Corporate Donor Naming Ideas

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet totally devoted to all things related to Un. It's time for an update.

Recently, actually, about a week ago, the KU Law administration said that instead of repairing the faulty air conditioning equipment, they have decided to buy a brand new system. Which is greatly needed, as they old system was breaking down at least once a semester and always when it was at least 90 degrees outside. The bad news is that it will take at least March 2007 before the system in bought and installed and fully (hopefully, fingers crossed) functional.
It would suck worse than a cheap $2 whore in a seedy Bangkok brothel(no personal knowledge about this experience) if the heating system broke down during the winter, but I doubt that will be too much of a problem. After all, this is a law school and copious amounts of hot air is produced every day. There should be plenty of hot air to heat the entire law school and I doubt production would decrease.
It's probably due to budget cuts and counting every penny that has led to this problem. You've got to have enough funds to pay for everything and well, if you're a state funded school, sometimes, you have to suck up and accept a cut in your budget. Then you pass it on to the students who pay an increase of 20% in tuition costs to make up for the deficit. And it is still not enough.
The law school has corporate donors and recently, several law school classrooms were named after these generous donors. I've got some other objects and places in the law school that can be named after corporate donors.

1. CLOCKS
Clocks are a metaphor for lawyers. Both ruthlessly keep track of minutes and both are produced in large numbers. Once could add in usefulness, but that is highly debatable. At least for some lawyers.
There is another bonus. Law school students will look up at the clock constantly, named or unnamed. Most count down the time until a particularly boring class is over. None shall be named. Hey, it is the only time anyone, especially law school students, look up to lawyers for anything. Maybe if they want to know how to be unethical according to a recent poll.

2. FLOOR TILES
This may look like a totally useless suggestion, but think about this. If people are willing to pay a hundred bucks for a brick with their name on it, a law firm can pony up a thousand bucks for a measly floor tile that may or may not be made out of real stone. Unless you are a real penny-pincher or you are that poor. If you fall into one of those categories, the law school definitely does not want you as a corporate donor.
Floor tiles are highly symbolic, just like clocks. It provides a level of immense satisfaction for angry people to stomp on a law firm once in their lifetime instead of getting run over by a law firm. We all have heard of these stories before or have been part of such story. Think of this action as building positive community relationships with lawyers.

3. HVAC SYSTEM
Considering the state of disrepair and how often the HVAC system breaks down (not scheduled to be up and running until March 2007), a brand new HVAC system would be welcome right now. Seriously, as it gets hot in the law school. Very hot. Hotter that you can possibly imagine, unless you live in the Sahara.
If you can generously donate enough money to buy an HVAC system, that would be great and would save money budgeted for overpriced and distincly modern looking furniture that are boxes designed by a bald Scandinavian working for Ikea with a doctorate in an arcane field like body ergonomics and kinesiology.
Until this happens, the law school may connect your name with the current HVAC system and you shall be known as the law firm that blows out large amounts of hot air throughout the year and breaks down constantly.

4. BATHROOM
This option can be a mixed blessing. You get a room named after you but it is the bathroom. Who wants to have a bathroom named after your firm? Nothing is safe from crude jokes. Even the most straight laced adult can make up bathroom jokes. The sinks aren’t safe. "Washing our responsibility away like Pontius Pilate." Paper towel dispensers are not safe. And you can come up with a lot of jokes about toilets and urinals. “Don’t pass up this opportunity: work for (insert law firm name). Call now by flushing.” or "Pissing your dollars away" or “Just like this toilet, the law may look crystal clear, but we all know both are full of...”
By paying a small sum, your law firm can have a naming ceremony plus an additional commemorative plaque installed with a 500-character limit. No restrictions in what you can say at the ceremony or what you can engrave on the plaque. First Amendment Rights and restrictions on free speech apply. The possibilities are endless unless your firm actually has impeccable ethics, plays fair and would not even think about ruining the reputation of other law firms.

5. SPECIAL OPTIONS
By paying an additional ad valorem fee, currently pegged at 10% of your donation, your law firm can hold a naming ceremony. At the naming ceremony, your law firm is allowed 30 minutes for any remarks that your law firm may want to make. Since this is a law school, the law school is a public forum and all opinions, no matter how inflammatory, are welcome.
In addition to the naming ceremony, by paying this fee, your law firm will have to opportunity to have an additional decorative plaque installed. This plaque can be engraved with 500 characters of your choice. As with the speech, anything is allowed, but within applicable First Amendment restraints.


That's all for now. If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to include your suggestions in the comments section.

Dude...That's My Song

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet devoted solely to all things related to Un. It's time to post an update to this site. Because I know that you all can't live a day without your semi-regular post. Just kidding.

I've never been much of a fashionable or trendy guy. Though I find it funny that people pay money to keep their hair up permanently in a spiky style, whereas I pay money to keep it down. Technically, I have been stylish and trendy by doing nothing at all but succumbing to genetic makeup. And by being my non-trendy, not-fashion-conscious self, I have been fashionable several years later. I guess the "wearing clean clothes that don't make you look ugly" works and is quite timeless. Go and figure that one out.
Yes, I have become a fan of blogging and Facebook, though relatively late on the trendiness curve. That's OK. But one thing I am definitely not doing is jumping onto the "hip hop/rap" bandwagon. The one where people try to look cool and edgy by dressing up like hip-hop/rap artists and portray that they are living the gangsta' lifestyle. The ones who suffer from a serious melanin deficiency (think Vanilla Ice) and listen to Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z and other legit rappers to make up for a lack of street credibility.
You probably have seen some of them where you live, especially if you live in such hardcore gangster places like Johnson County. If I tilt my head correctly, I can hear some white guys in Olathe shouting the following phrases:

"What's up? I'm representin' the home turf 'casue I'm a OG from the OP down in Johnson County!"
OR
"We go loco in JoCo!"
OR
"Dude, THAT'S MY SONG!"

Sorry. Though I lack any street credibility, I think I know enough to know that white boy from Overland Park in Johnson County ain't an original gangster from the hood. Maybe he's representing the Country Club Plaza crowd at the strip mall hot spots, but he ain't no thug or soldier or pimp with a limp. Next time, try that little routine on someone from let's say, Cabrini Green or East Saint Louis or maybe one of the less-visited places in downtown Detroit. Ghosty Gangsta from the Shady Side of the tree won't last two seconds.

Which brings me to the main story. Ahem. I think you might recognize people in your own life who act this way...

MAIN STORY
I'm going to the gym to exercise when I see this white guy wearing a white shirt. The stereotypical wifebeater kind you get from Hanes in a three pack from WalMart. Classic. And he is bobbing and weaving his head like he's in a 15 round prize fight for no particular reason.
Maybe he's listening to some music. I've done that before, but not in the energetic fashion that this guy is doing it. I mean it's really energetic. Like his neck is a spring for a bobblehead doll.
Then it becomes worse. He does the spastic white boy breakdancing arm movements. You've probably seen them done before. The spastic arm roll. The "Wave Your Hands in the Air" and the classic Trustifarian Arm Pump. All while bobbing his head along erratically.
I'm not exactly sure what song this poor soul was listening to, but I'm sure that when he heard the song, the guy was screaming, "DUDE, THIS IS MY SONG!" And he probably pumped the volume up on the I-Pod or the radio and started to do said erratic dance movements that would get him laughed off the dance floor. Even in vanilla Johnson County. Or get his ass kicked if the tried to pull off those same moves in a Soul Train dancer audition.
But the best part, is while I'm making the left turn to go where I want to go, I take a look at the driver. He has a pained look on his face. Embarassed that his passenger is dancing like a fool and everyone is probably watching him do his sixty seconds of God-knows-what form of dancing. Comic gold.
If I only took some pictures to immortalize him on the Internet. Ah, I guess that is how things work sometimes in life.

So, remember these important life lessons:
1. Don't pretend to be cool by dressing like a hip-hop/rap artist because odds are, you look like a fool and people will laugh at you. Maybe not in your face, but they are laughing.
2. Learn how to dance hip-hop and get a sense of rhythm. It may fool the JoCo highschool crowd, but it ain't gonna pass the test in places where such forms of dancing is an art form.
3. If you suffer from "Vanillaiceitis" or the tragic disease of suffering from a melanin deficiency and trying to make up for such lack by trying to look like you're from the tough streets of Compton, get cured. This disease is easily spread and one person with it is enough.
4. Be yourself, even if it means being uncool. At least you are being yourself. God forbid you change and try to be something you're not. You'll probably fail in your efforts and they will laugh at you even harder. Spare yourself the indignity of this.


That's all for now.

Some Thoughts on Elections

I'd like to preface this by saying that the following are the personal views of this blogger. Personally, I don't trust that either party is good for the United States and no matter who we vote in, things will be the same in Washington. They all talk the talk we want to hear and then they cut and run. That is, get a check cut for them and they run with it to the bank. Or they cut off from their constituents and run away from responsibility. Or they cut off from their constituents and run again for office. You get my point. Oh well. What follows will seem like a total waste of time and absolutely contradictory from my little spiel above.


There are going to be midterm elections in November and there are many issues that will play a part in how people vote. I'me going to offer some thoughts on some of the issues that will play a part this November.

