Halloween and NaNoWriMo

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the house located at the end of the street that your parents tell you not to visit. You know, that house the neighborhood kids make the creepy stories about involving the crazy old guy and the underground laboratory. Well, not that weird, but close enough.

Today is Halloween. Personally, I'm not a big fan of Halloween. For me, it's just another day in the year. When I was a kid, I had lots of fun dressing up in a costume and getting a bunch of candy. Now, it's like, whatever. I think that some people take this holiday way too seriously. You know, those people who will wear a costume to class or work. Those who will accost you for not having the proper Halloween spirit if you're not dressed up like they are. One would think that these people consider Halloween a religious holiday and wearing a costume is akin to religious vestments in order to commune with the Halloween gods.

While walking to Burge Union and walking back to Green Hall, I saw several people wearing costumes. Cat ears, a Renaissance Faire costume involving corsets, a pirate, and other assorted motley garb. I'm very sure they were enjoying themselves wearing their costume on campus.

The most interesting person I met wearing a costume was an attractive girl dressed up a black cat. It was early in the morning, just as I arrived on campus. I walked to the Burge Union to pick up newspapers and to check my e-mail, as the computers were on. Inside, I notice a girl wearing a cat costume, complete with the ears and tail. Obviously, this person enjoys Halloween.
The following is the conversation I had with her (All true without exaggeration):
Me: That's a nice cat costume you have on.
Cat Girl: Thanks. Where's your costume?
Me: I don't feel like wearing a costume.
Cat Girl: You HAVE to wear a costume. It's Halloween.
Me: Um...I do?
Cat Girl: Yes. You have to.
Me: Oh, in that case, I'm dressed up as a cat lover. In fact, I'm looking for a cat right now. You'd fit the bill. I'd make you purr.
Cat Girl: I was joking. Now that was good. Was that meant to be a pickup line?
Me: No, not really.
Cat Girl: Nice to meet you. I hope to see you later.

And with that, she left. I don't know her name or phone number. I was dumb enough not to ask for her name. Isn't THAT stupid? Oh well. I guess Halloween isn't too bad after all. It's all in the day of a life of a KU Law School student...
**********
In other news, NaNoWriMo begins tomorrow. The insanity starts in about eight hours. I have most of my story outline done (70%) and I'm too lazy to try and complete it. When I reach the point where I have no plot outline, I'll go and wing it.
The website for the NaNoWriMo entry is listed in the sidebar. I'll be using this site as a way to let you know when I've updated the story. I might post other stuff.

That's all for now.

Lady Luck is My Friday Night Date

"You might forget your manners
You might refuse to stay
And so the best that I can do is pray
Luck be a lady tonight
Luck be a lady tonight
Luck if you've ever been a lady to begin with
Luck be a lady tonight"
-"Luck Be a Lady," Frank Sinatra

Greetings and welcome to The Un-Zone, the official site for all things Un. Yes, I have used this line before, but I like it. If you've got any good suggestions, send them in.

I'm still single. But on Friday night, I had a hot date. It was Lady Luck. No...Lady Luck is not a code name for some hooker or something, but that fickle thing called fortune. That lady luck. When you think about it, however, Lady Luck would make for a decent name for an exotic dancer or something of that nature. I digress. I do that quite a bit.
I'm not much of a gambling type of guy. It's too risky for my tastes. I'll play the occasional game of poker for fun and a game or two of blackjack. For me, I'm more into the mathematical aspects of gambling, the analysis part of these games of chance. Calculating odds. Figuring out who has what cards. That sort of stuff.

So, given these proclivities, it makes perfect sense that I should go to a social event with a gambling theme. Absolutely perfect sense. Logically, given that I am at such a social event, I should happen to do very well with such games of chance as craps and blackjack, but have lousy luck with poker. In some respects, I kinda wish it was actual money I was winning, as I could have make quite a bit...but anyways, that is not the point of this blog. Describing my streak of good luck is the point of this post.

The day begins with craps, the venerable game of rolling a pair of dice and hoping certain sums appear on the face of said dice. An interesting sidenote, dice are called "probability cubes" by the politically correct writers of some math books, as "dice" connotate negative images of gambling, whereas "probability cubes" are neutral in such respects. I digress.
It's my turn to roll and I go on a decent winning streak. I keep hitting the point I set on the come roll and I'm feeling good. My luck runs out after winning several games. As luck would have it, I hit a seven when I should have been aiming for a six. Hey, you can't argue. Lady Luck is fickle.
Time for the Texas Hold-Em tournament. I promptly get cleaned out. I don't get the cards I need and for some pervertedly twisted reason, when I fold, had I stayed in, I would have won big. For instance, I have a 10 of clubs and a 2 of spades. The cards on the flop are a 10 of diamonds, a 10 of spades and a 2 of hearts. I could have had a freaking full house. The turn card...a 10 of clubs. A freaking four of a kind. No way in hell a person could have beat me had I held onto my cards. The final insult: the river card was a 2 of clubs. Yep, a freaking four of a kind and a three of a kind. I'm still hitting myself. I should have just stayed in that hand. But that's how luck works. It's fickle and it flitters from person to person. It bounces and turns like the little ball on a roulette wheel.
An interesting sidenote. At one of the tables, John Smolen and several others break into "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" sung by the Isley Brothers. I guess they were recreating the scene in Top Gun. That one where Tom Cruise and a bunch of Top Gun students sing at a bar.
After getting shafted in poker, it's time to play blackjack. But first, time to wander around. Talked to some people...calculated some odds. I play at one table and win a few hands...as in six or seven hands. It's getting boring. So I quit and walk around some more. Talked to some more people. Saw a guy carrying a pink drink who dressed up like Fred Phelps, the crazy Kansas minister who protests funerals and is virulently anti-homosexual. When you see him, you doubt intelligent design. If this intelligent designer was that clever, why did he let that flaw into the system. One could possibly wonder if Fred Phelps is a genetic throwback to a lower lifeform. Then again, I don't think the lower lifeforms would take credit as being one of his ancestors. Quite an interesting choice of costume and drink...
I stop at a blackjack table and Kyle(The Kansas Law Student, see link on right sidebar), is dealing. He took over for someone. I'm not sure why, but it was nice of him to do so. I sit down and I proceed to win. I don't know, but the feeling was weird. I think the gut instinct of knowing when to hit or when to stay or when to double down just took over. I was right on nearly every one of my calls. Except for that one time I decided to hit and went over. Three consectutive blackjacks and a long string of 21s. Quite nice.
It's getting late. Time to go home but enough time for one more hand. I dump a bulging baggie full of chips (bulging baggie sounds funny. Almost sounds like a drug dealer term or something you would read in a court case involving drugs) on the table. I comment to the guy sitting to my right (who was drunk and pretty annoying) that it would be funny if I got another blackjack.
I didn't get a blackjack, but I did win again. Kyle, when I left, mentioned something about taking me to a casino the next time he visits one. Saying Lady Luck was on my side would be an understatement.

