Winter Weather

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. It's time for one of those friendly little update things that I try to do every so often. Because I am in a giving spirit right now.

If you are not in Kansas or for that matter, in the general Midwestern area, you are missing out on some of the most messed up weather right now. If there is a Mother Nature or higher being out there, then He/She/It has a twisted sense of humor. It kind of makes me want to be out in...I don't know...how about Cancun or some nice tropical place.
A week ago, let alone on Tuesday, it was in the mid-sixties, lower-seventies. And this is in the last week of November. I was out walking without a jacket on Tuesday. Heck, I was outside on Thanksgiving and it was perfectly glorious. Nice weather. But like with many good things, it just does not last.

Cue to yesterday. The high temperature was at midnight. The rain turned to freezing rain and then to sleet. That just sucked. Driving home was definitely not all that fun. Walking outside in the stuff sucked doubly so.

If that isn't oh-so-fun, today, it is going to be cold and it is going to snow. Snow. Snow. According to the latest weather forecast, updated every so often during the day, there is a very good possibility there will be snow. About four or five inches of powdery white stuff, and it's not illegal drugs. In Colombia, however, four or five inches of a different kind of snow is a good thing. If the storm goes north about 30 miles, a foot of snow is possible. Maybe more, maybe less. All I know is that it is going to suck driving home.

Alas, no sipping hot chocolate by a warm fire for me. No hot snow bunnies for me waiting at home. One (but preferably both) would be good right now. OK, make it a double. Hell, I would go for a trifecta, but I can't think of anything better right now. I have to get busy with the Internal Revenue Code since my final in Federal Income Taxation does not look to be fun. Nothing like 1400 pages of poorly written verbiage to make one feel warm and fuzzy all over. In Kansas City sports, that would be the equivalent of taking all the contracts for the Kansas City Royals and sticking them in a binder.
Oh well. It is getting close to winter. I should have expectected this to happen sooner or later.

Then again, it could be worse and be like this:

Or even this for that matter:

That's all for now.

Post-Thanksgiving Update

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet (that I know of right now) devoted to all things related to Un. It's time for a post-Thanksgiving update, because this holiday season is all about the "giving" instead of the receiving. You all should give thanks that I am giving you this post full of Un-ishness instead of foolishness. Bad wordplay aside...

Thanksgiving was good. Ate too much. Watched too much football. Did little in studying. Unless you consider debating the merits of certain run plays on a third and short to be studying or even intellectual in some way. Then again, if you are a certain college football coach *coughh* Mangino *cough*, you might consider this the next time you play against one of the worst run defenses in the nation. That and coming up with a better pass defense plan. I guess that Mangino was thinking more about hitting the buffet line instead of Missouri's offensive or defensive line. Though I'm sure he made steady gains in gaining three hard-fought yards down the buffet line to get to the paydirt, the carving station.

Well, the political situation in Washington DC is becoming messy. Sam Brownback, who is one of the two senators from Kansas, is exploring his options in running for the role of President of the United States. That, my friends, is an interesting story. But it is made even more interesting by his comments on a Sunday morning politics show. I think it was This Week with George Stephanopoulis or something like that. He mentioned something about getting tested for AIDS. It was one of those Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moments. And I think it was for political pandering to the voters, you know. Sound like a responsible person by showing people how easy it is to get tested. Make people aware of the dangers of STDs like AIDSs. But I came up with the more funny reason. After all, if you're going to sell your body to the public and screw them in multiple ways, like any responsible worker in the sex trade, it's required to get tested for STDs.

The Jayhawk basketball team redeemed themselves from a loss to Oral Roberts and a sloppy win against Ball State(what's up with the teams the Jayhawks are playing? Oral Roberts...Ball State...there's a bad sex joke in the making already. Just toss in something about dribbling balls up the hardwood, shooting prematurely, and well, I made up one already.) by beating Florida. Good job. Now don't fall flat and come up short against Dartmouth. Sorry. Another bad one.

NaNoWriMo 2006 is about to end. I updated the Gray Hall site with another update to this year's contribution in novel writing madness. I have a few loose strings to tie up and it will be finished. I have to admit that I had to use a bad deus ex machina to get this finished. You'll spot it if you read it. Not that I don't have confidence in you actually knowing what that Latin phrase meant.


That's all for now.

Another Year Older, Not Any Smarter

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. It's time for an update today.

I have added another lengthy installment to the Gray Hall blog. It is almost over. I just have what...13,000 words left? I am on schedule, maybe a little ahead.

Today is my birthday and I am a year older today. Do I notice anything different about myself right now? Not reallly. Am I any smarter with any sage bits of wisdom I can pass along to anyone? Not really. As Holbrook Jackson says, "No man is ever old enough to know better." I still don't know any better, which might make me a wise man. That's a scary thought. Douglas Adams expounds on this by saying the following:

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the
experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to
do so."