TERRORISM AND NATIONAL SECURITY
1. The No-Fly List
The No-Fly List, instituted after 9/11, was supposed to be a comprehensive list of people who should not be allowed to fly on airplanes and anyone with a name matching a person on that list should be taken out and questioned (legally of course, what ever that means to the current administration). Guess what. It doesn't work and there are serious problems.
If you have seen Sixty Minutes lately, you would have known that the government isn't doing a good job with that list and how to implement it.
It's supposed to be updated. Nope. Dead hijackers from 9/11 are still on that list. The official reason is that someone might assume those names and well, we really don't know if they are dead or not. This is coming from the person who was responsible for updating the list. Um...I think that if you are in a plane and you smash it into a building and the results are near-total incineration, it's safe to assume that they are dead. Unless they are immortal and have fast-regeneration powers, there is little chance they are alive. The British bombers who were recently arrested weren't on the list. And they were being investigated for an entire year. And it was compiled in a random way. Known terrorists are not on the list because it might be a breach of national security. They might find out and not fly on airplanes because of that. Um, Bin Laden survived so long because he AVOIDS getting caught. Go figure out that logic.
Oh, by the way, the airlines are only given a list of names. The official government list has date of births included and other relevant information like pictures. So if you happen to have a name on the list, be prepared to wait for six hours until you can prove you are NOT a suspected terrorist.
Why aren't these pieces of relevant information given to the guys working at the airport? National security. Yes, national security. The same reason why we have the list. Supposedly, the information is "TOP SECRET" and the airline people don't have sufficient clearance. The terrorists might find out they are on the list. So, national security says we have the list, but we can't help the nice airport people out because national security says that it would be a breach of national security to put in date of birth and a damn picture. OK...and I thought that the IRS code made no sense. This takes the cake.
2. Classifying Documents
This also makes no sense. Stuff that was in textbooks is now considered top secret. Again, it's for national security reasons. Anyone with a library card or an Internet connection can find formerly top secret information. Go figure out that logic. Hell, they still have World War I battle plans that are still top secret. Don't want the terrorists to find out how we'e going to liberate Europe in 1918. It might give them an unfair advantage.
Wait. Anyone can figure out top secret plans just by looking at non-clasified documents. They've done this in the fifties. It's how the Soviets knew which persons were people of interest. They just looked at Washington DC phonebooks, Who's Who, and other publically available information. Hell, a group of college professors involved in statistics deduced stuff so well about the Department of Defense's budget and military plans, that it matched the official plans in every single aspect.
3. The Blame Game on North Korea and 9/11 and Everywhere Else
Which party can make the United States safer? Don't believe the ads you see on television or the news. It's all BS. That's it. Neither party can. Unless they work together to solve the problems with real solutions instead of trying to make the other party look bad.
Who's to blame for 9/11? Both parties are. The CIA gave weapons and training to the mujahadeen in the 1980s because the Soviet Union was bad and an enemy of an enemy was a friend. Oddly enough, the mujahadeen became Al Qaeda and the Taliban. After the attacks on the US embassies, the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, and the USS Cole attack, Al Qaeda claimed responsibility. Not enough was done back in the Clinton years. When G.W. Bush took over, don't you think that those previous attacks were enough to make a person think that Al Qaeda really hated the US? That something should have been done? Guess it took 9/11 to do something about the situation. Not good enough.
The CIA and FBI hate eachother. They couldn't work together to stop the threat. Hell, both intelligence agencies tried to work as little as possible with translating Arabic so they could get more money. That shows a level of competence we can trust on.
Who is to blame for the current situation in North Korea? Again, everyone is to blame. Neither side did enough. We appeased North Korea before and gave them the rights to have nuclear reactors AND we ignored them later. They actually had WMDs and we ignored them. Did nothing and invaded Iraq based on a gross misapplication of faulty intelligence.
4. Intelligence Gathering
You've probably heard about the tussle over how we can gather intelligence from suspected Al Qaeda members or from terrorists in general. The current White House administration wants to give the CIA some leeway. After all, sometimes the situation requires some more forceful methods. And to make sure it is legal, we will define what is legal or not. The President will decide what's good or not depending on the situation.
Hey, a few hits will do them good. That's fine. Simulated drowning? Well, it worked before and these are terrorists. How about sleep deprivation? What about simulated sex. Barking attack dogs? It just depends. And it can be perfectly legal as long as the President decides so. Geneva Conventions don't apply. Abu Graib was an unfortunate but disgusting mistake.
The terrorists are using reprehensible methods when they behead people and mistreat them by beating them, but when Americans use simulated drowning, sleep deprivation and other similar methods, it's OK since we are "civilized" people. It's a battle of saving the free world of democracy from the Islamofascists.
On a related note, we don't need to bother about giving them habeas corpus, the chance to show that they aren't guilty and they have not commited a crime. Why would we want to give suspected terrorists that right? They don't deserve it. Tell that to the unfortunate Canadian citizen who wasn't a terrorist, extraorinarily rendered to Syria for interrogation, and was beaten for an entire year. Oops, we made a mistake. Go back home and don't tell anyone. Isn't that what civilized people do?
Either way, both parties will skew the facts to suit their needs, thereby making little if any progress on solving such problems. In the end, the people lose and the politicians win.
Now, based upon everything, which party can make the US safer?

TAXES
People don't want to pay taxes. It's a given. President G.W. Bush knows this fact and so he gave people tax cuts and the refunds. Did you really prosper from these actions? Odds are, you didn't. Guess what. All the real benefits went to the extremely rich.
The estate tax. Everyone talks about this. Guess what? It doesn't apply to you unless your net worth is at least a million dollars, if not more. Are you worth a million dollars? I'm thinking you're not. It only applies to 1.5 percent of the population. The super-rich people making at least six-figures every single year. Joe Schmoe ain't making that much.
In fact, all of the tax cuts that are good for the US citizens only apply if you define "citizen" as "those who fall in the uppermost tax brackets, namely those making at least six-figures every year in taxable income."
When was the last time you saw a person living in a trailer park doing itemized deductions like paying property taxes on their house? Or for that matter, a middle-class citizen taking itemized deductions on business expenses? Owner occupied housing tax subsidies cost $157 billion each year. If you happen to own two houses, you can get a deduction on the second house also. They're all great subsidies costing tax payers hundreds of billions of dollars. Most of the money is going to the rich, not the average person.
Anytime the government or anyone says that the Bush Tax Cuts are good for the nation, seriously ask yourself who is benefiting from them. The chances are high that you're not benefiting at all. After all, the more money you have, the more influence you have in the political world.

SOCIAL SECURITY
You're all probably thinking that the taxes you pay for Social Security is kept safe from the greedy palms of the government. It's put in the Social Security Trust Fund and kept separate so when you retire, you can take your portion out. yeah right. Welcome back to planet Earth.
Guess what. Once it reaches Washington DC, it's indistinguishable from all the other cash the government gets. If Congress needs a billion dollars to pay from a day in Afghanistan and Iraq, poof, it's gone. Basically, it is an IOU. The government will "promise" to pay it later.
You might be wondering why the government comes up with different numbers for the budget deficit/surplus. Now you know wy. It plays the numbers game with the money it has. That's why the budget deficit this year changed from 470 billion to only 320 billion. Your Social Security taxes helped make up the difference.
In a related note, the national debt is about 8.6 trillion dollars. Most of it is IOUs to Social Security, Treasury Bills and Bonds, and other assorted ephemera. The US government is like a consumer with a massive debt, but worse. It was 5.6 trillion G.W. took over and it is now the number today. Oddly enough, it coincided with the tax cuts and refunds mentioned earlier. In March of this year, the ceiling was raised to 9 trillion and that will be reached very soon. Once 9 trillion is reached, it's either raise the ceiling or have government shut down. Don't you all feel better about your future and the future for unknown generations years later? I guess not.

To sum, what am I trying to say? Choose wisely and get informed. The best weapon is knowledge. Get involved and vote.


That's all for now.

Blow, Finger, and Squeeze

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. It's time for an update to this site so I can tell you all about things that I find important right now. About the events that happen in my so called life. As if I had one to talk about. Anyways...

I like books. I've got piles of them. A large portion of them are law school textbooks, which I don't intend to read very closely any time soon. At least until I have insomnia and I want to knock myself out in less than five minutes...make that five seconds.
So when I hear there is a free book giveaway, I will go to the free book giveaway early and not the KU football game. Yes, it was Homecoming and it promised to be an entertaining game. But come on, I've seen enough KU football to know that the Jayhawks, to mangle a quote by Lincoln, can pull a defeat out the jaws of victory. Which they managed to do. Like their game against Toledo. Or...well...I could go on for a while.
Whiel going to the giveaway, I was listening to a Scottish music CD involving bagpipes. Yes, bagpipes. They're a much maligned instrument. People think they sound like dying sheep.
Ah, even the people responsible for the CD made fun of Scottish music. The first song had a funny intro:
"Five hundred years before Christ, a blue-faced Pict was walking along the Highlands when he stepped on a bloated sheep carcass. And thus, the bagpipes were first born."
And there was more Scottish humor involving bagpipes and bagpipe music. But the best one was the "A lassie has to admire a man who can blow, finger, and squeeze, all at the same time."
Which brings me to the following, a bagpipe song properly entitled "Blow, Finger, and Squeeze."