And so, that ends the story of my weekend. I think just reading your post will increase your good fortune by quite a bit. So, if you read this post and make a killing at the casino, please e-mail me your story and I'll give instructions on how to send a nominal cut from your winnings. It's just a small favor. Just kidding. You can keep all of it. Uncle Sam, however, will want a lot more that I will.

That's all for now.

That's all for now.

An Update

Greetings and welcome back to the Un-Zone, the oficial site for all things Un, because there are a whole bunch of imitations on the Internet. Accept nothing but the real thing.

I've been spending a lot of free time outside. It's been really nice lately. I don't feel like spending time inside the law school. It's been sunny. I really don't care that it's in the fifties. It reminds me of something funny I heard. There's this guy and he talks about being outside: "There's nothing like being outside. I remember running free, the warm sunshine beaming on my face...the breeze blowing through my hair...the police officer tackling me 'cause I stole a lady's purse..." Well, some days, being in law school for several hours straight feels like being trapped inside a concrete box. Come to think of it, the law school IS a giant concrete box, but with more windows.
On days like these, I begin to wonder why in the world I am in law school. The endless series of lectures, the notes, the dull reading assignments from heavy casebooks that I won't get a refund for. To think I'm going to replace this "freedom from the real world" with the same things, but I will be paid slightly better. The same stuff, but in a new context. I'll be practicing actual law, but I see not much of an improvement....

I participated in a contest in law school. It was a "Write a slogan for another official and over-priced law school merchandise." The merchandise was law school coozies, those foam things you put around drinks to keep them cold. I submitted in several slogans and apparently, I won the contest. This is based upon information that someone involved with the SBA told me, so it hasn't been officially verified. It'll be official when they produce the prize I've supposedly won: free coozies. The winning slogan: "The original concealed carry." Another slogan that would have worked: "We came up with the don't ask, don't tell policy." My English degree finally paid off for once. And all those people say that English degrees are worthless! Yeah...

Only five more days until the official start of NaNoWriMo. Things are doing well. I've got most of the outline for my story finished. Hopefully, it will be enough to get 50,000 words out of it. I'll be squeezing every single word I can get out of it. The link to the site should be up on Halloween or November 1st. Check this site for official notices on recent postings for the story. That last sentence made little grammatical sense. Oh well.

Happy Halloween. Get a big sugar high. That's all for now.

Putting the "Party" Back in Political Party

Greetings and welcome back to the Un-Zone, a site that puts the "un" back into "unusual" and into other words beginning with this prefix, but not words that denote lameness like "uncool." Then again, I don't have much of a reputation for being popular, despite what the Korean name translates to. The previous sentence I wrote, most likely, violates a rule of grammar involving ending sentences with prepositions. Anyways...
Yes, I have a "Korean name" and when it is loosely translated, it means "popular." I bet you didn't know that. I mean, I bet you didn't know I had a Korean name. I use the word "name" loosely. Enough with quibbling over the usage of words.

I read today's New York Times. It had an interesting article about politics in Quebec. To get the full picture, read the following hypothetical. Consider the following. Imagine a polititian. He's openly homosexual. While serving in an important political office, he used cocaine and got drunk. Weekends were so wild, you don't remember where you left your car. Flash forward ten years. He now wants to run for the head of a national party. Not a good picture, right? There's no way he's going to get that position...at least in America.

Well, if you're Andre Boisclair, you have a very good chance of becoming head of the Parti Québécois (PQ). In Quebec, the voters are very tolerant. Political leaders who haven't smoked pot are lacking something, like a joy for life. In fact, a premier in the 1970's ran over a homeless man and killed him. He got re-elected. His support climbed from 53% to 64% after he disclosed his wild past. Apparently, those living in Quebec like those who have problems, the off-color image. They want politicians who are like normal people who mess up in life. The rebel hero who might be a former alcoholic, a little fraudulent, a little unsure. After all, this makes them (politicians, heroes, etc.) more human. This view of Mr. Boisclair might change if the PQ moves forward with the Quebec independence vote. The government in Ottawa might play hardball and use this past against him. People might hesitate in actually voiting him head of the party.

Given the sordid and less-than-clean past of some government officials in the United States, they would fit in perfectly well in the Quebec politics realm. If you're ever wanting to get involved in politics and government, Quebec might be the right place for you. All you have to do is manage to be become a Canadian citizen, find a place to live in Quebec, and some other stuff. Once you declare yourself as a candidate, expose your troubled past.
Don't think it will work? Consider the following. A cartoon advised his main rival to shoot something up her arm to bounce up in the polls. According to the article, his main competitor admitted she smoked pot, but didn't like the experience. Her ratings went up slightly.

Ah...nothing like politics in Quebec. That's all for now.

Enrollment, Jello Models, and Other Stuff

Greetings and welcome back to the Un-Zone, one of the many sites located by that exit ramp everyone avoids on the Information Superhighway. It's now time for yet another update to this site. As if you really want to know what's going on in my life at this moment. It's cold right now, but the law school is toasty.

Today is the beginning of enrollment for the Spring semester. I discovered that if you don't enroll at exactly 7:00 AM, you will lose out on a spot for Trial Advocacy. Apparently, when I tried to enroll in that class at 7:20 AM, all of the spots were filled. This is quite possibly, one of the most popular courses at KU Law. I guess there are a lot of eager students who want to be like those lawyers on TV. So, given the options that would fit my schedule, it was either Family Law or International Economic Law. I chose the International Law option.

And speaking of "international" stuff, a website has their list of the Top 100 Beers from around the world. As you may have noticed (if you have read earlier posts), beer (and other forms of alcohol) and law school go with eachother, hand in hand. For those tired of domestic stuff, now you can partake of beers that law school students in other countries quaff on a Thursday night or whenever they have a weekly beer-fest.

