2008-02-03T11:39:00.000-08:00

"...it is important to state publicly, that Palestinians are quite capable of recognizing their national leaders and honoring their memories. They are quite entitled to write their own history."

- PLO Mission

Well, carry on blokes. The Israelis appear to be letting you do a great job of that, as does the UN, UK, US and any number of entities with staunch revisionist tendencies.

The quote is from a release by the PLO Mission protesting comments by Rep. Tom Lantos that their warm commemoration of a PLFP founder and utter terrorist and murderer was, among other things, "asinine", "crude" and "insensitive." I don't agree with many of Lantos's positions, but this is an instance where his copious rough edges and I are in perfect sync.

His upcoming retirement is sad, all the more so because it is due to illness. There are few in the House outspoken, and as eloquent when outspoken as he.

Cute

2008-01-29T10:02:00.000-08:00

My friend N sent me this gem. Neither of us know what inspired him to do so, but whatever Muse it was deserves a pay raise.

Blogging Politics'll Be Fun

2008-01-27T19:16:00.000-08:00

On that last note, I should probably state for the record that I tend to come down on the conservative side of things and that I tend to prioritize certain concerns about American foreign policy and its role in the Middle East. Current state of mind on that: thoroughly, incredibly, despondently disappointed. Ask me about it in person.

At this time, having followed all the debates and the candidates fairly closely, I can't see myself voting for anybody. I'm really hoping that one of the Republicans sees his way to doing something really impressive over the next year that I can hang my hat on. The chances of that happening are slim though. For the time being, I'm just enjoying the experience of watching this tremendous political theater play out from a DC vantage point. It's like a magic show, but with more smoke and mirrors and sleight of hand.

And in Hillary's case, more plants in the audience.

So... Super Tuesday should indeed be fun but that's currently the extent of my comments on the matter. Should she choose to post a bunch of poltical stuff, J's theories on the world are sure to be more well-reasoned and coherent than my own gibberish, and I'm looking forward to reading that.

Currently I'm lying in bed... still... having recently taken my meds to cure what has become a nearly-permanent illness of one type or another, and a true pain in the ass in general. My theory is that I got a flu immediately following finals, suffered through that for a week and a half, had that evolve into the obligatory follow-up sinus infection, and then somehow had that develop into what the doctors call "pneumonia". So now I'm on bed rest for the next couple of days, which is an easy way to minimize the coughing and thus prevent my taxed ribs from just giving up the good fight and cracking. It's a story I'll tell my grandkids, if I ever stop coughing and hacking and being so incredibly gross that marriage and couplehood seem like real prospects again.

'Gather round, children. Let me tell you about the time I became the poster-child for immunological deficiencies."

And while tangentially referencing marriage and couplehood, lemme just send out best wishes for Refuah Shelaymah to AC and RSC, who seem to be similarly mucousically talented from what I've read over at Small Thoughts.

Breathe well, sleep easy.

Over'n'out.

obama mama

2008-01-27T17:21:00.000-08:00

i think the time has come to acknowledge to our readers that i am a raging liberal. i can't believe this hasn't happened yet. i am going to need to get more serious about some political posts as the election season moves forward. right now i'm biting my nails in preparation for super tuesday. i should probably give it a rest so that i actually have some nails left to bite on super tuesday.

oh, and i am definitely working on becoming the next obama girl. tshirt suggestions much appreciated. 55-27....booyah baby.

The Democratic Debate

2008-01-21T17:36:00.000-08:00

I'm especially liking the smackdown between Obama and Clinton. They've basically done everything but stoop to 'Yo' Mama' lines.

It must be hard to Stand for Change when you're mud-wrestling.

The Countdown

2008-01-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

There is such a long distance to do between now and then, but I can't resist contemplating spending next semester in Israel. And I know that that's past 1) finishing the paper from last semester, 2) getting through this semester, and 3) tackling the shiny summer job in NYC, but I can't seem to hold back the excitement any longer.
Georgetown will soon be announcing the opportunity to study abroad at Hebrew U through a newly-established partnership with the Mount Scopus facility. They're still hammering out the differing schedules, which is why nothing has been announced yet (Israel starts after the chagim, which would present potential problems in aligning the end of the fall semester overseas with the start of the spring semester here). And they only have space for 4-5 students. But I've known about this damned program for months and the anticipation is just starting to bubble. It's been far too long since I've been back. What's really awful is that once I am back, all the whitewashing of the "matzav" that's going on in my brain right now is going to disappear. Probably immediately. And I will miss the DC community very much. But it's primarily that first thing that scares me.
And with that babble finally out on paper, perhaps I should preemptively quash this new habit I'm forming of working to strains Galgalatz in the background. It just may be affecting the quality of my study habits.

hissing fauna...

2008-01-16T15:37:00.000-08:00

ah so we are back again and honestly i am quite excited! oh, but i can't wait for it to snow again. this year i went back to california and actually craved snow on the streets which i suppose just shows that i have morphed into a creature of the east. today was pleasantly brisk and as it's not over yet i plan to take advantage of the chill and run to dupont for my little evening with w.

today mcn brought me this cd that i have been yearning for (totally the accurate vocabulary choice) for about a month. but i had been yearning for it based on a couple of particular songs and was not expecting to stumble into something even greater than what i had hoped for, which is really the best present ever. i always write about how i am a sucker for a good song but every once and a while you come across one that just flows through you as if it were part of your person always even before you ever heard it. it is beautiful.

the last two weeks since i have been back have just been so amazing. i feel that i am finally coming out of everything that has happened over the past few months and the world looks incredibly bright -- not that it wasn't bright before, but now it is really shining. i am so so so happy to be in this place with so many wonderful people. and thus far classes are beyond exceeding my expectations, which very much excites me. it's hard to believe this is the last few months that we'll all certainly be in the same place. everyone is really scattering after this semester...

all the more reason to make it the most amazing one yet.

Jewish Law

2008-01-12T19:20:00.000-08:00

I joined RBF's Jewish Law class shortly before it was no longer possible to do so. It was a tossup between the other course that I was taking because I thought I should, and then this one (the one that I wanted to take but didn't think would ultimately look useful). Weakness for what I hope will be tons of muttered random Aramaic phrases uttered in the Jesuit-iest institution around finally won out.

The course is actually split between RBF, the top Rabbi of Reform in the US, and another professor that I have yet to look into. We'll see how this plays out, as I'm not entirely sure how a multi-professor, multi-ideological course can really come together. But I've got faith (ba dum bum).

As an update to the post below: we had a good time even though I looked like I was totally suffering. Icing on the cake: going to hug Guy goodbye... and missing him by about two feet (to the left). Good catch, Guy.

By the way, I'm currently in NY. Quite sick, quite working on papers, quite going to miss the first day of school and wondering how the hell I'm going to make it through yet another schedule-intensive semester (though less so than the last one for reasons we'll just refer to as 'lessons learned').

This should be laughably interesting

2008-01-10T14:14:00.000-08:00

I'm currently in so much physical pain that I can't walk for more than a few minutes. This has been occurring and gradually worsening for several days. The pain is concentrated in my neck, lower back, and legs and is resistant to all pain-relieving balms we have administered thusfar. Even the 'Extreme' stuff only works for a few minutes at best.

This evening, I'm going on a date-ish type get-together (type, because when you already know the person for a hella long time, it's something of an odd thing to label a 'date'). Perhaps because we've been chums for such a long time, even upon being informed that I am hobbling, hacking, and kvetching like the world's most romantically unappealing geriatric (Leona Helmsley-level), Guy's response was sympathetic, followed by 'can you at least chew?'