Blow, finger, and squeeze! Blow, finger, and squeeze!
Just remember these three steps
And you'll be playin' the pipes with ease.
All the pretty lassies listenin' to Highland music
Will be beggin' on their knees...
To have a chance to play with your pipes
Cause they'll want to learn how to blow, finger, and squeeze!


That's all for now.

Robbery Is an Honest Crime...

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. It's time for an update to this site, as I will be not into the updating mood this weekend. Might as well get it over now.

Despite being not a fan of speaking in public, um, speaking in general, it seemed crazy of me to get involved with a class that requires a lot of speaking. As in arguing cases in front of actual judges for a grade. For a person with a severe lack of public confidence, taking this class is a major step up. This may seem odd, even paradoxical, considering how I write about doing stand-up comedy and saying strange stuff in law school classes. Actually, it's not.
During those times, I act my socially inept self and start saying things that are on my mind. I turn off the "socially correct" button and let loose because I particularly don't care what you think at those times. There is a very fine difference. In Trial Advocacy, you have to follow the "lawyerly correct" way of doing things. This mode does not consider sarcasm, deprication, and other Un-ways of humor or speaking as proper legal decorum. Unless you're outside of the court drinking heavily after a long day at work. Even then, there's somebody watching how you behave.
Anyways...I digress from the point of this post.
So, I did my Trial Ad small section. To add a little difficulty and to reflect the real world, the adjunct decided that, as witnesses, we would assume a personality. You know, the drunk dude, the crazy dude, the overly-talkative girl, and so forth. I got to be the hard-of-hearing man who can't hear anything at all and misinterprets words. That was fun, though I wanted to be the crazy-delusional guy. I think that acting like a crazy-delusional guy suits me very well. I guess I'm a natural at that. Acting, that is. Being crazy, that's a different story.
I guess I was having a lot of fun seeing people do strange stuff like pretend to be drunk, see imaginary people, and other funny things. This lack of legal decorum probably affected me in a negative way. It did.
During my direct examination, I am going very well. That is, until I ask my witness (the overly-talkative girl who likes to ramble) to describe and identify the person who shot a sheriff(but did not kill a deputy). This is where Stupid Mistake Number One rears in its ugly head.
This is, quite possibly, one of the worst mistakes any attorney can make, other than being totally unprepared for a trial.

STUPID MISTAKE NUMBER ONE
While asking said witness to ID the shooter, I inadvertantly turn around and point in the general area of the Defense table. Damn. Not good.

As if the thing can't get any worse, I go straight into Stupid Mistake Number Two during the Defense's Cross Examination. They decide to go to the Prior Conviction impeachment route, where you try to make the witness look liike an evil criminal who can't be believed. It's an easy route towards making the witness look bad. But I am prepared to counter such an attack. During the direct examination, I cover the bases by talking about the plea bargain. And I also know my Federal Rules of Evidence very well. The opposing counsel can't use it. It's considered improper impeachment. Consider this post a free legal education to impress your friends and laugh at legal shows like Law and Order, Boston Legal, Injustice, or any other shows of the same vein.

EXPLANATION OF LEGAL STUFF
Under the Federal Rules of Evidence, prior convictions can be used to impeach a witness with some qualifications. To get a prior conviction in, you must show that the crime was a felony and you must pass the Rule 403 Balancing Test on truthfulness. That is, you must show that the relevance to truthfulness of the crime outweight the prejudicial value.
A crime that is more probative of truthfulness would include crimes that involve deceit or lying as an element. Examples of such crimes are perjury, fraud, false statments, embezzlement, tax evasion, etc. Under most jurisdictions, burglary and robbery are not examples of such crimes. Deceit and lying are not elements of the crime, so it fails. Yup, robbery is not a crime involving lying or deceit. If you're a prosecutor, that sucks. If you're a defense attorney trying to show the witness is a damn liar, this sucks also cause most likely, it won't get in.
Wasn't that informative? Now you know. You can quit yawning right now. The funny stuff follows. This leads me into Stupid Mistake Number Two.

STUPID MISTAKE NUMBER TWO(The final one)
When you are arguing that it is improper impeachment, you should never do the following as I did. Conversation that follows in verbatim with some summarization done to make this sound good for me. Except for that last bit:

Me: "I object. Improper impeachment."
Judge: "Your legal reasoning?"
Me(confidently): "According to the Federal Rules of Evidence, in order to get that in for impeachment, it must pass a two pronged test. Since it is a felony, it must be withing ten years of the date of trial and it must pass the Rule 403 balancing test involving truthfulness. Because it is robbery, the felony is not a crime of truthfulness. It obviously fails this test."
Judge: "Response?"
Other Side basically said that it passes and that it is a crime involving truthfulness.
Judge: "Your answer?"
Me: "A crime of truthfulness is any crime that involves deceit or lying as an element. This would include crimes like fraud, perjury, and such. Robbery is not a crime that involves deceit or lying." (I'm doing well, so well, I'm getting cocky and I should have reined myself in at this point. Dumb mistake follows.) "With robbery, you steal money face up. It's one of the more honest crimes that doesn't involve deceit."

People laugh. Wait, I was having fun. Damn. I seriously did a SNAFU there. Maybe a TARFU.
IMPORTANT LESSON LEARNED FROM THIS
Remember, there are better ways of saying robbery is not a crime involving truthfulness than saying "It's one of the more honest crimes that doesn't involve deceit." It may make for an entertaining transcript quip, but in the real world, it is a pretty f-ing serious no-no. There is always the "Federal Rules don't define it as a crime involving truthfulness" or even better, cite a case or two that proves this point. Nice bells and whistles instead of the 100 megaton nuclear warhead that wipes your credibility clean away.

Well, things wen't very well after this. I got a pretty good grade, despite the pretty glaringly, moronically stupid mistakes I made. I'm an amateur at this, so it wasn't too bad. OK, it was bad, but not the worst thing I could have done.
I had a good laugh and I'm still laughing about it. This might go down into the Trial Ad history books. The people in my small section got a kick out of it. Oh well. There's next week to rehabilitate my image. As if I had a positive one to begin with...


That's all for now.

Pay Up or the Air Conditioning Gets It...

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet that I know of devoted to all things related to Un. I am going to attempt to type this as quickly as possible because the air conditioning might go out while I type this. Why should I be worried about this happening?. The AC went out yesterday.
You might note that it's October and there really is no need for air conditioning during this time of the year. After all, it is fall, and that generally means cooler temperatures. Yes, that would be right, but this is Kansas, and in this part of the world, Mother Nature, like Clark Gable in Gone With the Wind, doesn't give a damn.
It was 94 yesterday. Under any circumstances, that is hot. For October, it is beyond hot, but into the realm of ridiculous.
You would expect that the law school would do their best in maintaining the temperature inside the building at some comfortable constant. After all, comfortable students and faculty mean happy students and faculty. Happy people mean people who won't complain and ditch the law school. That means high quality. That means better rankings, right? Better rankings are good. Slippery slope, but it's pretty decent logic.
Constant temperature? It doesn't happen at all. Even when everything is working fine, it's not all the same in every room. Some rooms are consistently hot. Some rooms are always cold. Some rooms have multiple personalities and can't decide what temperature to be.
So, when the HVAC system went down yesterday, it was quite surprising to discover that the entire law school was hot when it was so nice earlier in the day. Then again, I was probably failing miserably in trying to fool myself. This has happened before, many times before. It seems like once a semester, something in the HVAC system breaks down. Last year, it went down twice. And it was down for a long time, making it awful inside. It was a hundred outside and near a hundred inside for most of the day. Not nice.
Not to sound critical, but you would expect the machinery to work a little bit better. I mean, if you have to fix it at least once a year, something is up. You probably should cut losses and buy some new equipment. It might be expensive right now, but it should pay for itself when you don't have to fix it every semester. Then again, I'm not running the University or the law school.
Not to sound cynical, but I think it's a subtle way of the University telling the students something. And a little dramatic interlude to illustrate:

University (while sobbing): "We don't have enough money to pay for these things. The State won't pay for it, so we will get it from the students who attend colleges and universities here in this state. It's a shame."
University puts on black mask and pulls out a pistol. Points pistol at air conditioner. "Pay up or the air conditioning gets it!"

That sounds about right.

That's all for now.

Random Thoughts Floating In My Head

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only known site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. It's time for a lovely and well-needed update to this site.

I really should remember that you should always greadually break in new running shoes. I had recently bought new running shoes since the old shoes were getting ratty (soles worn out). So I try several pairs on to see how well they fit and if they would cause any problems later. And I did some walking and jumbping in them just to make sure. I find a pair and I buy them.
Yesterday, I decided to seriously test them out by running faster and longer than I normally do. Which, if you don't know, is a seriously dumb mistake. I'm up around 6.5 to 7.0MPH and the problems begin. When I am done with my running, I notice that my right foot feels funny.
I'm thinking, "Must be a cramp or something. It will go away once I stretch and walk a bit."
Nope. So once I'm done exercising, I check my foot out and there is a nasty blister on my right foot. Not fun. The only good news is that it didn't burst. I'm now beginning to see why that first aid class I took was useful.