Another thing. Remember when your parents would tell you not to play with food? Remember eating Jello? Some people I know still eat Jello, but in an alcohol-spiked form at a bar on a weekend, but that's a different story. Well, apparently, someone builds scale models of famous sites out of Jello. Of every color known to man, plus some others that defy description. You just have to see it....Someone has way too much time on their hands.

And something that sounds like a movie plot from Hollywood. Wilma and Alpha merging to form a superstorm. Oooh...super-hurricane. It's another sign of the Apocalypse or weather websites are taking it over the edge in hype.

Yeah. NaNoWriMo begins in eight days. God. The plot outline is coming very well. If I apply a little more time on this, I might have enough stuff to write 50,000 words about. Words. Words. Words. All just words.

It's time to catch up on some Commercial Law readings. I can't keep my attention span focused long enough to get the entire assignment read in one sitting. Too many statutes. One would wish the committees that write statutes could make them a little more understandable and not so poorly worded.


That's all for now.

Jello Construction
http://www.lizhickok.com/assets/portfolio/pages/01city.html

Top 100 Beers
http://beeradvocate.com/top_beers.php

Super-Hurricane?
http://headlines.accuweather.com/news-story.asp?article=6

Acting, Harriert Miers, and other Stuff

Greetings and welcome to The Un-Zone, a website on all things related to Un, and a bunch of other random stuff that happens to float into my head at any given time.

I did some roleplaying today in Evidence. That was fun. I played a highway patrol officer who discovers two dead people on a highway(Prater and Prater's wife). I've got to admit, the people who played the "dead people," were very good, especially the girl who played Prater's wife. The screams were very realistic sounding. One would think she was an actress or had acting experience.
Me, I just had fun. No acting experience of any sort. I just wing it. I cracked a few jokes about drugs, midgets in the trunk, Quinn Snyder(Mizzou basketball "coach" and slicked-back "I'm cool" hair), and police officers acting badly while being videotaped for COPS. The usual stuff. People found my fake vomiting skills to be impressive. Weird...I pretend to vomit very well.

In other news, The Smoking Gun website managed to get a copy of the Senate Judiciary Committee questionaire Harriet Miers filled out. The website notes her license to practice law in the District of Columbia had been suspended earlier this year after she failed to pay dues. She, however, corrected the situation by immediately sending in the required fee. The rest is pretty interesting, if you're into this stuff. One would assume I would be interested, being in law school and what not, but, to be honest, I'm not. Maybe when she gets a grilling during her confirmation hearing, I'll pay more attention. Questionaires aren't the best thing to judge a person on.

What else is there? The authorities have an arrest warrant for Tom Delay. MSNBC has an article about the Apocalypse and the connection to the natural disasters. You should read it to see some of the "finer" quotes from Michael Marcavage and Alabama state Sen. Henry E. "Hank" Erwin Jr. Something about Hurricane Katrina being a warning from God to change our "sinful" ways. Anyways...

Time to have lunch. That's all for now.

Harriet Miers
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1018051miers1.html#payup
Tom Delay
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/10/19/national/w112706D64.DTL
Apocalypse Now?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9731623/

Walking Into Walls

Greetings and Welcome to the Un-Zone, the semi-regularly updated blog that takes a look into the mind of a KU Law School student. Not at regular as Old Faithful or things set to atomic clocks, but often enough that you get something new once a week.

I'm not a very graceful person. I have no hand-eye coordination. I also enjoy cooking, which makes we wonder why I haven't ended with missing fingers or with a knife stuck in my foot due to sheer clumsiness. Well, at least I have some hand-eye coordination. Thank God I wasn't so bad that I was the proverbial "last person chosen" in gym class. You know that guy, the one that nobody wants. You will not be seeing me in Arrowhead Stadium on a Sunday afternoon, cutting sharply across the field with precision like a surgeon. Or pulling off Dante Hall human joystick spins and turns to evade defenders. Yeah, I like watching football. I still think Notre Dame got ripped off on Saturday night. Even then, you have to give credit to Matt Leinart. That guy is a damn good quarterback. The pass he made on 4th and 9, real gutsy and perfectly thrown. I digress...
So, as I was saying, I'm not graceful. I'm a klutz. Mr. Butterfingers. Maybe Butterfingers covered in Crisco. I trip, clip, and run into things. Things like walls and other large, immovable objects. I once walked into a concrete pole on campus. Those things that they put in the the sidewalk so skaters wouldn't go on the sidewalk.
For instance, Saturday night. I'm working on something and I stop late at night. I decide to go to sleep. Despite being a confirmed genius, I do something stupid. I don't keep a light on so I can see where I'm going. After all, I've lived in this house long enough. I should know where the stairway leading to the front door is, where the doors and walls are. Did I mention my night vision can be a little lacking at times?
I'm walking along the hallway and I drift towards the stairs leading to the front door. I catch myself in time to avoid a painful fall down the stairs. I'm feeling confident. Wrong. I failed to judge distance correctly and I walk into a wall. A quick digression.
I had a capillary in my nose that kept rupturing, thereby leading to constant nosebleeds. The doctor cauterized it. I still have that problem. If you apply enough force to my nose, the sucker bleeds.
Wham. Bloody nose. I find the bathroom and turn on the light. Wad of toilet paper. After the bleeding stops, I flush the paper down the toilet and clean up my face. Next time, I'm keeping a light on.

That's all for now.

It Wasn't So Bad

Greeting and welcome to the Un-Zone, the home of all things Un. Today's post is brought to you by UCC 9-502 and the UCC 2-403 exceptions relating to void title and ordinary course of business relating to ownership.

So, I just finished the Commercial Law midterm. It was an hour long. Four multiple choice questions and five short answer question. Not too bad.
For some reason, I found the test to be painless. I actually understood what was going on. I'm beginning to worry, as if it seemed that easy, I probably messed up somewhere and made some amazingly stupid mistake. This is probably just me being too pessimistic. I actually studied for this exam and did what I could to get prepared, so I shouldn't worry about this too much. The people I've talked to have come up with similar opinions.

Then again, I'm probably going to go over this exam in my head while I sleep and do the post-exam thinking and head-hitting. You know, the "Oh my God, the answer should have been 'A' because the question had me assume there was no certificate of title" or "I put down the wrong statute for that question and there was that exception I forgot about." That phenomenom that plagues students long after the exam is done, when it really doesn't count. Yeah. I'm a natural when it comes to this. Oh, it's so easy...