Why, yes. Yes I can. Problems solved.

In short, this evening promises to be personally pleasant, yet physically excruciating. Props to Guy - if I had to relish the prospect of taking me out me at the moment, I'd require payment in my weight in the strongest currency going and a guaranteed favorable exchange rate.

Swap exchange, I Law II peeps!

Wow. Wow.... Wow.

2008-01-07T19:13:00.000-08:00

These guys are so... damned... good. Click around, buy tickets, whatever. But especially watch the opening video and then listen to their other stuff.

Do you have any idea how hard that is?! They're amazing! The only thing that would make this stuff better is if the cameraman had captured more of the fingerwork. Which he apparently decided wasn't all the important even though... well, that's really all that's important.

More vid here, by the way.

The Happy New Year

2008-01-01T21:42:00.001-08:00

Sure to be smoother than the last one, but filled with just as many quality people and experiences. Gotta say, the first day was not so bad. Hope yours was as good as mine, and if it wasn't - well there's always tomorrow, which tends to exceed expectations in one way or another.

To kick off a slight return to relative regularity in these posts: I caught Minnieckey (celverly using a box, a spoon, a rubber band, a spatula and a clear plastic container with a strong zipper) who turned out to be both a Mickey and a Minnie, and released them into the wild. Ojalo que tengan buen suerte, kidlets. The streets of Georgetown don't have nearly as many sweaters of mine to chew as you'd hope.

Anyway - now going back to writing papers and securing America for the common - and the greater - good.

Don't ask.

Just have a good night. Ciao. :-)

i am a bear of little brain

2007-12-16T20:45:00.000-08:00

it's finals time, and that can only mean one thing: it's time for a few pooh quotes. i should add here that reading winnie the pooh is perhaps the literary equivalent of curling up beside a nice fire with a cup of hot cocoa.

how i feel around 11am sometimes:

when late morning rolls around and you're feeling a bit out of sorts, don't worry; you're probably just a little eleven o'clockish.

something that anyone who has ever heard my obtuse references to interesting childrens' books will most likely agree describes me:

when you are a bear of very little brain, and think of things, you find sometimes that a thing which seemed very thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.

and something everyone should know, whether they are taking finals or not (but especially if they are taking finals):

if ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together, there is something you must always remember. you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.

(of course the last one's not really pooh, it's christopher robin to pooh, but the genius of a.a. milne was still rather appropriate in this instance and so i have overlooked that fact.)

boa sorte, all.

and i myself am looking forward to a real fire, real hot cocoa, and some pooh.

missing in....action?

2007-12-02T08:16:00.000-08:00

i don't expect to be posting much in the next few weeks (and this post has definitely been preceded by a distinct lack of posting-ness). oy vey, finals. although my recent lack of writing hasn't been totally prompted by the strain of academics.

there are just some experiences that cannot really be described in words, and i think that when you have one of those (or at least when i do), it requires a certain amount of silence for processing purposes, and also because there's just no way to write or talk about it that would do it any sort of justice.

maybe this will help. this is my friend julia:

she was beautiful in every sense of the word.

this semester has been chock full of curve balls. i'm ready for california.

The Deafening Silence

2007-11-29T08:05:00.001-08:00

Welcome to two weeks-ish before finals. See you on the other side.

Take care, everyone, and good luck.

Correct me if I'm wrong -

2007-11-20T14:55:00.001-08:00

I thought only new patterns of behavior were supposed to cause astonishment. The U.S.'s powers-that-be obviously disagree.

Here's the skinny on the story from the ever-reliable NYT:

"... The young woman’s offense was in meeting a former boyfriend, whom she had asked to return pictures he had of her because she was about to marry another man. The couple was sitting in a car when a group of seven men kidnapped them and raped them both, lawyers in the case told Arab News, a Saudi newspaper.
The woman and the former boyfriend were originally sentenced to 90 lashes each for being together in private, while the attackers received sentences ranging from 10 months to five years in prison, and 80 to 1,000 lashes each.
Mr. Lahem appealed the attackers’ sentences, saying that they were too lenient and that the treatment of the victim was too harsh. In its new decision issued Tuesday, the court increased the victim’s sentence to 200 lashes and six months in jail. It also increased the sentences of her attackers to prison terms of two to nine years. ..."

And with that, Saudi justice be done.

Stop the Madness

2007-11-19T06:12:00.000-08:00

No surprises here.

How about they support a different kind of prisoner release for a change?

The Inspiration

2007-11-17T17:43:00.001-08:00

I do admire J's creative energy. If she needs anyone to randomly strum guitar chords really loudly, I stand ready with my baby in hand.

Yes. The guitar, she is my baby. She was actually referred to as a 'he' at one point, until my father informed me that guitars are universally known as 'she's due to their shape. This may or may not be true, but I'm not prone to doubting the Patriarch and the sex change is complete.

Anyhow...

This was really supposed to be an update of a different kind. Found Minnieckey. Dude's living behind the fridge. It was, ironically, J who first discovered that fact. I am now watching our wee housepet poke out, look around, stare me down, and then flit back to wherever as fast as his or her little feet can carry him... or her. Damned irkful.

Perhaps the topic of J's first fauxmo lyrics has presented itself.

As this is a month before finals, I too will be posting only in brief. Adieu, adieu, to you and you and you-ooh.

fauxmo

2007-11-16T19:16:00.001-08:00

i realize my posts have been brief recently, but it's only because i'm storing up creative energy for a new project. i have decided to abandon the play in pursuit of something far more promising: a new genre of music. fauxmo, to be precise.

i owe co-founding credit to sal, to whom i owe co-founding credit for most amusing things in my life. inspiration was drawn from the following conversation:

s: it's life -- i think life is a mess.
j: that is so true.
s: but sometimes a fun mess.
j: life is a big mess.
s: man, that sounded so emo and depressing.
j: yes. i have a SOUL. and you have to KNOW ABOUT IT. because i am so EMOTIONAL. we should write a song.
s: an emo song?
j: a...fauxmo?
s: that's a thought.
j: man, i think this could be a whole new genre.
s: we could revolutionize the music industry...or just make it that much more crowded.
j: no, dude, viva la revolucion!!!! what would zapata have done? i think he would have fauxmoed.

goal: to write highly entertaining fake emo songs. i will be attempting in the upcoming weeks. impending finals should provide some healthy (or at least thought-provoking) inspiration.

VIVA LA REVOLUCION!!!!!!!

i'm moving!

2007-11-14T09:07:00.001-08:00

not soon, but this summer, to los angeles. and i am very excited.

except that today i realized how much i am going to miss all of my dc friends. i am thrilled to go back, but something tells me that after five years of east coast, it's going to be quite an adjustment.

okay, i admit it

2007-11-12T16:54:00.001-08:00

there is definitely a mouse in here. luckily we bought lots and lots of cheese today.

in other news, i am very, very seriously considering moving back to sao paulo. i miss brasil so much.

The gift that keeps on giving

2007-11-12T12:19:00.000-08:00

Voted one of the worst fantasy attempts of all time, the Eye of Argon is the most magnificent piece of writing I have ever seen.

Don't make the mistake of giving up too early. There are some really choice lines in there. It gets even better when you start reading it out loud. To other people.

Oh wow. :)

Who wants to go...

2007-11-11T08:48:00.000-08:00

just outside a men's room in Dedham, Mass.?

I do. I do!

Click the link and stop letting your mind wander. This is as non-dirty as it gets. But, you know, still funny. And while most who know my sense of humor would consider that not a great endorsement, I assure you that we're talking only the finest cultural education here.