If you've ever seen Boston Legal, you'll know that one of the many unusual characters that populate the show has Asperger's Syndrome. It's characterized as a "condition marked by impaired social interactions and limited repetitive patterns of behavior. Motor milestones may be delayed and clumsiness is often observed." Which is interesting in itself as someone I know asked if I might have Asperger's. Go figure.
I'm not sure. Maybe I do given the list of symptoms:

Abnormal nonverbal communication, such as problems with eye contact, facial expressions, body postures, or gestures
Failure to develop peer relationships
Being singled out by other children as "weird" or "strange"
Lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests or achievements with others (a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people)
Markedly impaired expression of pleasure in other people's happiness
Inability to return social or emotional feelings
Inflexibilty about specific routines or rituals
Repetitive finger flapping, twisting, or whole body movements
Unusually intense preoccupation with narrow areas of interest, such as obsession with train schedules, phone books, or collections of objects
Preoccupation with parts of whole objects
Repetitive behaviors, including repetitive self-injurious behavior

Do I have any of them? Actually, to be honest, several if not most of them. It might explain a lot about what's up with my head and the way I show a lack of interest in interacting with people. If you can consider what I do "interaction" with others. I kind of wonder why the hell am I in law school if that requires interacting with people and I show a certain dislike for such social interaction. Or I am not a naturally sociable person. Ah, the joys of the Internet in making a person doubt their mental condition.

The law school bathrooms smell bad. Really bad. Nauseously bad. They smell like an animal died in them and to add to the stench, someone decided to dump some raw sewage on top and let is sit for a week under the sun. The first floor bathroom is the prime offender to the nose. I'm not using the bathrooms in the law school due to the smell.

Time to go to International Trade Law. Maybe I can find some time to study for Federal Income Taxation as I have this bad feeling that I will be up very soon to solve some particularly evil tax problems.


That's all for now.

Search Results

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet that I know of devoted to all things related to Un. Yaddi ya. You all know the rest of the usual intro to my posts.

Apparently, one of my blog posts was referred to by two different websites. I found out by using Statcounter and Google. Not that I particularly care about these things, but I get a personal thrill. At least someone is reading my posts and actually found one of them interesting.
For those who do not know, Statcounter is a webiste that keeps track of the number of people visiting your website and where they are coming from. Plus a lot of other statistics. It's a free service, unless you go for the "deluxe" version. I'm to cheap to do this, so I get the basic one. It's king of Big Brother/1984-ish, but it's a neat thing to have on your website.
One of the visitors found my blog from a Nintendo gaming forum. They are fans of the original NES. Good old 8-bit fun instead of the fancy 64-bit gaming systems with special imaging processors and more processing power than some supercomputers. That's the capability of the soon to be released Playstation 3. I like the old school games. I digress.
So, after using Google, I've come to the conclusion that my post about what's in your food was the post they were reading and decided to link to. Only because they linked to the general July 2005 archive and not to any specific post. I'm sure they weren't referring to poetry or any other stuff I wrote about that month. I'm going by general assumptions.
This was reinforced by another search result which has the same July 2005 link and a blurb about stuff in food. Though I have to wonder why someone had to ask a question about eating moths. Weird.
I'm now a source for information about food safety regulations. Ah, the importance of knowing trivia.


That's all for now.

A Wednesday Update

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet that I know of devoted to all things related to Un. You know the drill by now. It's stuff that I find interesting. Nope, I don't have any stories involving amazingly dumb drunken behavior that I have seen because I don't have much of a life. Sad but true. Though, the Kansas Law Student has an interesting story on his blog. The title of the post is reason enough to read it.

I'm what you might call a geek/dork/nerd. They're all different, despite what others might say. I've written about the differences in my other blog. Actually, it's more of a site where I store a novella. It's on two different posts, so you have to read the first one and then the second one to get the entire deal.
I can easily understand many things that are technical like quantum physics or some other dense topic that will bore a person to death. An admission: I used to read articles in math and science journals for fun. I like to see if I can understand the subject matter discussed. Go figure. Given this background, it comes as no surprise that I would be interested with a website involving quantum physics. I listened to the lectures and they were very good. Easy to understand. Then again, they were coming from a Nobel Prize winning physicist, so that was an achievement by itself. I particularly enjoyed the nod towards geek/nerd humor. Physics lovers rejoice. Yes, there is Feynman. Geez, I have no life.

If you're looking for a job (this term defined loosely), then take hope. The top jobs with the largest job growth have been posted. We need people to serve us food, give us an education beyond high school, and take care of us when were sick. In an unrelated note, this sounds perfect for America. Smart people eating a lot of food and needing medical care due to their poor nutritional/eating/exercising habits. It's a shame that "personal trainer" didn't make it on the Top Ten list.

And proof that there's no news in the news. Some low-bulk filler. Scientists have examined the Mona Lisa and discovered it is an excellent painting. They also pulled out some theories from the air and said that the subject was painted after having her second child. And this is based on...
On an unrelated note, Americans cannot read nutrition labels posted on packages and are lousy at basic math like multiplication. In other words, the American consumer are illiterate, suck at math, and are eating way too much. So what else is new?

That's all for now.

Mind If I Feel Your...

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only known site on the entire Internet devoted to all things related to Un, the only subject that I can write about without much problems. Ask me to write something about another topic and that might take a while.

Yesterday, I had an...interesting...well, maybe unusual conversation with a former professor. This professor, who shall remain anonymous (Anonymous Professor or AP as this progresses) is a really cool professor at KU Law School. He pounds information in your head like a sledgehammer and it will stay in by God or you will be woefully unprepared for one of his finals. Anonymous Professor also tells very funny jokes and makes funny comments. Students (well, maybe me at this moment) have compiled a list of APisms, or catch phrases he uses in class. Most of them involve references to crooked politicians and property law. By now, if you're a student at KU Law, you'll know who I am talking about. Then again, if you've read my writing project blog, you'll have an idea of what I'm talking about.
Anyways, I've just gotten a drink of water from the water fountain. Earlier in the day, one of the water mains leading to the law school burst so water was nonexistent until the problem could be fixed. AP had noticed that the water was back on and he made several funny comments about the current situation. You've got to be there when he starts cracking jokes. It's an experience.
Anyways, he comments on how he likes my shirt. Normal conversation, right? So I'm wearing a crimson shirt with "KU" in block print and a navy blue Nike swoosh. Yeah, so KU changed it's athletic apparel allegiance to Adidas. It has KU on it, so it's good enough. I'm not spending money to replace the old Nike stuff with Adidas stuff since I am cheap and on the pragmatic side, it's still KU apparel.
The rest of the conversation goes down from here and enters into an amazingly bizarre level of non-reality. Almost surreal. What follows is an actual event and not some fictional story coming from my head. These events, for some reason, happen to me. I must be a "unusual event" lightning rod or something.

AP: "Mr. Un-Zone, that is a really nice shirt you're wearing."
Me: "Thanks."
AP: "It has a really nice texture to it."
Me: (Confusion is registering on my face right now, wondering what the hell is going on right now.) "It does..."
AP: "Very rugged. This might sound gay, but would you mind if I felt your shirt? Just to get an idea of what the texture is like?"
Me: (Even more confused and trying to figure out what to say or do at this time.)

Let's pause right now. What the hell do you do at this moment? Be polite and act as if nothing has happened? Be casual? Show shock? In order to avoid escalating the level of social awkwardness any higher, I decide to take the casual route. As if this was a normal way for people to react to a shirt.

Me: "Sure. Go ahead." (I'm thinking I pulled this one off very casually. And this is one big joke. Where are the cameras?)

AP decides that this will be a good time to feel my shirt. He touches the sleeve and rubs it between his fingers, as if he is appraising the quality of fabric. Now this is weird.

AP: "Very nice. It's got a rugged texture to it. Very tough. It's unlike the combed cotton they use in other shirts. Do you know what I'm talking about?"
Me: (I don't know anything about the texture of combed cotton, but I maintain some composure.)"Um...yeah."
AP: "By any chance, where did you get this shirt?"
Me: (By this time, the social awkwardness has gone off the chart. So I decide to go take a roundabout route and not say anything of value. I probably could have said something like "I got it as a present." but I don't.) "Well, I got it from someone who knows someone..."
AP: "I don't want to hear any more. I should be going right now. That is a very nice shirt."

And now it's time to go outside to sit in the sun to decompress from this very unusual conversation. It's nice when people comment on how they like the clothes you're wearing, but when it comes from a professor who decides they would like to feel your shirt because they like the texture, that's really strange. It would have been much better if an attractive girl asked, preferably with a phone number. Ah, if life only worked that way in reality and not in my little world in my head. It should happen soon. I think. Anyways, if you are a single female who would like to feel this shirt in question, please feel free to contact me at...just kidding. It was a joke. Wait. If you consider this a serious offer and would like to do so...you know what to do.
This is just a fluke and it will not happen again. I might have to search my closet for shirts of unusual texture.

It's now time to begin my day. I should be getting ready for Federal Income Taxation today and Trial Ad small section tomorrow. That's all for now.

Tuesday Update

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet that I know of devoted to all things related to Un. By now, if you have been looking at this site, you'll know that it's stuff that I find interesting to write about. So if this isn't your cup of tea, you can always press the BACK button(the one that looks like an arrow pointing to the left) on your browser or you can go to Google and redo the search that got you here. For those of you who actually want to be here on this site, read on.


It's time to have fun with news items that I find to be...well...I'm not sure how to describe them. I could say "stupid" or "obvious" or some other words or phrases, but it wouldn't encompass every news item. So let's just say I make some comments about the news item and pound some information into your heads with irony, sarcasm, and other good literary devices. The Un-Zone Bully Pulpit.