Anyways, it's time for me to get home and get ready for tomorrow. Evidence, Business Associations, Constitutional Law(a truly boring class when it should be a more exciting class), and Estates and Trusts with Professor "Fee Simple Absolute" DeLaTorre. Ah...and then...Fall Break, one of the more useless school holidays that KU has invented. I'm not a big fan of it, but hey, I'm paying for this educational opportunity. Oh well, at least I'll have more time to watch TV and not think about law school.

About NaNoWriMo, I have enough material for about half of the 50,000 word goal, or 25,000 words. I'm probably cheating with word length, but I'm inserting in quotes at the beginning of each chapter that I'm planning to write. Just to add a little flavor to the writing. At least they'll be related to the event in each chapter. I'm still lurking the halls for bits of conversation and story ideas. Coming up with ideas for a freaking novella is hard.

For those who care, a quick teaser on what one chapter is about: A Night at the Bars. OK, this might require some research as I don't frequent bars much. Or I could take the easy way out. Hmmm...If you read this blog and have some experience with alcohol, post some of your better stories in the comments.

That's all for now.

That's all for now.

Commercial Law Midterm

Greetings and welcome from the Un-Zone, the not-so frequently updated website for all things Un. It's been a while since I last updated. I'm becoming lazy.

So, I have a midterm for one of my law school classes, Commercial Law: Secured Transactions, quite possibly, one of the less interesting courses I am taking. For some reason, if it's a required class, it is a boring class. One you don't want to spend more than five minutes in or you will go into a coma-like or zombie-like state. It's all those statutes you have to read. They get to you after a while. It's been a while since I've had a midterm. The last one I had was my senior year of college.
As the professor stated, Secured Transactions is a statute-heavy class. You just have to know the statutes. Some jokingly call this class and others like this a "statutory class," or one that will screw you over with or without your consent. Just because you might have given consent or had it forced on you, your mind will be violated.

The midterm has short answer questions. His idea and most law school professors' idea of "short answer" looks more like a miniature treatise on the subject. He even had freaking mentions to the comments of UCC Article Nine. I sometimes have problems remembering what section to Article Nine is the definition of "consumer good." I know the definition, but if you ask me what specific section states this very pertinent definition, I can't tell you off the top of my head.
Fifty minutes to write coherent answer with cites to code, that's just crazy. I find a "midterm" kind of useless, but I'm not the professor. Odds are, if you don't know by now what perfection or attachment or any of the basic terms of art are by now, you won't remember it or know what it is when finals time roll around.
Oh well. It's only 30% of my grade in this class. The worst I can do is a C, as they rarely fail people in law school, unless you don't show up for the test or something. Why you would actually fail to do this is beyond my comprehension.

I'm going to have a fun day tomorrow. Commercial Law, Business Associations, Constitutional Law, Estates and Trusts, plus a midterm. Woohoo! I'm so excited...

Please, somebody remind me why I am in law school in the first place?

That's all for now.

An Update

Greeting and welcome to the Un-Zone.

A quick update on the crazy endeavor I am taking in November which might screw up everything involving law school called NaNoWriMo. I now have a new blog up and running which will serve as the official site for my "online novella." I'll post up the link to this site sometime in late October or there abouts. I've come up with the main character and several supporting characters, including crazy professors. Since this is a fictional story, the standard rules of logic will not apply. Think of the setting as a John Grisham law school combined with a Mel Brooks comedy with a couple dashes of random bizarreness. If events seem implausable, it's meant to be that way. This is an unusual law school of my own imagination, so stretches of reality are going to be rife.

The type of story I am going to write, what genre it will be, I'm not sure. The best description might be a comedy blended with bits and pieces of other genres included. It will be a series of short stories or vignettes about a year in the life of a law school student. Well, come to think of it, I could say it combines Neal Towne Stephenson, Irving Stone, and a giant mish-mash of authors that I have read. Scary. So I read a lot. There will probably be digressions on topics that strike my fancy, as in Cryptonomicon by Stephenson, some nice prose like Stone in his novel on Michaelangelo,The Agony and the Esctasy, and Lord knows what else. I hope it turns out to be entertaining and not boring.

Now, all I have to do is dig up some material to write about. I've come out with enough material for quite possibly a third of the work, but not enough to pound out 50,000 words. This is just a rough estimate and not an actual figure. So, I will be keeping watching and listening for interesting bits of conversation, unusual actions, and other things that catch my fancy. So, this is a fair warning to those people walking around at KU. You might find yourself immortalized inside my work. If you see an Asian guy with a black backpack and a black bag and very short, almost buzzcut hair, it's your's truly. Don't worry too much, I'll fictionalize everything, so your friends won't laugh at you.

That's all for now.

Sick

Greetings and welcome to The Un-Zone, the site for all things Un. Today's post is brought to you by the letter "F" and the irrational number "e."

I'm not feeling to well today. I have a cold. My eyes are red and my nose is runny. When I'm on cold medication, I act real funny. I'm sneezing and wheezing; thank God I don't have the flu. I'm very contagious and acting outrageous, so I'm going to stay away from you. OK...better stay off that cold medicine. That made very little sense. No officer, I'm not on any drugs.
I haven't been sick in quite a while, at least with a cold. It's been like, what, several years. I've rarely missed a day of school. And I get sick on a Friday. There goes my weekend of washing the laundry and watching television. That and potentially looking at a law school textbook. Oh well.

In other news, I'm signing up for NaNoWriMo(see previous entry) this weekend or next week on Monday. I'm coming up with a name for the online book site, where people can read what I am writing. I'll put up a link on this site so you can easily get there. Hell, I'll probably put up a link on my Facebook profile. Facebook is quite possibly, the greatest time-wasting site ever on the Internet.

That's all for now.

National Novel Writing Month

Recently, I've been telling those who will actually listen that I'm thinking about participating in National Novel Writing Month, a crazy deal where you write 50,000 words in 30 days. It starts on November 1 and ends on November 30. After much thought, I've decided to fully engage myself in this endeavor.

What possessed me to do such a crazy thing as I am a law school student and coincidentally, finals start in December? Well, I just feel like it and I've always wanted to do something like this. I'll have something resembling a novel at the end of the month. Most people think of writing one, but I'll have the satisfaction in knowing that I have made an actual effort.