Clickity click.

It happened

2007-11-11T08:33:00.001-08:00

J thinks I hallucinated. And to bolster her case she pulled out that whole "who am I going to believe? Sleep-deprived you, or me who cleaned the kitchen and bathroom area when you were away for the weekend and I still didn't find any mouse?" line.

Well, I think the answer to the question is fairly obvious.

I hope Minnieckey gets her good.

where have all the rude boys gone?

2007-11-10T16:45:00.000-08:00

oh goodness, i am going to a ted leo and the pharmacists concert in a month and i am so so so so so so excited!!!!!

i forgot how excited i was for a few minutes until where have all the rude boys gone? came on my shuffle and that was definitely enough to remind me. there is about a minute and a half of pure brilliance between 2:45 and 4:20 on the track and if you can somehow isolate the bass while all the rest of the insanity is going on you will see what i mean.

i told you i was a sucker for a good bassline.

activism chic

2007-11-09T12:14:00.000-08:00

darfur is an issue near and dear to my heart, which i'm sure many of you know, having met me at least once in person. the people, the conflict, and the potential for peace in that region are something to which i've devoted a great deal of interest, time, and research. i still read the sudan trib and scour the times and the economist for articles on the region, and as a few close friends will attest, one of my favourite things to do is discuss the finer points of the conflict and conflict resolution in sudan. i have talked about it in my sleep. it can only be described as a passion.

so i have mixed feelings about the prominence of activism on the issue and the movement in general. i've really been along for the ride -- from day one when we created the organization that was to spread nationally and internationally, to this day -- and now i have stepped back from the movement and am trying to grapple with my place in the situation at large. participating in all of this to the extent that i have has certainly provided a great deal of perspective. and as happy as i am that the movement has gained the attention that it has, there's something about its larger-than-lifeness which stings at times of insincerity. darfur in some ways (many ways) has become a "hip" cause and i'm just not sure how i feel about it. i couldn't possibly sum this up as well as my dear friend tay does in this wonderful editorial, so i'll leave that to her.

but i had an experience today that bothered me, somewhat along those lines, and i just had to put it out there. georgetown STAND (it used to be Students Taking Action Now: Darfur, and is now simply STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition -- don't even get me started on the ramifications of the name change and why it bothers me so much), the organization which i co-founded and which led to the founding of hundreds of other organizations like it across the country, still holds events on georgetown's undergraduate campus (the violence, after all, is far from over in darfur). this year, one of its initiatives is to hold weekly die-ins on campus. for those of you who have never been to/witnessed a die-in, the whole point is that you lie on the ground, looking dead, to physically demonstrate and draw attention to the civilian deaths in darfur. the best one i ever participated in was right out front of the white house. i think we might have annoyed mr. prez, but it definitely got the point across. anyhow, i digress. the weekly die-ins.

well, since i am still on georgetown STAND's listserv, i have received lovely emails the last two weeks informing me politely that the die-ins have been cancelled due to inclement weather. now, i'll give you that it's currently 42F outside and raining a kind of light, nasty, drizzly rain. but i have to say that the emails still bother me. it's a function of where we are and who we are that we get to decide not to "go outside and die" because it's not warm and sunny out. how can we claim to represent these people when we won't endure even the slightest bit of physical discomfort to give their cause a voice? i almost wanted to send an email back to the listserv: do you think the darfuris stop dying due to inclement weather? it's the incapsulation of my disillusionment with the movement. it's the incapsulation of activism chic.

we'll stand for something...but not when it's raining.

The Mouse

2007-11-08T22:35:00.000-08:00

We have one. I just burst into J's room to inform her that she had an unexpected sleeping partner but then couldn't proceed to find the skinny little dude who had literally just slipped in there after perusing the living room way too calmly for my taste.

She's too sleepy to care, and I'm too drowsy to go on the hunt for a member of the Mickey tribe. And frankly, I don't believe in killing them, so when I'm fully alert, it's still going to be a bit of a question as to what we actually do. On the one hand, it would be nice to never see him again, but if he never re-appears, she's going to think I'm certifiable because she sure as hell saw nothing other than me flicking on her lights at 1:30 in the morning, and waking her up as I crouched on her floor.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking right about now in the midst of all this chaos - maybe the mouse is a she, not a he. My thoughts precisely. I'm glad we're on the same page.

This is too complicated and too late for plotting the demise of anything and I'm starting to ramble again. I'm off to bed.

Hopefully alone.

The Kewl

2007-11-08T13:48:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to find cool visuals to show a friend of mine who seems to have an inexhaustible supply of good links.

What's currently floating my boat: water droplet art. Check out the gallery. There's ton more and it's super pretty.

The Speed of Sound

2007-11-08T10:04:00.000-08:00

Well, it finally happened. Physicists have managed to decode the spread of gossip. You may now return to your homes.

..."“At a first glance, our central hypothesis may seem obvious: In social systems the number of friends influences the danger of being gossiped,” said Pedro Lind, a physicist at the Institute of Computational Physics at the University of Stuttgart, in Germany, to PhysOrg.com. “But the hypothesis says more than that: Our results show that the optimal number of friends to minimize gossip spreading is neither very large nor very low...”

"Now they'll never realize that we have yet to prove things like the theory of universal gravity," rejoicing scientists were later heard saying as they toasted over what must be ether fumes.

The Clarification

2007-11-07T19:47:00.000-08:00

For those of you not previously in on the joke in the first-ever post on this site:

1) I am a girl.

2) J is not my boyfriend. This is because we are roommates and classmates and friends. Further, this also relates to the fact that J is a girl.

3) We are therefore, to clarify, not dating, nor would we ever be of that inclination.

Well, I think my work here is done. If you want fine literature, see J's handiwork below.

a testament to the swamp which lies beneath us

2007-11-07T18:38:00.001-08:00

i was waiting for this evening and sure enough it came, since it is colder now and i had been wanting since august to be nipped by the wind outside and wait for my ears to thaw when i walk indoors. i always loved the writing of woolf or eliot because it is so REAL: there is mrs. dalloway with her flowers and lil ought to have her teeth capped and the present and the past and the future all meld into this one fantastic ball because all you are really listening to is the thoughts in someone's head and we are not linear. so tonight i wished i had a pen to write but everything was coming so fast anyway, and i wanted to keep walking, and i couldn't write while walking, now could i? this is what was really in my mind:

isn't it funny that we have built ourselves this beautiful city and filled it up with bridges and monuments and politicians and streets and the occasional statue but it still cannot hide that really all it was, is, is a swamp? if you walk at night the rats will crawl in front of you and if you truly live here you cannot be disgusted by them. they are more this place than any of us are.

there is a girl, a woman, standing in the park on p street across the bridge from the circle and what makes a person stand in the park in the cold in stockings and heels at 9 in the evening (but really 10 now, it is so dark, and the clock will just lie to us for six months)? why is it that we do not look each other in the eyes anymore? i can smile at the woman who walks toward me on the street but as she approaches her eyes cast downward and i do not know where to place my gaze. why do we not greet each other on the streets anymore? or is it just cold and winter again? this is the same street as always but in this light the branches of the trees swoop downward and the leaves make icicles -- there is no wind and the leaves are crystalline, almost (is my sock slipping in my boot again?). i wish it would snow, but not enough to stick.