Just like President Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" comment and sign referring to the Invasion(Liberation or whatever you want to call it) of Iraq, NATO has made a similar comment about the Taliban in Afghanistan. Actually, they made a comment along the lines of "There are no more Taliban in a certain part of sourthern Afghanistan." Sort of like VP Cheney and other Bush officials saying that the insurgency(which was brewing in Iraq before the US declared "victory" by the way) was on the decline and about to be crushed by American military might. Oddly enough, guess what happens? Yes indeedy. The Taliban sets off a string of suicide bombings that kill NATO peacekeepers, soldiers, and Pakistani civilians, including children. The soldiers were involved in Operation Medusa. Maybe they should have called in Hydra, after the multi-headed monster with heads that grew back after they were cut off.
On a related note, the British admitted that they and NATO underestimated the tenacity of the Taliban. They were surprised that the Taliban would fight back with everything they got, despite going against the US military, the British, and NATO peacekeepers? Haven't they read about the recent history of Afghanistan? Don't they remember about the Afghani-Soviet War that occured during the 1980's? If Wikipedia isn't accurate enough for your tastes, how about this from the US government or maybe this? Guess what? The Taliban used to be the mujahadeen from the Afghanistan-Soviet War. The United States gave them weapons like Stinger missiles so they could shoot down Russian Hind attack helicopters. Basically, they learned their lessons from the best out there: the United States. They're going to know how to fight in their own turf using whatever weapons they have. As the History News Network so clearly states, the people we armed are the CIA armed are

[S]ome of the same people who in 1996 killed 19 American airmen at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; bombed our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998; blew a hole in the side of the U.S. destroyer Cole in Aden harbor in 2000; and on Sept. 11, 2001, flew hijacked airliners into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Today, the world awaits what is almost certain to happen soon at some airport -- a terrorist firing a U.S. Stinger low-level surface-to-air missile (manufactured at one time by General Dynamics in Rancho Cucamonga) into an American jumbo jet. The CIA supplied thousands of them to the moujahedeen and trained them to be experts in their use. If the CIA's activities in Afghanistan are a 'success story,' then Enron should be considered a model of corporate behavior.

Even as I write this, three US soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. Nothing like a good ol' mission accomplished in Afghanistan.

From the New York Times, an article stating that the Canadians are blaming the United States for it's role in a torture case.
To quote from the article:

American officials had apparently acted on inaccurate information from Canadian investigators and then misled Canadian authorities about their plans for Mr. Arar before transporting him to Syria.

To add a little cynicism to this, where did the Canadians think the US was going to take a suspected terrorist? Disney World? Apparently, he was sent (wait, it was a "rendition" according to the President) to Syria (a country not known for its use of humane interrogation techniques) where he was put in a cell and beaten with electrical wires for nearly a year. And then the Syrians realized he had no connections to terrorism. Ooops. Sorry. Honest mistake.
After all, G.W. Bush says the Geneva Conventions are too vague and we have to define what's acceptable or not. A little use of force isn't too bad if it prevents terrorist attacks. If you're not a terrorist, sorry for the beatings. It was for national security reasons.


That's all for now.

Magic Phrases, Trial Ad, and the KFC Robber

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site that I know of on the World Wide Web devoted to all things related to Un. Yes, this is the original and only site when it comes to things related to Un. You don't accept cheap and poor knock-off imitations when it comes to other things in life, so why not when it comes to the websites you see?

I just came back from Trial Ad small section. I played the role of two witnesses--an investigator and a college professor. It wasn't too bad, though there were a bunch of facts and names to remember. I also got a really weird problem that threw me for a loop. It involved an armed robbery where my witness got robbed at gunpoint. On the surface, it seems like a simple problem of getting a gun entered into evidence. Not so with this problem. Then again, I could have received the case where you couldn't get the exhibit in no matter how hard you tried. Yes, a trick fact pattern.
In general, if you are prosecuting such a case, you do a direct examination of the witness first and then you do a direct examination of the police officer who evenually nabs the crook. During the examination of the police officer, you enter the gun into evidence once you lay down the foundation. By foundation, it means asking questions that establish three things:
1. Qualifying witness is competent (first hand knowledge)
2. Exhibit must be relevant and reliable (related to the case and can be trusted)
3. Exhibit must be authenticated (it's what you say it is)
Depending on the object, you can ask the right questions in the right order to get the stuff in. They've got nice patterns where you just replace "exhibit" with things like "gun," "picture," and so forth. (Sorry about all of this legal jargon that I'm using, but it's necessary. You can always impress people with your legal knowledge at this point.)
Well, to make a long explanation short, this fact pattern is well messed up because it's a Trial Advocacy problem. All academic testing with little to do with how things are done in the real world. Pure fantasy to test your knowledge of evidence and how to get exhibits in. This is quite common in law school.
Anyways, my examination is going pretty well. I'm breezing through without any notes and maintaining eye contact and all that other good stuff. I have a few problems articulating certain things, but all in all, it's all good.
Then comes the problem of coming up with an argument on why the gun should be entered into evidence. Problem.
I had the correct answer somewhere in my head. I know because I had been musing about why anyone would do an examination as the problem book had and how would I counter any objections. Someone had offhandedly given me the real-world answer and the magic phrases to use. A powerful WMD to nuke eivdentiary objections into nothingness and make me supreme ruler.
Right at the tip of my tongue and I forget them. So I come up with what I think is brilliant stuff, but the Trial Advocacy adjunct, a seasoned federal attorney, stops and explains what I should have said. The resulting lecture is very informative and she reminds everyone of the magic words I should have said. Apparently, one of the cases she tried is connected to this problem. As a Fed prosecutor, she tried the infamous KFC Robber Case, where the defendant armed with a gun robbed Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants. The witnesses only could describe the gun as "a black gun" which later turned out to be a Glock. What were the lessons learned from this pertinent case:
1. The chain of custody relates to the weight of evidence and not the admission of evidence.
2. The magical phrase is "probative of identity" which is why she could enter the Glock the police found into evidence when witnesses could not say that it was exactly the same gun, but "similar to" the exhibit.
After that, I end pretty well. The shield of invincibility got dented, but I manage to pull one out. Next time, I should try to explain things in my language and not like a freaking rule book. After all, textbooks and statutes make for tedious and lousy reading material.
It's now time to read up on the next case I am doing a direct. I need to cover my bases a lot better. That and writing an article for the September issue of the Brief-Brief.

That's all for now.

Stand Up Comedy Competition

It's an update to this blog. Apparently, there will be an Open Mic Night at the Kansas Union and it will be a stand-up comedy competition.
If you have read my blog, you will know that I enjoy doing stand-up comedy. Yes, I don't perform that often to be considered a serious comic, but hey, I've got a schedule that makes performing on a Tuesday night a tough proposition. If you go to an open-mic at Stanford and Sons, you don't end up back in Lawrence until midnight if it's a busy one. I'm not much of a night owl. Yeah, it's a pitiful excuse and I should be more serious about this, as I enjoy doing this more than law school at this moment.
I think the perfect situation has come up, thanks to the University Daily Kansan(UDK), a newspaper that I rarely read, as I prefer the New York Times.
According to the UDK, the Student Union Activities association is holding an Open-Mic series where aspiring musicians, poets, and comics show their stuff in order to win monetary prizes. I did their Stand-Up competition in February and I had a good time. I didn't win (the big prize was a gig at a comedy club for a famous comic), but I'm not bitter or anything.
The voting is done by the audience and the top-three vote getters make it to the big final contest. If I do try out for this on November 15, 2006, I'm going to need to be funny and I need to get votes. Maybe I should load the audience with law school students...just kidding. Actually, I might have to do that to win.

That's all for now.

Morning Observation

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet that I know of that is devoted to all things related to Un. It's time for one of those updates that I do for this blog at a semi-consistent basis.

During the weekend, I went to Haskell University's Indian Art Market. It was an outdoor event and unlike me, they had prepared for the possibility of rain. When I arrived there, there was a heavy shower. And to think I had not expected this event to occur. Yup, I left the umbrella at home.
You know, one of the hardest questions to answer is the following, especially when it is asked by a female. It comes in many variations, but the basic premise is the female will ask how do they look in a certain item of clothing: "Does this look good on me?" The other is "which one looks better?" No matter what answer you give, something you say will cause them to become annoyed or angry. If you are blunt by saying "It makes you look *insert adjective here*," and it is not complementary, they will cry and call you insensitive. If the words happens to be "fat" or "ugly" or the death phrase of "It makes your *body part* looks fat," they will try their best not to rip your head off and insert it where the sun don't shine. On the other hand, if you say they look nice, which may be the truth, a female (most that I know of) will either become insecure and say, "Are you sure" and ask you over and over again. Or they will accuse you of lying and go through the "You don't care enough about me to tell me the truth" bit. Note, I am going by the limited personal experience that I have dealing with women and through observation. Personal experience, sadly, is lacking; however, I have had lots of time to look at couples go through this deadly dance of clothes. Not to bash on women and seemingly have a stereotypical view of women, I do know of women who honestly accept criticism and compliments without going through the moods I have described.
I generally defuse the situation by telling the truth in a funny way. I always say, "You're asking a guy. What would I know about fashion?" Which is the honest truth. What do men know about fashion? Unless you are a clothes designer, a person who is picky about clothes, or one of the guys from Queer Eye, most men will not have a clue about clothing. As long as it passes the smell test and it fits, it's good enough to wear. I do have some sense on what to wear and what not to wear, but I'm not sure if such and such bracelet accessorizes with the clothes you are wearing at that time.