What will I write about? A humorous story about a law school student(2L) in a fictional law school based upon the law school I attend at this moment. Those who read this blog and attend KU might recognize some of the in-jokes and might recognize the characteristics of certain characters belonging to people they know.

I'm also going to "publish" this online. Well, by "publish," I will create a new blog and post what I write on that blog during the month of November. This blog, during the month of November, will be more of an update blog than anything else. Like if I have written and posted anything. That way, you will be able to laugh at my attempt at writing an actual novella with an actual plot. Hopefully, you will find what I write about and not my sad attempt at writing funny. So I am insecure and I mock myself a lot.

I must be crazy to actually go on with this. Well, wish me luck as I get ready to register and write a freaking novel in November. That's all for now.

National Novel Writing Month
www.nanowrimo.org

Forbes 400 and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Money, get away.
Get a good job with good pay and you’re okay.
Money, it’s a gas.
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.
New car, caviar, four star daydream,
Think I’ll buy me a football team.
-Pink Floyd, Money

Greetings and welcome back to the Un-Zone, offering the look inside the random mind of a KU Law School student who tends to be verbose with sentences and unrepentant of this supposed failing. For some reason, it's a bad thing to write long sentences. People supposedly have short attention spans. Anything over seven words...forget it. I don't care. I'll continue to write sentences that qualify as paragraphs by most standards.

Forbes Magazine came out with their annual list of the 400 Richest Americans. As usual, the top ten hasn't changed that much. Bill Gates is at the top and the Walton family of WalMart fame hold most of the Top Ten positions. There are many names that people will recognize like Donald Trump, Michael Dell of Dell Computers, Phil Knight of Nike, and the number one talk show host, Oprah Winfrey. The collective net worth of the nation's wealthiest climbed $125 billion, to $1.13 trillion. Think about that number. According to the CIA Factbook, the Gross Domestic Product of the US was $11.75 trillion. Their collective net worth is about 10% of the United States' GDP.
And what about Hurricane Katrina? What effects did this natural disaster have on the people who made it to this list? Let's see. Hmm...Micky Arison, head of Carnival Cruises, said the company might lose $24 million from earnings. He's worth $5.8 billion. Donald Newhouse is a media baron of Advance Publications, which counts New Orleans’ Times-Picayune among its broadsheets. He lost 75% of his readership in this paper due to Katrina. Don't be too sad. He has a net worth of $7.5 billion. Craig Neilsen of AmeriStar Casinos would have made it on the list with a net worth of $1 billion, but didn't due to Katrina. To make it on the list, you need to be worth $900 million. Because of the hurricane, his net worth is now only $825 million. Oprah Winfrey had two special episodes devoted to Katrina on location. She got access to the Superdome and showed the hellish conditions. Her friends like Chris Rock and Kelly Preston helped out in the relief effort. The shows were rating hits in the top ten media markets. Her net worth is $1.4 billion.
According to a Forbes article, the rich aren't getting richer than ordinary Americans. Apparently, even ordinary Americans are doing good. Millions own stocks. Real estate values are going up, so Americans have a larger percentage of their net worth in their house, much more than Bill Gates. That's going to make me feel better? Supposedly, wealth is being spread around. It just hasn't been spread to the lower class citizens living in abject poverty. Maybe it has, but it isn't getting to them very well. Geez, if I could only get $32 million for three months of work by tanking a company into oblivion. Enough said. And isn't it nice I can see what sort of houses the rich live in? What resorts they can go to. Or what cars they might buy in the near future.

And this is supposed to make me feel better? This is supposed to make "ordinary" Americans feel better. The message their sending?
Here it is: "Yeah, so these rich people can make googobs of money by screwing over companies and putting thousands out of work, but you've got a lot of money invested in your house, quite possibly the only asset of value you have. And it's hard work to figure out what car to buy and where to go to on vacation. And all those people on the Gulf Coast, we, the rich, feel your pain too. You lost every asset you have and possibly some of your family members. We lost millions and that hurt. But, we still have millions left over to donate to you so you can live a slightly better life than poverty."
What's unsaid is this: "We're going to use this tragedy to make millions or get better ratings. Oh, I'm still rich."

Time to end this screed. That's all for now.

http://www.forbes.com/home/lists/2005/09/19/400-richest-americans-2005-list_05rich400_land.html

Beware of Pressure Cookers

Greeting and welcome to the Un-Zone, a site where the abnormal is normal and conspiracy theories abound in their many forms. Just when you thought the world was safer, the brilliant minds in the federal government discovers another danger in a supposedly safe object. Beware, those evil terrorists might use this common object as a dangerous weapon. What is this potentially "dangerous" weapon? The pressure cooker.

The brilliant minds at the Department of Homeland Security like to think outside the box when it comes to protecting the USA. Which is why they formed a group called "Red Cell," a menagerie of creative minds including but not limited to academics, military, best-selling novelists, and pop musicians. One must wonder which pop musician/s are in "Red Cell." This "Red Cell" is not meant to be confused with the Pentagon's Red Cell, a group created by Richard Marcinko to test the security at military installations. Most of the original members of that group were from Seal Team Six, the Navy's counter-terrorist group in the vein of Germany's GSG9 and the US Army's Delta Force(SFOD-D) located at Fort Bragg. The DHS "Red Cell" can't compare to the Red Cell I've read about.
They've come up with various reports like "How Terrorist Might Exploit A Hurricane" or "Potential Terrorist Use of Emergency Vehicles to Circumvent Security Procedures." I can come up with many plausible theories on how a terrorist might exploit a hurricane and how terrorists could use emergency vehicles. And it won't cost millions of dollars. Hell, they've come up with those reasons in many a Hollywood blockbuster.

Back to pressure cookers. Apparently, one can make an improvised explosive device from pressure cookers. In fact, the terrorists in Nepal use this as their weapon of choice. Then again, as any police officer or bomb technician or soldier in Iraq will tell you, you can make an IED from anything. If you've got the resources and some ingenuity, you can make anything into a weapon. And it doesn't cost any money to figure that out. Look at the evening news.
Yup, now we can add another characteristic to the "persons of interest" list. This is stereotyypical and quite possibly racist, but it should apply well with the current "terrorist" picture people have with Al Qaeda being in the news as the terrorist group de jeur. Do you speak Arabic? Are you of Middle Eastern descent? Do you possess a pressure cooker?

Well, I'm going to keep my eyes open for anyone possessing a pressure cooker or something resembling one. With the recent hurricane devasting the Gulf Coast and another one that could make possible landfall, it's possible that no-good terrorists might take advantage of this situation. After all, one can't be too careful during these trying times.