oh how i wish, i wish i had the mind of eliot which could bounce between the tarot and the bars and the thames and these are the pearls that were his eyes. but my stream of consciousness is not so impressive as his (my consciousness is not so impressive as his) and i do not jump to the story of sibyll or the drooping beauty of hyacinths though for a minute i admit i find myself not here in this city but in paris or brasil. the scarf keeps my neck warm on the outside but inside the air still bites my throat and isn't that how it always is?

here is the house where we stood together and i told you, it is my favourite thing that they grow roses, that the roses climb above the front door and make an arch of flowers. it is cold now and all that are left are the rose hips and a few stray petals. there is the street that is a quiet place and you would not know about it, could walk past it all the time and not even notice it, but if you stood there for a moment and looked you would see copper roofs and light red brick and streets named after caribbean islands where i wish i was right now (and so do you, probably). i love copper roofs because they are so much more beautiful as they age. someone put them there for their metallic sheen but didn't they know it would oxidize, that over the years it would turn that almost sea foam green which i think is so much more gorgeous than the original form (oh, istanbul!)?

all the lights are in my favour tonight although i did have to run to catch that one coming up to the bridge and now i am walking through georgetown to my home and there is a black cat on the doorstep of the house by the church. i want a kitten but i am too inconstant for one right now. where would it live in the summertime? there is my corner and i want to walk around the city all night with my thoughts but there is nowhere to put them anyhow and it would be better if there was someone else to walk with. but i would not tell you all of this if we were walking.

it would be a fun game to play, sometime, though. to sit and say exactly whatever comes into your head just straight for two whole minutes. i bet it would be irrational and WONDERFUL.

a small thing

2007-11-06T16:48:00.000-08:00

this is a small thing that i have to say: because it is past daylight savings now and since it gets darker earlier and it is cold this week i think sometimes people forget that everyone is just doing the best that they can. i think setting clocks backwards or forwards always makes the world a little topsy-turvy, as my mom pointed out to me. so maybe that is the reason for some recent craziness. but everyone is trying to adjust to it all the same. and they're all doing the best that they can. it's impossible to be angry at anyone when you look at things that way. and i don't like being angry, so i will look at things that way.

The Quoi?

2007-11-05T14:11:00.001-08:00

The stupidest penalty to a sports team in all of history (governement penalizing a team because some of its fans booed during a memorial ceremony for a slain Prime Minister, killed 12 years ago). Luckily, almost no one in the Knesset reacts to this type of stuff , so freedom of speech is obviously safe (government NOT reacting to its own members calling travel bans to enemy countries 'racist' and vowing to break it over and over). Otherwise I'd be worried.

You know, every time I need the news, I need another Tylenol. Practically Pavlovian at this point.

Newspaper print? Pass on the meds.

The Phase

2007-11-05T11:57:00.001-08:00

When I was in high school, I had a Welsh teacher of physics for the science class at the end of the day. After leaving school, I'd actually have a bit of a Welsh accent in my English and use some of his inflection.

And some of that type of stuff still happens when I'm talking to someone with a foreign accent. Unless I'm careful to monitor, I will unconsciously use some of their lingo/mannerisms for a few minutes after parting ways.

Now picture that particular impediment that in a school full of LLM students from Lord only knows where.

I'm... so... confused...

And I often... sound... ridiculous...

This brings 'easily impressed' to all sorts of new levels of preposterous.

By the way, you must check out this AWESOME link, courtesy of Small Thoughts.

Cheerio.

The Gratitude

2007-11-04T12:32:00.000-08:00

All of my friends are truly incredible people and I love and appreciate you very, very much. Over distance and over time, that will always be the case.

That is all. Over and out, folks.

did you know he's one-quarter greek?

2007-11-02T08:06:00.001-07:00

i hope jt forgives me for taking so long to write this! i promised him i'd do it first thing when i got home...but that was really only about two-and-a-half hours ago. the funny thing about having one of these blogs is that you get requests from people to be in it...

so, i saw jt at bar review last night. he was wearing an oklahoma sweatshirt. and a baseball cap which i stole briefly but returned to him upon recognition of some serious hat hair. and i bumped my head on his beer glass, which he says is an awfully nice way of putting the fact that he bonked me on the head with it. i think there was definitely some joint and several liability going on there, so we can leave it at that.

he said that all he wanted here was an acknowledgement that i'd seen him. and the oklahoma sweatshirt. but i will also add that jt is an awesomely sweet guy and that hanging out with him last night was one of the high points of my evening. which i hope will induce him to forgive the tardiness of the post. also it's true.

and on that note, i am off to get hot cocoa because it is brisk this morning, and i can't think of a much better thing to do on a brisk morning than drink hot cocoa.

The Mizzzzzing Link

2007-10-30T21:17:00.000-07:00

I admit I don't have their skill. Their four-part harmony. Their proverbial longevity in the public eye. Their haircuts. Their much-maligned popularity.

But that's all temporary.

Just you wait until I get a good night's sleep.

it's not quite the beatles, but....

2007-10-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

a is singing to me.

oh julia
i want you there beside me
when i'm on call
i hope you raise your hand
because i tend to tune out in international law
and it's something you understand

i'm not so sure i'd actually profess total understanding, but if she's going to vouch for me, then i'll take what i can get.

i sing these songs to you
and i feel like a fool
but then you grin every once and a while
and i don't feel like such a tool
maybe i should
oh julia
when i talk to you
julia
no one knows the hell i go through
dealing with you
julia
i walk a fine line
julia
how do you think new york feels living with puppies n'sunshine
julia
i'm just going to keep saying your name
because it fits with the meter
and i'm running out of rhymes all the same
julia
okay last stanza i promise
and i'm just going to get through this
julia
to show you that i care
julia
i call you my pooh-bear
i call you my pooh-bear

....she's walking out of the room for dramatic effect. she just bowed.

julia
when you concentrate
oh julia
it's hard to tell what you appreciate
i'm so sad
i'm so sad now
'cause even after i took my bow
i didn't get one round of applause
and that gives me pause
oh julia!
i cry and you give me cause
julia
come on, give me a hug with those pooh paws.

okay she's really done. but she is going to use that tune for something else.

The Final Words of the Night.

2007-10-29T23:19:00.000-07:00

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.

Aye, Henry David Thoreau.

Ciao, all. Sweet dreams.

The Skill

2007-10-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

We are sitting on the futon, each of us doing our own work. Almost. Mainly. J seems to have picked up this ability to sense and clap to death any mosquito in the surrounding area. So while I try to research radio spectrum allotment, and she's ostensibly concentrating on natural resources there are these occasional loud bangs and sudden movements right on my peripheral vision.

I'm currently sensing an incoming jig and shimmy.

Perhaps we should be sittng in different chairs?

Yeah, I know. This is more fun.

*Dance, dance, dance.*

Aaaand back to the World Radio Conference.

**Ed. note, a few hours later:
J striding out to the living room after another loud *BANG*: You should have seen that mosquito in the bathroom. Prime kill!
*Momentary pause*
A: It's not a prime kill.
And another pause.
J: Where's that centipede we saw before?
A: You freak.

the house at pooh corner, again

2007-10-29T15:28:00.000-07:00

and this, following my most recent post:

j: i love pooh.
a: ah, pooh. OOOH! i'll call you pooh-lia!!!

i don't think i'd object...too much.

and i guess, while i have the chance, i might as well add the one that explains why these posts turn out the way they do.