That being said, I do know one thing. Clothes from the 1980's are not cool. Retro may be the cool thing to do right now, but I think they should have skipped the decade where superhold hairspray was the norm. Seriously.
A case in point. This morning, while coming to law school this morning, I happened to spot a girl walking to class. I'm assuming that she was walking to class since she was on campus. Maybe she was going to the gym. I'm not totally sure. The girl was attractive, but something was definitely wrong in the style department.
Imagine blond hair in a shade that was not natural, unless you have a genetic relationship to blond squirrels pulled up in a ponytail. A neon-pink jacket. Neon-pink shorts reminiscent of the old-school basketball shorts worn during the 1970's. A black shirt with neon-green and neon-yellow letters written on the front. Pink sneakers. And to top it all off, a hot-pink bag. Note the amount of neon colors in her outfit this morning. More neon than the Vegas Strip, more neon than Andre Agassi when he started out in tennis, more neon than a one-hit wonder 80's hair band. Not cool. She probably would have looked better if she wore something less...well...neon. A little is fine, but that much is not. I think my eyes are still hurting. If I only had a picture to post.
Then again, what would I know about fashion? I'm just a guy who can't tell if everything is nicely accessorized.

Time to go to International Trade. Oh the joys of writing six pages of notes. My Tuesday is off to a great start.

A Friday Post

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet that I know of devoted to all things related to Un. Please hit the "Back" button if you were looking for something else like the United Nations or porn or whatever you searching for.

It's time for one of those random updates where I write about nothing significant like web links because I have nothing interesting to write about or I am too lazy to think of something great. Man, I need to get a social life.

This is probably one of the more...um...interesting stories that I have read on the Internet. You've got to give it to the Japanese for such vivid and creative headlines for a newspaper story. What else would you expect from the people who gave to the world comics involving sex with aliens and tentacled creatures? You just have to see the article and judge for yourself.

I've been to McDonalds before and I seriously doubt that I will confuse a little eatery in Malaysia serving chicken curry with the fast food institution. Come on, it wouldn't be a McDonalds without the ubiquitous golden arches and the other features that make a McDonalds and McDonalds. Oh well, that's how the legal system works these days.

Nope, that doesn't look like I'm going to confuse the two places. Besides, the curry place probably has meat in the food.

And in not-so-smart criminal behavior, a man accused of killing his wife left behind a to-do list in his house. The police found it when they searched his house. Maybe he should have put down "Destroy this list" on the list. This comes to your from New Orleans, so I guess the cops got a "big easy" load of evidence. Sorry for the bad pun.

And more dumb behavior by criminals. If you have a damaged car, do not tell the repair people that you were car-jacked and the thieves stole crack-cocaine from your car. And if you do happen to tell that story, don't leave any incriminating evidence like a stash of drugs behind. As my Criminal Procedure professor said, "Leave your drugs at home."


That's all for now.

Random Wednesday Thoughts

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet(and I've searched for them) devoted to all things related to Un. Then again, this really isn't something special, so I can't brag too much about it. There probably is some similarly positioned site on the Internet. I digress.

It was one of those perfect weather days today in this part of the world: Lawrence, Kansas. The sun was shining brightly. The sky was blue with some puffy, white clouds. A slight breeze, but not too windy. To gild the weather-related lily, it wasn't hot, but very comfortable. If it weren't for law school classes, I probably would have spent all day outside, just soaking up the sun and slowly getting a nasty form of skin cancer. I'm going to spend a lot of time outside when the weather is this nice. It's much better than staying inside, considering the condition of certain building on campus. *COUGH*Wescoe Hall*COUGH* for example. Not that I'm naming names or anything. The Law School isn't so bad, but it's a good thing to get outside. Maybe it might be possible to get my Public International Law professor to have class outside tomorrow. Not that it's going to happen, but it's worth asking him. Just once.
Things are going as usual at the Law School. The new 1L class thinks Lawyering is a useless class that gives no guidance and probably won't be useful any time in the real world. And they are thinking about word counts and all the other "fun" stuff that encompasses a class involving "legal" writing in the "real world". Note that items in quotes are meant to be interpreted as sarcastic. When they say "good luck" after giving an assignment, they mean "Good luck in guessing what we want from you in this assignment" and not "Good luck" as traditionally meant in such situations where it applies.
And Facebook is becoming more and more creepier. They have a new feature called "News Feed" and it tells you what updates you've made and summarizes what has happened to your profile. Stuff like Relationship Status, Wall postings, and all the things you can change on your Facebook Profile. When I think about it, it's kinda, well, it is voyeuristic. Almost like a electronic stalker that follows you and knows what you are doing. If it were a person, it would receive a restraining order from the courts.
I've got a new blog listed on the "Blogs I Read" section of the sidebar. I'm probably biased, but I think it is a well-written blog about an American in Estonia. It's more like an American in Europe, but the writer lives in Estonia and travels around Europe when she has time to do so. It's not the official name of the blog, but it works in a practical way. The posts are informative and entertaining. Why I might be biased is because I have known the writer of the blog since middle school when I used to live in Manhattan, Kansas. You just have to read it. I'm sure you will enjoy reading this blog.


That's all for now.

Running and Going Nowhere

"Now! Now!" cried the Queen. "Faster! Faster!" And they went so fast that at last they seemed to skim through the air, hardly touching the ground with their feet, till suddenly, just as Alice was getting quite exhausted, they stopped, and she found herself sitting on the ground, breathless and giddy.
The Queen propped her up against a tree, and said kindly, "You may rest a little now."
Alice looked round her in great surprise. "Why, I do believe we've been under this tree the whole time! Everything's just as it was!"
"Of course it is," said the Queen, "what would you have it?"
"Well, in our country" said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else -- if you ran very fast for a long time, as we've been doing."
"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.
If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"
-Chapter Two of Through The Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll


Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. If you haven't guessed by now, that means stuff that I find interesting. If this doesn't meet your standards for "interesting," you can always hit the "Back" button on your web browser and go to another more interesting site like Facebook or Google.

I've started to run and I find the activity to be quite amusing, though my standards for amusing are, put nicely, different than most people. Well, I find it amusing in an intellectual way. My legs, however, could care less what I am thinking about while running. They're probably thinking, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? ARE YOU RUNNING? STOP IT RIGHT NOW!"
I have to admit, there is a weird feeling while jogging on a treadmill. It's sort of like the quote I have from Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. You run and run as fast as you can and you never go anywhere. You have to run to keep in the same place or end up flat on your face, having an extremely painful exfoliation done by the tread going at whatever speed you've set it on. If you go twice as fast than what you've set it on, you end up going somewhere...right into the control panel or you go so fast that you trip and fall and end up with your face on the tread. Just like if you go too slow.
One of the dumber things that you do if you go on a treadmill is forget about the little voice in your head. The one that reminds you of using a modicum of common sense. Like running for a distance of 2.5 miles at a 5.0MPH speed is different than running the same distance at 4.5MPH for one mile and finishing the rest at 5.0MPH. I know this may sound pretty obvious, but the mind works funny.
And another thing. Guys seem to do it more than women, which shows that despite many years, men have the "alpha male" behavior still residing in their brains. It might show that women have more common sense. I haven't done this before as I know that I will lose any speed battles. Maybe it might pop up when I start running at a faster speed than I run right now. Or I decide to be more competitive. Nah, I don't think so.
If there is another person on the treadmill by you, you will unconsciously (maybe consciously) loook over and see what speed they are running at. Then you will look at your speed and see what you are doing. If you are running faster than they are, you will feel a sense of smug satisfaction. If you are slower, you will up your speed so you are running faster than they are. The other person will counter. And you will counter that counter. And it will continue in a treadmill Cold War until someone can't counter any more. If you happen to reach a detente(I know there should be an accent) of some sort (same speed or you're both at max speed), it will be an endurance contest of who can last the longest at that speed. It always happens at one point or another.

In an unrelated note, there is a really strange guy at the place I exercise at. It's the same place where I took a dancing class (country-western, boot-scooting boogie stuff) during the summer. I didn't have anything better to do. I still have two left feet. He dresses in the same clothes, which normally isn't too bad. There are some people there who wear the same outfit, but he takes it to an extreme. As in he doesn't wash his clothes, so he smells bad. Words can't describe the odor, but it's something akin to a run-over skunk that's been lying on the road for a few days and a septic system trunk spilling some raw sewage over the entire mess. It's that bad. He also talks and mumbles and laughs to himslef. Like he has a connection to a radio station in his head. I've though the "implanted chips in the head" stories were stories, but this might be actual proof that they are true. I'm not kidding. People have complained about his...strange behavior...but the staff can't do anything about it. Unless he goes berserk or violent, they can't do anything like kick him out. Oh well. That's just the way it is. Some things you just can't change.

Time to go to International Trade Regulations. How fun. An exciting lecture about the early history of GATT. And six pages of notes to write in a frantic rush. My wrist is so happy to be part of the experience. Carpal tunnel here I come.