That's all for now.

The Early Warning Blog
http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/
The Potential Uses of Pressure Cookers
http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2005/09/the_pressure_co.html

A Couple Links...

Greetings and welcome back to the Un-Zone, the site where I am now in a link-posting rut. I guess that is better than randomly typing about nothing.

You know the phrase, "make a killing" when refering to the stock markets? According to researchers, the best stock market traders share the same mental profile as psychopaths. Imagine a broker with the cunning mind of Hannibal Lecter managing your portfolio. And he does this while drinking a nice Chianti. In the book, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Lecter ate the census taker's liver with fava beans and a big Amarone. Just something I remembered.
Hopefully, big companies won't take this study to unsafe extremes and rationalize it with "It's good for the stockholders and the company." Then again, one could argue companies have done this before. I digress.
"Functional Psychopaths" Link
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2005-09-19T103604Z_01_KRA938084_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-TRADERS.XML


The following story is not meant to be taken in an offensive manner in any way. And with that in mind, consider the following question: Is it possible for the cover over an ice-cream cone to offend followers of a particular religion. Yes, if the lid happens to be designed to cover Burger King ice-cream cones in Great Britain. Why anyone would want to eat ice-cream from Burger King is beyond my comprehension. The person who discovered the "sacreligious" ice-cream cone cover said, "This is my jihad. How can you say it is a spinning swirl? If you spin it one way to the right you are offending Muslims."
"Burger King Ice-cream Cone Cover"
http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1951292005


There's a day for everything. You have Valentine's Day, Arbor Day, Christmas, the list goes on and on. Well, there's an International Talk Like a Pirate Day. And it is today. So use some pirate lingo like "pieces of eight," "Arrr" and "matey" in your conversations. One must wonder when is the International Act Like a Ninja Day, as we all know that pirates and ninjas are enemies.
"Talk Like a Pirate Day"
http://www.talklikeapirate.com/buzz.html


That's all for now.

The Beer 101 Course

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, where the insane are running the asylum. An interesting thing of note, if you question your sanity, odds are, you are not crazy. Those who are crazy never question their own sanity. I don't question my sanity. You decide.

Some of my first posts on this blog involved alcohol and law school. To reiterate, every law school event will feature alcohol in its many forms. No matter the event, whether it is for charity, fund raising, academic recognition, there will be alcohol involved in some way. When a law school student, alcohol will form a large part of your social life and will infect your mind. You will think about alcohol every waking moment and every unawake moment in your life. This might explain why some lawyers develop drinking problems later in life. This also explains the need for Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility courses, as the alcohol messes up with rational thinking processes. In all reality, one can sum up all the rules into the following: "Don't screw your clients legally or physically." Pretty self-explanatory.

Apparently, there is an actual course being taught at UC Davis called "Introduction to Beer and Brewing." Obviously, this will be a very popular course. There is also an upper-level course where students actually design and brew their own beer. In addition, there are beer tastings, but people must spit the beer down the drain. People actually cry when this happens. Not too surprising is that the professor teaching the course is an Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor. I wouldn't be too surprised if more people started attending UC Davis in the near future just to take this class.

That's all for now.


The Beer 101 Interview
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/18/CMGM9DDN351.DTL

Glass Installation

Greetings and welcome to The Un-Zone, home of all things relating to Un. It's the only site where you can find out what thoughts are swimming in the whirlpool of my mind and what's happening in my non-existant, dead-on-arrival social life. I'm now one of the newest blogs listed at Tony's Kansas City, an excellent website hosted by one of the fine writers at The Pitch. That was an obviously blatant plug. Yes, Tony of Tony's Kansas City, I should go out more often. Then again, you stick out like the proverbial sore thumb at law school social functions like TGIT if they're held at bars and you don't drink alcohol. Now that's something rarer than an ill-cooked steak at one of KC's finer steakhouses. An actual law school student that doesn't drink. Comment on that, Mr. KC Strip.

Well, today's post is about the glass installation going on at KU Law. It's part of their continuing remodelling project. I'm not a big fan of the Extreme Law School Makeover. When I walk in the informal commons, I think I'm walking into the lobby of a modern art museum. You've got one section that looks like a modern take of a mall food court with tables and chairs combining ersatz-woodlike material and steel painted to look like wrought iron. The main area consists of wood cubes functioning as tables and leather chairs oddly shaped like cubes. Think earth-tones. The only good thing about the remodel job is that the chairs don't fall apart when you breathe on them. However, if you're a fan of furniture inspired by quite possibly bald Scandinavians with a pechant for ergonomic, utilitarian, and minimalist design, then this is your place. I digress.

Well, yesterday and today, the construction crew installed in new glass panes for the redesigned stairway to the second floor. I think it wasn't money well spent, as it's akin to putting the facade of the Acropolis, replete with columns and carvings, on the front of your everyday McDonalds. No amount of glass is going to make ugly look any better. At least the old design fit in with the traditional "concrete dungheap shaped like a box" desgin of most law schools around the nation, with KU Law as no exception.
In order to do this, they had to block off the entrance to the informal commons. You couldn't use the first floor doors to enter the law school. In order to enter, you had to go up to the second floor (the main entrance) and walk down a different flight of stairs located by the mailboxes. Another thing about the design of the law school. The stairwells are illogically designed. Certain stairwells give you access to certain places. You have to pick the right one or you might end up facing a locked door. Go figure. And they did the installation during the busy part of the traditional law school day, the lunch hour.
One would have thought they could have done this during the weekend, when very few students go to the law school, unless of course, one is in Law Review. The installation of glass panels on an ugly staircase can wait until the weekend. They NEED to get the plate glass installed NOW, but the problems with the heating and cooling system...well...that can wait. The daily temperature in Green Hall kinda reflects the ranking of the law school in certain magazines. Two years ago, it was in the mid sixties; last year, it was getting close to triple digits. This year, who knows what it will be? Supposedly, they've got it under control, but come winter...I think the beast will turn out to be untamed.

Well, they need to install in more panels of the stairway, but at least I have access out this building. I can't wait till I'm a 3L. That's all for now.