"i don't see much sense in that," said rabbit.
"no," said pooh humbly, "there isn't. but there was going to be when i began it. it's just that something happened to it along the way."

and the one that is really rather me.

some people care too much, i think it's called love.

although i'm pretty sure that some people would tell you this one's more accurate.

when looking at your two paws, as soon as you have decided which of them is the right one, then you can be sure the other one is the left.

nothing makes me quite as happy as a little pooh.

the house at pooh corner

2007-10-29T15:01:00.000-07:00

if i were a bear
and a big bear too
i wouldn't much care
if it froze or it snew;
i shouldn't much mind
if it snowed or friz --
i'd be all fur-lined
with a coat like his.

ever have one of those moments when you are just struck by how amazingly incredible each and every one of your friends is as a person? yeah, definitely having that right now.

"pooh, promise you won't forget about me, ever. not even when i am a hundred."
pooh thought for a little.
"how old shall i be then?"
"ninety-nine."
pooh nodded. "i promise," he said.

i promise too.

something to talk about

2007-10-29T10:01:00.000-07:00

well, here are my thoughts, since i might as well give them. i believe what i said, in that ultimately i do not think it's possible to make anyone feel better about events that are not under their control. you can most certainly give advice, thoughts, hugs to a person regarding events under their control. it may be appreciated. it may not be. but when events aren't under anyone's control, there's nothing to be done to really make a situation better. because honestly, when events are out of your control, you have to focus on what you can control about the situation, and work on that. but the out of control stuff sometimes requires introspection. and that has to be done alone. of course people want to vent sometimes, and if they do, that's where i come in (if i want to make someone feel better). but for the most part all i really ever do is smile, and listen if necessary.

i guess that's because i know how i am when these things happen. i don't particularly like being hung up on things that aren't within my control. there's almost no point. i also don't particularly like being mopey. no point to that either. and most of the time, if i am mopey, i don't like to talk about it, because it will most surely pass within a few hours, and i would rather not wallow. i would rather process and move on. so i like to handle these things with my own self. if i would like to talk about something, i will bring it up to a friend. but if i'm not talking, it's because i don't want to. because it's a problem no one can solve. because i don't want anyone to solve it. because i want to think about it for a few minutes, become at peace with the situation, and get on with my life.

but that is just how i react, and everyone is different. i think, in general, though, that if people want to talk about something they will make it clear, and when they don't, that they will also make it clear. and that it is definitely not up to me, regardless of what i think, to decide when a person should be ready to talk about things, but that i am happy to be able to be there for those close to me when they need to.

The Ramblepost

2007-10-29T07:49:00.001-07:00

J seems to be in a particularly unsunny mood this morning. She maintains that this is not true. Very well, I will believe her. Puppies'n Sunshine.

I do sometimes (often) wonder what it takes to make someone feel right about things that are not under your control. Maybe the whole effort is just a waste of time. J, reading that previous sentence, told me that it was. But accepting that leaves me with a bit of a quandary, in the sense that I feel both morally obligate and emotionally compelled to try and get people feeling good almost always.

Which isn't to say that I'm a stunning success at that, but again -I do try. So maybe doing so is actually more of a pretentious thing than the supportive maneuver it's intended to be? That is, in the sense that you feel A, I think it would be best if you felt B, I try to get you to feel B by doing things to try to tweak your emotional state. Or is it you feel A, you really would be happier if you felt B and I'm trying to get you to that spot and therefore that's a good thing?

Seems like it would really depend on the situation, and differentiating between the many environmental factors that tip the classification one way or the other is a matter of skill and sensitivity that I'd really hope a) I've built and b) I can keep on building. Very difficult thing, when I think about it.

What do you prefer to do when you see someone down? Let them 'work through it' or try to alleviate some of the gloom? I'm pretty sure that despite the technical nuances of it all, most people prefer one path over the other on a general basis. It would really interest me to know if that was correct and if so, what the more prevalent approach is.

To lighten the mood of the ramblepost (again, coined it myself), I leave you with an unattributed quote, overheard today standing in the coffee line at Saxby's.

Random Gtown Univ. Girl to her friends: Ohmigod. I had a dream last night that Saxby's raised its prices. It was... SO.... STRESSFUL.

Said with accompanying appropriate traumatized facial expression. Let's hear it for delicate constitutions and lotsa money to burn.

i'm a toys-r-us kid

2007-10-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

i guess i am not a grownup yet because i definitely splashed a big puddle a few days ago and totally enjoyed it. gizzle is my witness. but i was wearing galoshes, which i think makes a difference.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, A!!!!

The Way the Years Change You...

2007-10-28T13:36:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, jumping in puddles was awesome. Next to crunching leaves, splashing in puddles - and having other people thereby splashed - was just a delicious punctuation mark in the day.

When I was dressed in a long skirt on Friday night and trying to make it back to Georgetown through Foggy Bottom during a tremendous puddle-making rainstorm, I made the mistake of accidentally stepping into a pothole full to the brim of water. Unlike old times, the resulting puddlesplash (coined that one meself) served only to wash places I didn't even know I had and make all the other ones really cold. That elicited a different kind of punctuation mark, the kind that comes at the end of a muffled scream.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have now officially become a grown-up.

Yeah, I know.

I think deep thoughts on my birthday.

new haircuts

2007-10-27T14:39:00.001-07:00

isn't it funny that when you change your hair a person who has known you for years does not recognize you at all anymore? it's like i've gotten a completely new face. i kind of like the feeling.

sharpies write out loud

2007-10-26T18:29:00.000-07:00

today has just been full of some truly stellar conversations. w has decided that she will in fact trek out to georgetown tomorrow morning to join me after this lovely exchange:

j: so you're coming tomorrow, right?
w: yep, i'll be there.
j: great, could you come around 11?
w: let me check my schedule.
j: excuse me?
w: i feel like that's a reflexive thing that i say now.
j: i know, i was starting to think, what's going on here? now you're going to PENCIL ME IN?
w: oh yes, i think there might be time between waking up, taking a shower, and going over to see you.
j: you know, you could even pen me in, because, baby, i ain't goin' nowhere.
w: i don't know if i want to tempt fate like that.
j: that's true, you'd better leave it in pencil. so that you can erase me if needs be.
w: how about erasable pen?
j: waffles, erasable pen is like an open relationship. don't be ridiculous.
w: i never liked the way erasable pens worked anyway.

so she is coming at 11. i may or may not be penciled or erasable penned in to that time slot on her schedule. somewhere after waking up and taking a shower, but before going to sleep. and, since it's her schedule, probably sandwiched between copious amounts of studying. which is, not at all shockingly, exactly where she is penned into mine.

The Equivalency

2007-10-26T13:19:00.001-07:00

J - you ask a stupid question...

I'd like to state for the record that
a) she would look really bad bald.
b) I never wanted that discussion to go anywhere near the realm of cancer patients.
c) she would still look really bad bald.

And then she would probably blog about it!

Sincerely,

J's conscience

i hope i'm never bald

2007-10-26T13:12:00.001-07:00

a and i are checking out potential haircuts. a conversation transpires:

j: when natalie portman shaved her head, i almost did it.
a: why would you do that?
j: i don't know, it looked cool.
a: you'd look awful!
j: how do you know?
a: because there are only three people in the world who can pull off bald and you aren't one of them.
j: if i get cancer someday won't you feel bad for saying that?
a: maybe, but i'd still think it. i just wouldn't make fun of you.
j: give me the computer.
a: NO JINKS OF WE!!!!
j: types furiously. (types jinksofwe.blogspot.com, to be accurate)
a: look, i just don't want some law firm to see this and think...
j: dude, it wasn't serious, was it?
a: no. i mean i'll never think you look good bald. nothing will ever change that.
j: oh, dude, that's going in.
a: (in a whisper) j, this is your conscience speaking...
j: no it's not, it's YOU speaking because you don't have a conscience because you said i would look bad if i was bald if i had cancer.
a: (in a whisper still) this is your conscience, trying again. put down the computer. this is still your conscience. you suck.

don't you wish you lived with us?

bang bang

2007-10-26T11:13:00.000-07:00

i am so desirous of bangs. real, long, nelly furtado-esque bangs. i almost got them in brasil but flaked out and got layers instead. today i started looking at the urban catalog and discovered that i still secretly (not-so-secretly) want them. i know they'd make me look even younger and i already look 15. someone please give me thoughts on this. talk me into it. or out of it. either way.

hey, how you DOin'?