That's all for now.

Trial Ad Serendipity

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. It's time for one of those update thingies that I should be doing more often but do not due to a lack of anything happening in my so-called life on this planet.


I was having problems finding a witness for my Trial Ad small section. This happens, well, because I don't know that many people at the law school and being the semi-recluse does not work that well in these kinds of situations. Plus I would hate to bother anyone and all of these other problems get in the way. I'm not sure what to call it anyways.
But I think that my luck has changed with this situation. I have found (I think, assuming something strange doesn't happen) a partner for the small section. A truly serendipitous occasion.
I had given up on finding a partner and I check my e-mail. Guess what? Someone needed a partner and assumed someone else would be looking for one. Hey, it's an offer I can't refuse at this moment. It would look bad if I showed up for the first Trial Ad small section and I didn't have a partner.
Almost perfect timing. Some things work out pretty well.
Now the only thing to worry about is planning for the unexpected like the partner being unavailable. You've gotta plan for that. Everything else, well, I think I can handle.

That's all for now.

An Update

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. It's time for one of those update thingies that I've neglected to do for a while. As if my life was that exciting.


There's nothing like Trial Advocacy. Especially when the class suffers from drops and adds. Especially when everything changes and the time you've spent figuring out how to examine a witness is for nothing. I spent some time planning how to depose an assault victim and the problem has changed to something I haven't bothered to closely examine. Now I have to look at the new problem. And I have to find someone in my small section to be the witness. Ah, one of the problems of being semi-reclusive.
At least I now can use a guy in the small section as it would have been a little weird to ask a guy, "Ms Todd, could you please introduce yourself to the Court?" Or hearing him respond, "My husband visited me at the hospital. I then realized that the man who beat me up was much taller than I had reported to the police."

I'm up in Federal Income Taxation and I need to read the cases. I don't think the professor will question me on the cases, but it might be a good thing to read them over at least once. Things rarely go as one expects them to go. That made little sense, but it's better to be prepared. I've done the problems he assigned so I'm at least ready for that.

In an unrelated note, one would expect the Government, especially in a 9/11 World, would be more vigilant in security. They would, actually, should know who is a guest and who is not a guest at an event. This story just shows you that they really aren't that aware. Then again, what would you expect from them when their security measures cross the border from practical and sensible to "pointless, annoying, intrusive, illusory and just plain stupid" as one website has claimed. Read this site and see how bad it can get or how bad it has already gotten.

That's all for now.

A Busy Monday

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only known site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. If you were looking for another site like the United Nations of even online porn, this is not the correct site. Try using Google next time. Then again, if you are that confused and thought this was the UN site, don't use the Internet. Come on, like the UN would have "blogspot.com" in their URL.

I had a really fun Monday. Four classes with three of them in a row.

The day started out with International Trade Regulations featuring Professor Bhala, who seems to be a pretty cool guy. His CV is pretty impressive. A "proper English" education complete with the requisite degrees from Duke, The London School of Economics, Oxford, AND a JD from Harvard. I never took so many freaking notes in one day. Though the explanation on Ricardo's lovely theory was interesting. I think this is foreboding something. Like I'm going to need a bigger notebook or I need to write faster.
Then came Trial Advocacy with Professor Briscoe. Lecture once a week, workshops once a week also. It seems that this will be a fun class. Though I have to wear "courtroom attire" for the workshops. That measns...the dreaded suit with tie most likely. Oh well. I guess once a week for two hours isn't that bad. I mean, it could be sixty, seventy hours a week. Wait, lawyers have to do that. Might as well get used to this.
Federal Income Taxation with Professor Dickinson. Might as well take this class as it will help me later in life. I will learn how to read the Internal Revenue Code, properly known as 26 USC Section 1 et seq (can't get the official section symbol on this blog). According to some research, it got a -6 score on readability. In simple English, it's hard to understand. For some strange reason, I'm the first person he calls on to answer a question about the legality of a proposed rule involving the federal government taxing people who own really big vehicles. I got it correct. It's illegal for the government to do so as it is a non-income direct tax. That would require apportionment and therefore, the government cannot do it. Simple. Why do I seem to be the first person to get asked questions? This is yet another sign that has some meaning. I need to learn how to be a ninja and hide myself with great cunning. Or learn how to do Jedi mind control.
Finally, Bankruptcy with Professor Ware. Fun class. The rolling boulder method of answering questions. I'm one of the first people up. How fun. Next time, I will not sit near the back. Must read the assignment. But I have time.

That's all for now.

The First Day as a 3L

I'm going to cut out the standard greeting for this post as I don't feel like typing it today. It's the first day of Law School and it is a special school year this time. I am a 3L and in May 2007, I will graduate with a JD from KU Law School...I think. As long as I don't do something really stupid right between now and then, I should be all right.

Like the Kansas Law Student, I got an undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas in 2004. Though my degree was a BA in English and History. And I remember walking down the Hill towards Memorial Stadium and thinking to myself, "Boy, am I going to miss this place." All the great basketball games, the treks into the bowels of Wescoe Hall, the Kansas Union, and all of the other stuff that makes KU...well...KU. Then I realized that I was going to KU Law School next fall and I had to slap myself on the head for being such an idiot. After all, I had gotten the much-wanted "Thick Envelope," the one where you are accepted, in April. Duh.
Not that I actually slapped myself on the head or anything. It would have been on the Jumbotron and that would have looked pretty dumb.
"HEY, look at that idiot slapping himself on the head!"
I think I've gone through a bunch of stuff while at law school. I met some very interesting people and became friends with them. I've been a little more sociable, well, enough not to gain the reputation for being a complete gunner who has to get everything done in the first week and not so much that I'm a guy who is in a haze every day. And I've done a decent job in making my personality known and saying some crazy stuff in class. The people at the law school know what I am talking about. Torts, Con Law, Crim Pro, Evidence...the good ol' days.
It's a good feeling to be a 3L, knowing that I don't have to go through the pains of Lawyering or wondering if I said something stupid in class. I just now wonder if I've managed to scare the living daylights out of people. Just kidding. I really don't care.
My first day wasn't too interesting. I keep thinking it should have been a little bit different. Just went to one class and that was it. Nothing too much. Went home and had lunch. But after it's all done and I go and make an attempt to listen to the "Official Graduation Speech" for the fourth time, I'll probably wish I could stay just a little longer and skip being responsible and forget about the real world for just one more day and become a stand-up comic. Or become a world-famous author and make money writing novels about the law school experience.
It's time to seize the day and make the most out of this final year of law school. Now if I can only get the first day assignments done before the first weekend rolls around. Not likely.

That's all for now.

Fly The Friendly Skies

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet where you can find all things related to Un. It's time for an update about how insecure airport security is. And how dumb it can get.

Thanks to the recent liquid explosive scare in London, airport security was tightened just in case there were more terrorists loose. You know, you have to make sure there aren't any other crazy bombers out there. Supposedly, they were going to mix chemicals to make liquid explosives. Acetone peroxide. Thankfully, we have all those neat detectors to discover these horrible chemicals. They should work, right? Nope.
According to the latest report by the Department of Homeland Security, they aren't that effective. When they X-ray your shoes, they really aren't doing much in the detection department. Trained people can detect anomalies, but this method isn't all too effective.
What you really need, however, are explosives trace detectors. Terrorists, if they do use explosives, do not wash their hands very well. So you can swab their hands and nab them. As long as you pick out the right person that arouses suspicion or you happen to pick out the right person in a random search. Yeah, the eenie-minie-moe way.
Besides, the security people can't tell who is suspicious or not. Brown skinned person means terrorist. Forget the angry looking Arabic guy on the airport tram who is sweating and fidgeting while carrying a one-way ticket (Mohammed Atta, by the way). Plus you forget the fact that he told a flight instructor that he "didn't need to learn how to land a plane." And the other intelligence gathered by the FBI and CIA because of rivalries, plus the lazy bosses who wanted to be inefficient on purpose (more money). Not that it should worry you or anything before you fly. Just don't look suspicious. Good luck.
Then again, these are "specially trained" people working the machines. And the much-vaunted baggage handlers and checkers are equally well trained. Not really. Remember when the news reported how some security people (baggage checkers and other people of that sort) were people with criminal records. Convicted of crimes like burglary and robbery? Doesn't that make you feel safe right now? The guy checking your bag was a thief! What? No real background checks? And he's being paid minimum wage by the government to make sure you are safe. Most of the people trained were poorly educated, poorly motivated, and poorly trained, which is not good for you. Feeling lucky?
We could hire better people (those who know what they are doing) or follow the Israeli method of airport security. They hire former intelligence officers, soldiers, and police officers. And they are well educated and well trained to boot also. But we can't. It costs too much. You've got to bail out the airlines due to their incompetence in managing their money. And all those nice corporations need tax breaks also. And we need some extra change to pay for Iraq. I guess you can put a price on security.
Have a nice trip on your next flight! Fly the friendly skies and don't worry about any security problems. The government is on the job. And we all know what a great job they do!
Resume your life. IF you don't fly, the terrorists will have won. The security checks are inconvenient, but necessary for your safety.

That's all for now.

Where Did The Summer Go?

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only known site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. It's time for another update to this site, which has been sorely non-updated this summer.