Murphy's Love Laws

Say, I ain't got nobody, and nobody cares for me!
That's why I'm sad and lonely,
Won't somebody come and take a chance with me?
-Cab Calloway, "I Ain't Got Nobody"


Greetings and welcome to the Un-Zone, the official site to all things Un. You get 100% of the government's recommended daily allowance of Un and other nutritious elements in just one simple visit. Not enough people are getting their Un. Visiting this site: it's a good thing. OK, I've probably violated some copyright law there. Then again, that phrase is probably a household name by now. Any copyright lawyers out there? I could check on Lexis-Nexis, but I'm too lazy to log on and do actual research.

You know Murphy's Law? Pretty much, it goes as follows: "If anything can go wrong, it will." There are many variants of this law, but the idea is the same. Bad stuff happens at unopportune times. I'm a big suscriber to Murphy's Law and I apply it to most aspects of my life. I might be a bit pessimistical, well, maybe quite pessimistical or just apathetic and this a consequence. Then again, people say Murphy was an optimist and life is much worse than we think it to be.
So why am I prating on this subject? I found a website about Murphy's Law and the many applications in other aspects of life. Things like police, technology, politics, and love. I was interested in the Murphy's Laws of Love as I don't seem to have any semblance of what people call a "relationship." Those who randomly stumble onto this blog may wonder on my peculiar use of "people" and putting things in quotes as if I'm sort of alien who is fascinated by this subject. I am.
I found them to be amusing and a large number of them to be applicable in my own situation. Well, I've culled out a few of them and have given a short explanation on why they are applicable. Yes, I am going to make a fool out of myself or make you say, "I've been through that before!"

1. You'll think of a great line to say to someone the moment after your chance is gone.
We've all been through this before. You meet a guy/girl you like and you can't think of anything to say to them except "Hello" and a cheesy pickup line. Odds are, you didn't make a love connection and got the groove on. Or you got too scared to say "Hello" and you hid in a corner and thought of things you would have said to them. At least things that wouldn't mark you as a stalker, serial killer or total idiot. And when your opportunity to sweep 'em off their feet fades away, you come up with a great line to say. I've been through that too many times. I don't get past the "get out of the corner" stage most times. And if I do, I can't really say anything. No, I literally can't say anything. For some reason, I express myself better with the written word than the spoken word. It's too bad I can't write down what I want to say. It's pitiful.
2. Brains x Beauty x Availability = Constant. This constant is always zero.
I have to partially agree with this. Not totally, but partially. It's possible to find someone who has a nice combination of all three. People I know have accomplished this feat. Then again, it's "THEY" found somone and not "ME." There's the difference. I've had many occasions where I've found someone I've actually liked and discovered that they were seeing someone else. On the rare occasion that they were single, I never got the nerve to tell them. Which leads to Law #3...
3. Availability is a function of time. The minute you get interested is the minute they find someone else.
Maybe this should be reworded differently. It should read, "The moment you want to tell them that you're interested in them is the minute they find someone else." It's possible to be interested in them, but at the same time, you haven't told them that you are interested in them. Which might be related to the following: "The amount of love someone feels for you is inversely proportional to how much you love them." Which might explain the " I don't want a guy who is a total jerk" or "I've been f***ed over by a guy" syndrome that certain women get. These syndromes can be explained as follows...
Guy likes a girl but girl has little interest in them. She reconsiders such proposition. She accepts having a relationship with guy who likes her but she does not have much liking for him. Things fall apart and she leaves the unhappy relationship emotionally and physically screwed. This leads to bitter hatred of guy and quite possibly, wary of men. This includes those who are actually nice most of the times and those, well, who are scum most of the times. The number of guys who are actually nice most of the times is larger(I hope. If not, well...) than those who are scum and are wondering what's up with women.
I don't consider myself to be one of the "total jerk" guys and I don't think I've f***ed a girl emotionally. I'm absolutely positive(110% sure) I haven't f***ed a girl physically. Considering that I haven't had that much experience in having an actual relationship with a female might be a good factor in why I haven't done such things to females. Well, that was a nice digression...for the last law.
4. The ABC rule: If A is attracted to B, and you are attracted to C, A has a better chance with B than you do with C. B and C are often the same person.
This happens quite often. I generally lose out for many reasons. See previous three rules. One could also add in the following as well. The nicer someone is, the farther away she is from you. If you think a girl is beautiful, her boyfriend will always be there to confirm it. Being told that someone doesn't want to date you because you're such a good friend, is like being told that you didn't get the job because you're overqualified. The best women are always taken--or crazy. Then again, I don't a little crazy. The woman with 93 cats in their house...well...not that crazy.

I hope you have what I have written. It's time to go back to being single. That's all for now.


Murphy's Law Site
www.murphys-laws.com

Random Poetry...Part Two

Greetings and welcome to the Un-Zone, where I put the Un in "unusual" and "unstable." Just when you thought it was safe to wander in this corner of the Internet...this website comes along. The insane have taken over the asylum.

I don’t know what’s going on in my mind some days. For some reason, I’m on a one-track mind with my creativity. I’m going on a poetry writing spree right now. The poetry, if you can call it such—I call it more like creative dabbling on paper—is focusing on relationships and love, two topics I know very little on. The poetry I write right now take on the form of song lyrics. In all likelihood, I won’t be winning any Grammies for song lyrics. Well, maybe I do know something about these two topics. I seem to be becoming an expert on NOT having a relationship and not being in love. That and wanting to get into a relationship with someone but being too afraid to ask that person out and when I get the guts to do so, they’re seeing someone else and I’ve lost my chance. All those lost chances I let slip through my hands. I guess we all have those experiences in our lives. So in that respect, I can write about those particular things. Or I just think I do.
While I was an English major, I heard this piece of advice: write about your own personal experiences and what you have in your own personal knowledge. This is the best source for inspiration and material to write about. Write about those things that all people can relate to: love and hate, life and death. Not everyone will know about particle physics, but everyone will know about love, as everyone has experienced it at least once in his or her own life.
The topics of this poem—embracing the past too hard, not living life in the present, hate, building up emotional walls—are ones that I seem to have much experience on. I don’t forget that easily. I don’t forgive that easily either. You get me mad, you better hope I don’t bear a grudge, ‘cause there will be hell to pay…a lot of hell to pay. You say, “Live and let die.” I like the song sung by The Wings. It’s quite catchy. However, let’s say that phrase is not a phrase that I use a lot in my vocabulary.
Well, I hope you enjoy this poem.