2007-10-25T09:21:00.000-07:00

hmmm, roomie makes some interesting points. first of all, i will say this: it is my firm belief that one ought to be grammatically correct. i realize that i do not capitalize, often abuse periods (i.e. use them far too frequently and after obvious sentence fragments), sometimes enjoy british conventional spelling, and have a penchant for ee cummings. all that being said, i think one must demonstrate a mastery of grammar to flout it so enthusiastically (that reminds me something of dinh's comment that you have to know the constitution to break it...i guess this is as close as we'll get to agreeing on something). now that's over with, on to more substantive things.

i don't know if life is supposed to be about what you want to DO or maybe just want you want to do, not capitalized, emphasized, finalized. i was having this conversation with e as we walked to dupont circle the other day, both of us doing a little soul-searching as we're reaching that point in our lives where the FUTURE seems to be looming in full force. she remarked that maybe it was easier for me because i've always seemed to know what i wanted to DO. so, okay, maybe that's true in some sense -- i am very directed. but i don't know if that's exactly what counts to me. jobs are great and i'm beyond excited for mine. but it's not who i am. who i am is what i want to do, i think, not what i want to DO, at least not what i want to DO in the way that people ask you what you DO at cocktail parties or when you meet them for the first time in the shopping mall or at a nice restaurant. it's funny how we seem to place all this emphasis on that kind of doing...maybe DOing should be the other thing, what nobody asks you about but what you really want.

what i really want:
1. a pair of converses
2. a polka dot umbrella
3. to make a pile of leaves and jump in them (right now!)
4. to see the maldives
5. to move back to south america
6. to eat good indian food
7. to learn french, a little german, and enough arabic that i'm passable
8. to go to sudan and kenya and south africa (and many other parts of africa, honestly)
9. to buy my favourite fedora, which is far more expensive than any hat ought to be
10. to go camping in canada (maybe lake louise?)
11. to sail around the mediterranean
12. to get a cat and name him fofo
13. to see my good friends often, and to always think of creative gifts for their birthdays
14. to learn how to make a souffle
15. to go fishing
16. to listen to my grandma's whole life story
17. to see israel and istanbul (st. sofia) and cyprus
18. to live in my own little personal auberge espagnole
19. to always have a day to go exploring on the weekends
20. to climb to the bottom of the grand canyon and back up

of course there are a million more things that i would like to do but i think 20 is a good place to stop since otherwise i would go on all day. but see? maybe this is DOing and not the other thing. recently i have been resolving to get out there and do as much as i can, and enjoy things as much as i can, because that is LIVING. that was the other thing that was nice about being in brasil (aside from not having a cell phone). there people LIVE. and DO. it's hard not to feel alive when you're speeding down the road at 2 in the morning going to a disco with the techno pumping and eight of you packed into someone's little tiny car. or when you're jumping into the water on copacabana beach. or when you're looking over rio from the corcovado. or when you're standing on the center divide in the middle of avenida paulista with the heart of sao paulo rushing by you at 60mph.

well this was rather introspective. as befits law school i am heading back to the clean water act and then off to evidence. but i will be eating good indian food tonight, which takes care of #6....

The Addiction and The Question

2007-10-24T06:01:00.000-07:00

Caffeine has officially got me by the throat. Insidious little bugger. Can't quite wake up without my morning coffee. Not that that's an entirely bad thing.

Then again it would be nice to wake up and actually be awake. Yesterday morning I was trying to communicate something to J who kindly made me repeat what I thought I was saying three times until it came out in something at least resembling English with proper syntax and everything. For someone who doesn't use capitals and specializes in lax punctuation, she's certainly got some lofty standards.

Anyway, to sort of continue J's theme of law school vs. real world in a sort of half-assed manner: I've thought of things that I'd like to learn at some point in my life. Statutory interpretation never ranked overly high, but maybe that was simply shortsighted on my part. What did rank: glassblowing, learning Latin dances, woodwork (with a specialization in crafting guitars), getting certified as a yoetzet halacha, getting licensed as an EMT and maybe one day as a paramedic, travelling the Far East, parenting well (far off, people, you can exhale), and aspirations to polyglotting it as much as possible (with Arabic, Chinese and Russian as priorities). The list is actually significantly longer but those things were very much at the top. Who doesn't want to learn everything eventually?

While getting all that done does seem very far away I do know I'll get to at least some of them within the next decade. Hard to really imagine, but that seems like a fairly manageable time to wait for something you really want as long as you're being worthwhile in other ways in the interim.

Closing thought: It's funny that when people ask you what you want to do with your life, you're supposed to respond with a career choice rather than what you actually want to do. Not an awfully reflective response, I think. So... let's have some fun and see who's actually reading this thing.

What do you want to do with your life? Leave a message at the beep.

shantih shantih shantih

2007-10-23T19:40:00.001-07:00

i am in a distinctly ts eliot sort of mood, but then again i usually am, because there's not often a moment when i couldn't be convinced to pick up a little ts. sometimes i wish i could have lived in his head just for a day because to have all of that going on is just amazing:

o o o o that shakespeherian rag
it's so elegant
so intelligent
'what shall i do now? what shall i do?'
'i shall rush out as i am, and walk the street
'with my hair down, so. what shall we do tomorrow?
'what shall we ever do?'

the wonderful thing about the waste land is that it encompasses pretty much anything that i could ever be thinking. how does he do that?

in the interest of lightheartedness i think i will find it in me to begin writing a play sometime soon. a parody of sorts, about 2L. now that i've said it i know i had better commit and buckle down and write the thing. there are always lines floating around in my head on the bus in the mornings. but then i am distracted because they planted new trees in front of tax court. maybe i'll work that in somehow.

HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME

The Warm Fuzzies

2007-10-23T08:47:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of one of my (and NW DC's) favorite peoples -

Type in your full name in the beginning of the following link, like so:
http://www.firstname.lastname.youaremighty.com/ , i.e. http://www.mickey.mouse.youaremighty.com/.

It's a little picker-upper. Like a mini-Bounty paper towel in your day. And if you really want to cry tears of joy, do the same but substitute 'youaremyfriend' for 'youaremighty.' Make sure you have sound or 95% of the effect is lost.

Yeah, I know. If you're a Georgetown 2L then you were sending these around to dunces with their speakers on during class last year. But if you aren't, then these are certainly worth a look-see.

The Blurred Line

2007-10-22T13:28:00.001-07:00

between a justified feeling of accomplishment and pomposity sort of escapes definition for me, but at least one person today definitely failed to straddle it adequately.

It's all in the presentation, I guess.

The Misconception

2007-10-22T07:39:00.000-07:00

I'm back. Totally wanting a shower and a nap and perhaps a way in which to regain a LOT of lost study time, but otherwise mostly groovy. To try and lift this site from the introspective mopey depths to which it seems to have sunk (don't worry J, I don't really mean that and appreciate anything you deign to post here) I'll grace you all with the story of how several members of the local synagogue came to the conclusion that I shake down short people for candy.