It's that time of the year again that most students generally dread. Some people I know actually like this time of the year. Yes, it's the end of summer vacation and it's time to go back to school.
Personally, I don't mind the beginning of the school year. I have time to meet with friends and people I know. I get back into the swing of things by writing articles for the Brief-Brief. I have lots of fun during the school year and I learn lawyer-type stuff for a wonderful future. Woohoo!
But seriously. I like the summer. I don't have to worry about grades or wonder if I have to listen to a not-so-focused lecture. I have freedom.
And to express my wanting of summer to last a little bit longer, a little snippet from a song from Grease Two, the insipid sequel to Grease.

"BACK TO SCHOOL AGAIN" by The Four Tops
Woe is me, all summer long I was happy and free.
Save my soul, the board of education took away my parole.
I gotta go back, back, back to school again.
You won't find me 'til the clock strikes three;
I'm gonna be there 'til then...
I gotta go back, back, back to school again.
Whoa, whoa, I gotta go... back to school again!


That's all for now.

Stuff on the Web

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the site for all things related to Un. It's time for yet another update. This time, weird and unusual stories found on the Internet.

The first item is something that only the Japanese could invent. Nine-bladed scissors. Yes, nine-bladed scissors. I'm not sure what to make out of this invention, but I believe that lots of people will get cut with them. And the amount of force needed to actually use them must be insane. Now you can make confetti the easy way. Though cutting along the dotted lines might be harder. Which blade to use and all.

Something you might not have figured out. Milk contains lactose and lactose intolerant people might be allergic to milk. And someone wants to sue milk manufacturers to post a warning label on milk to protect those who may not know they are lactose intolerant. And peanut butter contains peanuts, just so you know. And water may get clothes wet. Maybe the court can use the nine-bladed scissors to cut up the briefs while they are at it...just a suggestion.

And now, more political correctness so nobody feels left out. Just when you thought sports were safe from things like awards for everybody (think "Most Improved" which is a codeword for "You Sucked and you Still Do So We Came Up With This Lame Award To Give To You") no matter how little they participated or how badly they can't play the sport, they are now abolishing scores in youth sports events for kids under nine. Which is why they still have the scorekeeper and everybody still wins. Sorry, there are winners and losers in life and you can't always get what you want. Deal with it. That's how life operates when you're an adult. Just don't kill anyone later.

That's all for now.

A Belated Update

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. Well, the only site that I know of and I'm too lazy to see if there are any other sites out there. If there are, please let me know of any such sites.

Well, it's been a long time since I last updated. No explanations are needed as I just haven't had the time to decently type one up. That's all. And besides, not that much has happened to merit an update. What has been happening in my so-called life?

I got called up for my civic duty--jury duty. I call and they say we don't need you and please call this number again. So I call again on the appointed date. Sorry, we don't need you and please call again. There's a pattern forming... So I call again and this is during my last week of potential jury duty. Sorry, we don't need you, but we need a different group. If you haven't been called up for jury duty, please do not bother calling again for a long while.
Not even one little thank you. Wow, no wonder why people hate jury duty so much. They don't even give a simple pre-recorded thanks for even filling out the form and voluntarily participating.
I know what this means. I get called up again for jury duty multiple times, each of them more inconvenient than the last time. And I get to serve on multiple trials, each one more mind-numbing than the last. Never-ending jury duty purgatory. OK, so I exaggerate, but this has happened to people I know.

I've come up with a story idea that uses up all of the assorted arcana stored in my head. All that information that normal people (I use the phrase loosely, as there is no such thing as "normal" per se) don't normally know. Except those in the military and spy organizations and well-informed pygmy midgets. I'm none of the three groups mentioned, so I am special. That was meant to be sarcasm. A joke, you know. Anyways...
It revolves around a covert counter-terrorist organization that gets sent to a foreign country (most likely an Eastern Bloc country) to stop a violent terrorist organization. Involved with this group is a rogue Special Forces soldier/arms dealer/ex-CIA intelligence officer. The prototypical deep-cover CIA agent that goes bad due to greed. After all, who better than a CIA agent trained to kill to become a terrorist?
Yeah, there are a few issues with plot, but that hasn't stopped me yet. After all, truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense. Even if that means changing the rules of logic.

And finally, an interesting website that makes it possible for me to stretch the bounds of what can be done with common items around the office or someone's house for that matter.

That's all for now.

Another Update

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the site for all things related to Un on the Internet. It's time for one of those update thingies that I have neglected to do for about two weeks.

As of this moment, I have lost twenty pounds. Which is nice for a change instead of gaining twnety pounds. This has been a relatively productive summer. Before you get all excited and start clapping, think of this. Given my starting weight, I could lose the weight of an anorexic Olsen twin and still be considered overweight. Go figure. I lose a bony person and am still considered overweight. That's life for you. Then again, it really doesn't look like I've changed that much. Hey, I really should be happy(and I am) that I have lost weight. Now if I can continue to keep on this track when school begins again...
I've got jury duty coming up for the next two weeks. It's my civic duty. Sort of like voting. No cases coming up yet, but I think I might have some later. Probably some misdemeanors and other minor cases. It shouldn't be too bad. Hopefully, I won't end up doing a case that takes a year out of my life. I'd hate for that to happen.
Been writing--well, making a feeble attempt--at writing a bizarre novel. One of those action-adventure things that make full use of all the strange knowledge I have floating in my head. Go figure. A mild-mannered law school student writing a book involving blood and guts and lots of explosions and things that go boom. A nice change of pace.

That's all for now.

It's An Update

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the site for all things related to Un on the Internet. It's time for one of those updates that somehow bring you back to this site.

I recently went excercising at a rec center. After the customary cycling warm up, I decide to jog on the eliptical machine. Not the ordinary threadmill, but the high tech machine that tells you electronically that you are not moving fast enough. Sort of like the electronic drill sarge. Or the trainer that doesn't let you give up if you slow down. I guess that I am a person who enjoys this sort of thing. Anyways...

So I'm getting the two miles done and I strike up a conversation with a nice woman that I generally see on Saturdays while at the center. She and her husband and the rest of her family are there on Saturdays. She notes that I'm on THAT machine--the hard one--and that I must be crazy.
And while pounding out the two miles--I'm now done with 0.87 miles and have 1.13 left--some girl and a guy walk in. For some reason, the girl recognizes me and waves. I get the odd feeling that I should know this person and that I have seen her before once in my life. Maybe multiple times.
And I'm left wondering if I should wave or ask who they are or whatnot. It would be embarassing to say, "Hi, I don't know who you are, but I think I know you. What's your name?" I probably should have, but it's kind of hard to think and exercise at the same time, especially when you are accident prone as I am.
I do the friendly thing and make an attempt at waving and saying hello while trying not to fall face forward onto the electronic panel. I think it's common courtesy to be friendly, even if you have the vaguest clue as to the identity of the person. But I also believe in safety and making the full attempt would have led to bodily injury to self. I'm one of those people who think that I'll still be clumsy, even if I lost weight and had muscle. Hey, I can't help it. Hand-eye coordination still eludes me.
And this guy and girl go around the weight room trying the equipment while I do my two miles. And they leave and she waves goodbye. And I still don't know who she is and I still don't know where I've seen her before. I think I went to school with her in college or law school. I can remember and recall the first hundred decimal digits of pi, but I suck with names and faces. Go figure.
Oh well, at least I got my two miles done, plus an addition mile when I got home. Now, if I can only remember who that person was...

That's all for now.

The 4th of July

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet devoted to all subjects related to Un. It's time to do one of those update thingies that I've neglected to do for a while.

It's the 4th of July. I've always liked this holiday. It involves the celebration of the United States (which actually occured on July 2, 1776 instead of July 4. One of the Founding Fathers wrote a letter saying July 2 will go down in history.) and fireworks. Yes, those multi-colored devices that go BOOM. I think I have too much of a fascination with things that go BOOM or flames.
I love fireworks. The bigger they are, the better. The fireworks ban sort of puts a damper on things, but hey, in general, it's a reasonable law. Considering that certain people do really dumb things with fireworks like stick their face over them or hold them in their hands or burn their/other people's houses down to cindery ashes. Not that I've had problems with fireworks.
One of the finer memories I have about fireworks is the 4th of July I spent in Bostom. I saw the Boston Pops perform and that was pretty cool. Though I came too late to get a good seat on the grass by the stage, it wasn't all too bad. Except for the part where Senator Ted Kennedy started speaking. And they zoomed in really close to his face and projected it onto gigantic Jumbotron screens. Too much detail in my opinion. A couple sitting by commented on how "greasy" he looked, just like the stereotypical politician (They were from Boston, by the ways). And another thing, never walk by the cannons when they set them off. Actually, they were 105mm howitzers loaded with blanks, but those suckers are loud. Not that I can recognize guns by looking at them. By the ways, Hollywood movies never get guns right. Always identifying them incorrectly and using them like rank amateurs. Real pros never hold them that way. Looks cool, but it gets you injured or killed in real life.
Ah, how great it was. And another thing, one would expect the Boston subway system to run later hours on the 4th of July. Half a million people need a way to get home, but they kept normal business hours. That meant at least a two mile walk back to Harvard. That was OK.

So, safely enjoy the 4th of July and don't injure yourself or destroy property or get into trouble. Remember this. The holiday is not about fireworks or cooking outdoors. It's about celebrating this country's independence.

That's all for now.