Comfort at Night

When you firmly embrace the past
It weighs you down like a lead cocoon.
Or like a vicious, torturing Iron Maiden
The sharp spikes and barbs tear into your flesh,
Bleeding drop by drop, humanity from you,
Bleeding drop by drop, emotions from you.
It leaves you with a nearly empty shell
Unable to find joy in living in the present.
You can’t find comfort with others
And you spend your nights screaming.

What gives you comfort at night?
What puts you to rest when you sleep?
When the past nightmares fade away
And nothing is left to silence your mind
All you have left as a lullaby
Is the burning hate in your heart.

When you firmly embrace the past
You build up imposing, thick walls
That block out everything that hurt you.
They block out the pain that life brings
But they also prevent love from coming in.
You hate the feeling of vulnerability
And you don’t want to trust others.
The paradox of love requires having trust
And being at your most vulnerable
In order to experience it at its best.

What gives you comfort at night?
What puts you to rest when you sleep?
When the past nightmares fade away
And nothing is left to silence your mind
All you have left as a lullaby
Is the burning hate in your heart.

You can remove yourself from the vise
And free yourself from what holds you back.
The lullaby that puts you to sleep at night
Doesn’t have to be past nightmares or hate.
You can fill your life with love.
You can fill your life with joy.
You can fully embrace the present.
You can dream about a better future.
It can be a gentle caress from the one you love.
You just have to let go of the past.

What gives you comfort at night?
What puts you to rest when you sleep?
When the past nightmares fade away
And nothing is left to silence your mind
All you have left as a lullaby
Is the burning hate in your heart.

What gives you comfort at night?
What puts you to rest when you sleep?
When the past nightmares fade away
And nothing is left to silence your mind
All you have left as a lullaby
Is the burning hate in your heart.


That's all for now.

New Students from New Orleans

Greetings and welcome to the Un-Zone, the site where I post random things that float inside my head at any given time. Most of the times, I think what I'm thinking isn't what most people are thinking at any given time. I guess I'm just like that.

Several law school students from Tulane and Loyola have arrived here at the University of Kansas School of Law. Lawrence is nothing like New Orleans. Then again, most cities aren't like New Orleans. Even in Lawrence, which is more liberal in its tendencies than most places in the state of Kansas, doesn't have the same lassiez les bon temps rouler spirit than New Orleans is well known for. The closest city in spirit to New Orleans could be Las Vegas, but it's of a different type. I'm not exactly sure how to explain it.
I'm guessing that the new students will not be automatically reading this blog any time soon, but I found the following to be a fun exercise at least. A sort of guide to get them acquainted with the place I currently call home. Then again, they might be Kansans who decided to go to law school in New Orleans and they really don't need this.

An Unofficial Guide to Lawrence

NICKNAME
Lawrence is called Larryville by the locals. It's quite Midwestern in its nature. Nothing like "The Big Easy." Then again, it could be worse.

WEATHER
It gets extremely hot and humid in Lawrence during the summer. So does New Orleans. We don't suffer from hurricanes, but we do have tornadoes, hail, and torrential rains. Sometimes the occasional flood. If you don't like cold weather, Kansas is not an ideal place during the winter. It can get cold. You might get a foot of snow, several inches of ice, sleet, freezing rain, and God knows what else tossed in. And they probably won't cancel school any time soon. It's extremely rare for KU to cancel school due to winter weather.

FOOD
Nothing like the New Orleans food culture. However, one can find a wide variety of food pickings. You've got more refined dining, Latin American, Greek, and other ethnic places in Lawrence. Or you could go with the standard college fare of pizza and fast food. If that's not enough, you could go to Kansas City and explore what places are there.

DRINK
What would law school be without alcohol? Lawrence doesn't have Bourbon Street, the French Quarter, or a legendary establishment like Pat O'Brian. But one can find many places to get drunk at.
I don't drink alcohol. I don't have a nightlife. So I had to rely on information gleaned from those who do, which is many people at law school. One could always go to a TGIT place listed on the numerous flyers posted in the law school. These places include The Yacht Club, Free State, Henry's, Quinton's, and a host of other bars and nightclubs. Most are conveniently located near downtown Lawrence. Here, you can find places to drink, places to eat, and places to buy stuff like books, clothes, and most of life's essentials.

NIGHTLIFE
Again, I don't have a nightlife or a social life for that matter. There are many locales in Lawrence where one can drop it like its hot, shake their tail feather, and get the groove on the dancefloor. Be sure to ask one of the many friendly law school students where they like to party on the weekend. The traditional KU law school weekend starts on Thursday night, as most students rarely have more than one class on Friday. Or you could go to KC and visit Westport.

STUFF TO DO ON CAMPUS
Despite what people might say, there are many things to do at KU. One could visit the Spenser Museum of Art which holds one of the finest university art collections. I've been there many times. There are numerous on campus events happening on any given day. On a nice day without classes, one could have a picnic by Potter Lake. I haven't done that yet as I haven't found anyone to do this activity with. There's bowling at the Jaybowl located at the Kansas Union. Or one could see a performance at the Lied Center. During the winter, if it snows and you are in Lawrence, one can go sledding down a hill on campus. Ask locals for the best spots or one can follow residence hall dwellers carrying dining hall trays on a snowy day.
And basketball. This is KU, home of the Jayhawks. Basketball, like football at Notre Dame, approaches the level of organized religion. From the month of November to April, basketball is king in Lawrence. To get a better perspective, James Naismith the inventor of basketball was the first KU basketball coach. He's buried in Lawrence. Allen Field House, where home games are playes, is named after Forrest "Phog" Allen. It is a legendary court like the Pavillion at UCLA or grudgingly, Cameron at Duke. Despite what people say about Kryzewski-ville at Duke, nothing beats Allen Field House. It's got history AND tradition. If you get the opportunity to do so, see one game at Allen and you'll understand the mystique and aura of the place. Wave the wheat, sing the alma mater, and do the "Rock Chalk" chant, the greatest college cheer ever. And after the game, you can go out to a bar and get drunk with hundreds, if not thousands of other Jayhawk fans.

I hope that this has been informative in some way. Even if it hasn't proven to be that, I hope this has been entertaining in some way. If it was neither, well, I hope you have a better understanding of Lawrence, this place I call home. Lawrence is a great place to live in. The people are friendly, open, and all around nice. Well, at least the people I know. Welcome to Lawrence and KU. I hope your stay, whether for a semester, a year, or even longer, is a pleasant one.

That's all for now.