There's a communal meal at the synagogue every Sabbath. People pray, go to the meal, go back to praying and by the time the whole hullabaloo is over, so is the Sabbath and we're all free to go back to our electricity and pens. Because space is somewhat at a premium, a bunch of meal-goers have carved out zones for where they usually sit. I mark my territory in the following ultra-civilized way: I drop my keys on the table by my seat. Works like a charm. Everybody knows everybody at the place, there's no danger of someone walking off with them.

Right. Of course there is, you're thinking. And on this particular weekend, you'd be right.

One of my friends shot into the kitchen as I was helping prepare things and asked if I had removed my keys from the table. Following a short series of cardiac palpitations, I said no and then went out to the scene of the crime to verify for myself that they keys were missing. I did this by checking the entire table and floor, and then staring intently into the eyes of the 25-65 crowd I was sitting with to try and guilt whichever joker it was into giving up the goods. No dice. They were in fact, not to be found.

And then, I noticed one of the synagogue's cute little children helping hand out soda. About five years old. Adorable kid. And I thought to myself, hey, give it a shot.

"Zachary, did you see some keys on the table, here?"

Zachary looked up at me with his tremendous brown eyes, and with an even more tremendous smile, started nodding his head frantically up and down. Very proud of himself.

"Uh, Zachary, did you take the keys from the table?"

Smile. Nodding, nodding, nodding. He had probably recognized my keys from other games we had played in week past.

Cute, actually, but things get complicated right about... now.

I quickly bent down, picked him up and took him right outside the central room (that part's fine, we usually play together a little bit). Putting the little gremlin down, I looked down at him from about four feet up and waited for the keys.

"Zach, I need my keys to get into my house."

Looking up at me with pleading eyes, he disagreed politely but firmly. "Your father can open the door when you get there."

"No Zachary, I don't live with my father. I will not be able to go home. Give me the keys."

And so on and so forth until he was finally convinced that I lived on my own and wouldn't be able to enter my apartment without what he's got in his pocketses.

Sighing, he reached for the keys. Luckily for him, and ridiculously for me, he had just had a visit with the synagogue's candy woman who had loaded him up with about 15-20 lollipops, all of which were somehow crammed into his pockets. The upshot of this was that he was searching for my keys in what were basically cavernous pockets brimming with candy. And as I was standing over him glowering, he was slowly laying out lollipops on the floor in front of me, one at a time.

And everybody that walked by for the next 5 minutes saw a six foot tall 20-something forcing a kid to clean his pockets out of all of his sweets and give them to her.

Me. Shaking down a five-year-old. On the Sabbath no less. In the House of the Lord.

*Sigh*. I am the Anti-Tact.

you're so far away, doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?

2007-10-21T19:28:00.001-07:00

since roomie is out of town this weekend, i find myself all alone...which is very sad. not to mention that my only hope of watching the cleveland-boston game (since our television has randomly decided to become rather fed up with life and take a hiatus from it) is to go to rhinos, whereupon i will most likely be impaled by a barstool thrown by an angry bosox fan after revealing that i REALLY REALLY REALLY hope they lose.

however, current loneliness aside, today was quite lovely and there really is nothing better than sitting down by the waterfront when it's 75F out and eating a sandwich. of course now that i know i'll be leaving DC again, at least for the summer, i want to do everything i possibly can while i'm still here. and that's a lot of stuff. hmm, it seems we're back to the law life/real life dilemma. if only there weren't finals to worry about and it wasn't so sunny outside...

it occurs to me that these posts have only been half-humourous recently and something probably ought to be done about that. i think we'll see an upward turn in hilarity once roomie returns.

in the days of the wild west STOP dammit, my telegraph broke STOP

2007-10-19T13:22:00.000-07:00

yes, indeed, i long for those telegraph days. except those things are tricky little buggers to operate. my great-grandfather was a telegraph operator. one time i found a telegraph in the garage and tried to work it. i think it was broken. but i did learn a little morse code. like S-O-S. in case my ship is ever sinking.

but here is the way i feel about communication: sometimes it is nicer not to have it. when i was in brasil, i had no phone. it was so liberating.

interjection:
a: dorkus incrediblius geekus is what you are.
j: silence, she is typing
a: can i call you julius?

anyway, as i was saying: in brasil, i had no phone. it was so liberating. if people wanted me, they found me. or i was with the people i would have wanted to find me anyway. now, that is the way it should work. of course, our modern world, so big and small at the same time, necesitates that we must have about 15 different ways to get in touch with each other at any given moment, precipitating the unnecessary freak-out at lack of response. did it not occur to us that someone might be busy? but, of course not! the phone is right there. i mean, they really could just CALL. is it that hard? maybe it is. you know, i should just be like w, who never answers her phone. then, when you actually make contact, it is a pleasant surprise! she deigned to pick up the phone? this must be your lucky day. or she thinks you are on the verge of death. or something. it makes you feel like you've won the lottery every time you speak to her (not that speaking to her isn't already that much of a pleasure).

interjection, again:
a: it's like a guy's name so it's a double entendre pun!
j: silence, she is still typing
a: it's a puntendre!

so the thing is that as hypercritical as i am of instant communication, i have fallen victim to the immediacy of it all myself. the other day i was sitting by the fountain in dupont and felt the sudden urge to throw my cell phone in. then it could be like brasil again. but of course i didn't, because it's such a pretty little thing and it has a picture of my cat on the screen, and besides, wouldn't people get offended if i didn't return their calls?

i wish it was like when we were little again or before that, when if you wanted someone you walked to their house and asked if you could play. but nobody walks to anybody's house just to ask anymore. these days that's lame.

interjection, again again:
a: whenever i want to play with you, i will walk to your door, and i will say julia, juliUS, will you play with me?
j: silence, she is still still typing
a: is there nothing sacred, woman?!?!

defenestrate really is from the latin defenestra. i really am a nerd. but my name is not julius (though my great-grandfather's was, but he was not the one who was the telegraph operator). and i would not like it to be. julia is just fine. with an a, not an e, please. it is latin, not french. and don't worry...i'll still answer my phone.

The Downside of Instant Communication...

2007-10-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

is that you expect instant replies. When someone doesn't get back to you immediately after you've sent an email or left a phone message, there's either this fear that the message didn't get through ('can you hear me now? can you hear me NOW?') or this nagging sensation that maybe you've been pushed to the bottom of some sort of response 'To Do' pile. Which may in fact be the case. And you know what? An extra hour or day of waiting on something doesn't usually hurt anyone.

Then there are those like me that insist on keeping the cellphone off for a certain amount of time every month so that I can still pretend to have some control of just a few minutes of my day... for a week or two at a time. It's not ignoring you if I don't know you're calling, is my philosophy. Besides which, I do check the voicemail.

Anyway, what brings about this confession is J's current longing for a return to the days of the telegraph. When response time was normally minimally a few hours or days it wasn't that much easier to wait, I'll bet, but the lack of choice in the matter was probably much more calming.

Thoughts?

P.S. Just another day in the life of We:

J: I feel like jumping out a window.
A: Don't.
J: But then there's that cool verb you can use...
A: Defenestrate.
J: From the Latin verb defenestra.
A: Dork.

It could have gone on for longer - I've hung around enough Latin geeks to start cracking jokes in poor form - but drastic and immediate action was needed. And taken.

The Kicker

2007-10-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

This summer I worked three jobs, one of them a really well-paying position in order to compensate for the lack of money coming from the others. To quell any emerging fears about the lucrative job, I state now that it was teaching high school classes about law for Georgetown (and props to a a couple of lawyer-mentor-friends including this Author for helping me out with that in a major and charismatic way). Life and I were getting on pretty well as I was feeling both productive and in the black.

Long story short, Life and I are having a bit of a disagreement at the moment, following its decision to paste a tremendous "Kick me" sign on my back in the form of a more than 40% deduction of taxes from what was supposed to pay the rent for a while.
On the bright side, if Social Security lasts, I now have several hundred dollars poured into that and thousands wherever the USG decides to wisely spend it.

J, as regards the rent next month... uh... you're it! (*tapping J on the shoulder and then sprinting away, laughing wildly*).

The Neighbors

2007-10-19T06:39:00.000-07:00

"The school's director-general, Abdalla I. Al-Shabnan, said Wednesday that.. the academy has adjusted its curriculum in recent years and removed some of the inflammatory language that had been included in the Saudi text.... He also pointed out that many of the school's teachers are Christian and Jewish."

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=600&sid=1271550

Two points:
a) We're talking about a school in Fairfax, Virginia that has a just a little too much Saudi funding and influence for the Feds to be comfortable on the matter. So they've recommended shutting it down until they can verify that the curriculum meets basic standards of civility. I.e. no mentions of an hour of judgment delayed "until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them." Waiting to see the reaction from local free speech orgs on this one.

b) The 'some of my best friends are Jewish and Christian' line is no more convincing than when you have other ethnicities and religions switched into the sentence.

better together

2007-10-19T06:27:00.000-07:00

all right, all i really want to do this morning is lie in my bed for about three hours and listen to jack johnson and be sentimental. it is cloudy and it rained last night and i missed it and it sort of cooled things down but it's still humid the way the end of summer is.

there's no combination of words i could put on the back of a postcard
no song that i could sing, but i could try for your heart

i wish there was time in law school to take a moment and process all of the things that actually happen in life. it's incredible how much has changed in just the last five weeks, but i feel like i've never really taken the time to come to terms with it all. i mean, how can you ignore the evidence reading? or the massproof assignment? or the draft memo that's due? it seems like law school creates this alternate universe where real life just doesn't exist...but what happens when real life and law life collide? it's so impossible to pick which should be more important. and maybe if i work just a little harder i'll be able to forget about all that other stuff for a second. i'll just set it aside and it'll all work out. or i could focus on it and let my law life fall apart. at least i already have a job. but something tells me that the books will win out on this one. i don't even feel like myself when the work's not done. and i shouldn't give it such a bad rap -- i really do love this stuff. i am a nerd at heart and have to admit to a certain amount of enthusiasm about reading environmental law statutes.

our dreams,
and they are made out of real things
like a shoebox of photographs with sepia-toned lovin'

it's funny because over the past month i've been having all of these experiences that cause me to put such a higher premium on real life over law life. it's hard to imagine that the hearsay rule is all-important when you're milling around the produce section at whole foods. or walking from georgetown to dupont with the leaves just turning. or wondering when you will sit on the grass and look at the sky. and when you know such wonderful people, how could you not want to spend every minute you could just enjoying their company? i really do have the best friends in the world.

love is the answer, at least for most of the questions of my heart
why are we here? and where do we go? and how come it's so hard?

it's impossible not to look around these days and be struck with how incredibly beautiful the world is. east coast autumn is maybe my favourite time of the year (though i find myself yearning for snow these days) and when i get to thinking about life for a minute (not too often...isn't that what these ridiculously introspective blog entries are for?) i realize that i couldn't be more fortunate. i find it so hard to be upset about anything at all when there is so much good to enjoy. so here is my resolution: i will make the most of my three-day weekends. i will spend them with the people i love and i will do all of the things that i have always wanted to do and i will take pictures and i will enjoy it. and there will be a healthy amount of studying involved as well. something tells me i can have the best of both worlds.

it's not always easy and sometimes life can be deceiving
i'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together

The Water in the Eye

2007-10-18T19:25:00.000-07:00

You know you're... musically mature when a song really appeals to you and not even the fact that it turns out to be some Michael Bolton weep-fest ballad-type thing turns you off to it.

I'm glad J's not here to see me sniffle at the minor chords.

'Course if she was, I'd seem like a paper tiger, and if I lose the intimidation factor I'm never going to get her I-Law notes. That's right. There's no shame in towering over others if you can use it to your advantage.

Wow. I'm like a fortune cookie, only wiser and more vanilla-flavored. And I have better spelling.

money maker

2007-10-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

okay, so maybe she doesn't shake her behind. honestly, there's not a lot there to shake. but what she does do is this ridiculous dance which involves her knees moving in directions i wasn't sure they could. it is very distracting. the girl does have legs. as an addendum, to be accurate in our particular situation, the luda verse would probably have to go:

i keep my mind on my evidence
evidence on my mind
but you's a hell of a distraction
when you're shakin' your...knees?

oh luda, why didn't you think of that? i think your version is catchier. definitely raunchier. oh, and, for the record, you know i got it, if you wanna come get it -- stand next to this money like ay ay ay.

The Way of Things

2007-10-18T11:40:00.000-07:00

Julia: dude ludacris just came on
this line makes me think of you
me: /
?
Julia: "i keep my mind on my money/ my money on my mind/ but you's a hell of a distraction/ when you're shakin' your behind"
me: Oh Lord.

For the record, she does keep her money on her mind, but I do not shake my behind. I'd like to make that really clear.

In the Footsteps of Greatness

2007-10-18T09:49:00.000-07:00

While we're apparently on the topic of music, I'd encourage any troglodytic neanderthal who hasn't yet created an account on Pandora.com to do so. It's web radio that builds channels off of songs or artists that you input and plays it to you all commercial free. You can even rate the music so that it fine-tunes its selections. I've discovered a bunch of good music through the site, and because I lack roomie's ipod - at least until she unwisely falls asleep with it in open view - it's a good way to fill the evenings otherwise full of statutes and international trade.

You can also open an account if you're not a troglodytic neanderthal, by the way. In fact, I imagine that would make the technologically-based registration process immensely easier.

Back to work.

gimme shelter

2007-10-18T09:15:00.001-07:00

this has nothing to do with anything, but i am compelled to point out that i think the first 1:40 of gimme shelter might possibly be the most brilliant instrumental intro to any rock song ever written. something tells me that these sort of blogs are the place where you share all of these completely random thoughts (which i have a lot of) and hope that people don't think you've entirely lost it, but at the same time don't care much if they do (would you really be writing this if you cared?).

i wish i could just play the beginning of this song on repeat all day. i wish actually that it would just randomly play when i was walking places. it's obnoxious to press the back button on my ipod all the time. i really like a good bassline. okay, enough being a waste of space. EVIDENCE READING! huzzah.

i think it's only fair....

2007-10-17T14:32:00.000-07:00

i feel that roomie levels some unfair criticism at me in her last post. and as a result, i write to her an epic poem of love and beauty that could be rivaled perhaps only by will shakespeare himself...

o, tall girl
how i love you
you change our lightbulbs
is there nothing you can't do?

with your farrah fawcett hair
and your new york jew-girl flare
it's no wonder you've stolen my heart
i don't think we could ever part

when i walk in the door
on the futon, there you are
i just want a glass of water
you accost me with your guitar

how could i even live?
what would i have to give?
your lyrical musings sustain me
even if i try to flee

o, tall girl
how i love you
and i can say without a doubt
you amuse me through and through

if there was any question about my devotion, attention-paying skills, or capability of mixing AABB and ABCB couplets, let it be thusly vanquished!