I guess that I've lived a decent quarter-century of life and I have another 3/4 to make the most out of, possibly more, possibly less. It all depends on how the die is cast. I might get the 7 or 11 and max out, or I get the 2, 3, or 12 on the first roll. I'm hoping for the 7 or 11. Kind of like blackjack. Faces and Aces are good, but if you have a 12 and you somehow decide to hit, a face card is lousy luck. I'm just hoping to get the right cards dealt at the right time. Ah, but you must make the most out of the hand you are dealt with, as some say. Horace, the ancient Roman writer/philosopher (everyone in ancient Rome was a philosopher or writer, even the military men), would say the following:

"In the midst of hopes and cares, of apprehensions and of disquietude, regard
every day that dawns upon you as if it was to be your last; then super-added
hours, to the enjoyment of which you had not looked forward, will prove an
acceptable boon."

Yes, I shall make the most of what I have right now. William Saroyan said the quite well with this little quote:

"Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might, and when you
laugh, laugh like hell and when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be
alive. You will be dead soon enough."

Because in the great scheme of things, the life of a human is insignificant when compared to everything else.

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath
of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the
grass and loses itself in the sunset.
-Crowfoot

For death comes at an inconvenient time, no matter what you are doing at that moment when Death comes.
And I think that waiting until this school day ends will be like a slow death in some kind of metaphysical/metaphorical/analogous way. But at the end of this day, Thanksgiving Break begins. Which is a good thing.

That's all for now.

Welcome Back

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. Yes, it's that time again.

It's nice to make history. Sometimes, it's not such a great thing at all. Me and my partner for Trial Advocacy made history on Tuesday night. It's not official or anything, but given the history of this class, it probably is. Apparently, we are the first(unofficially) to lose the particular criminal case we tried on Tuesday night as the defense. That is, we got the first unanimous guilty verdict.
This is a bad thing if you are the lawyers for the defense. In general, when this particular murder case is done, it is generally a hung jury or a unanimous not guilty. I guess that me and my partner just manage to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory. Or something like that.
It's not that we didn't show up or failed to try. Oh no, far from that. I guess that when all of the jurors fall asleep during part, if not all of the trial, things can go bad. Half of the jury fell asleep during the Plaintiff's case-in-chief, and half of the jury fell asleep during the defense case-in-chief. Nobody was awake totally during the trial. Maybe some of the audience members were awake, but I seriously doubt that. Some were snoring and had their eyes closed during the entire time, yet magically woke up when closing arguments were done. Just in time to vote "guilty of capital murder." That's nice to know.
Yes, things could have been done better on my part, but it's a team job. Yes, they were business students who were forced to do this for class credit, but still, you've got to stay awake during the trial to get all the facts. I like how they said the defense should have focused more on the fingerprints not matching, but oddly enough, I was pointing out that fact during the closing argument and my partner was talking about this during his cross-X of the police officer. I wonder how they managed to miss that, especially while I was emphatically pointing this out during my closing. Jurors, you can never tell.

Anyways, in other news. The Kansas Jayhawk basketball team failed their first test of the basketball season by sucking against Oral Roberts. One can come up with so many bad puns with the name Oral Roberts. I won't go there. It's kind of like the national title game against Syracuse when the Jayhawks couldn't make a damn free throw. One can only wonder why the hell the Jayhawks couldn't drive to the basket instead of trying to launch three-point baskets? Given their athletic ability and speed, it would have made a little more sense, even aginst a zone defense. Not that it really matters anyways. There was the Sports Illustrated Curse to blame. Screw the curse. They should have and could have won. The end.

I got my drivers license renewed and that took two minutes at a cost that leaves much to be wondered. Why does it cost $22 to get your license renewed in Kansas? The only real reason I can come up with is to keep the Interstate in good condition. We may rank last in tourism, but man, the roads are top rate. You've got to keep the cars driving through Kansas and not stopping to see what Kansas has to offer. Schools, however, that may be a different story given the state of disrepair for the universities and the poor showing in standardized tests. Not that "No Child Left Behind" is a functional program in any shape or form...

My birthday is rapidly approaching in a few days(next week). I'm getting older. One more year of life and I still haven't gotten any smarter, except for the knowledge of knowing I don't know much at all.


That's all for now.

An Update To My So Blog...

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 things I like to call an update to this so called blog of mine that I have neglected.


To mangle Annie, like many others (you know the rap version of "Hard Knock Life"), a song about "Tomorrow":
Tomorrow, Tomorrow
I hate ya, tomorrow
Cause that's final trial day!
I had a productive Friday afternoon that ended up with me and my final trial partner more confused than ever. The only good thing about tomorrow is that the freaking Trial Ad madness will be up. I hate this case. I hate this case. Why couldn't things be a little more clear cut? Ah, but that is life.
Another time in my life when I get to wear a suit and look respectable. That's something you don't hear me say that often.

What's up with Kansas City? They lose to the Dolphins? What the...? Then again, the Dolphins were playing very well against Chicago last week, so this probably shouldn't have been much of a surprise. Then again, people think that Chicago is suspect in some ways. Oh well, at least the Chiefs didn't get beat that badly. Three point loss.
Sort of like Texas...now that was a messed up game. Very exciting to watch though. Freeman is one of the best freshman quarterbacks playing right now. K-State came out on Saturday night to play and boy did they play. The third quarter had to be one of the best (at least entertainment wise) quarters in college football. Thirty-five points in fifteen minutes with K-State scoring 21 in about four minutes. Crazy. Crazy.

I have an update to the NaNoWriMo story. I think I am above pace right now. But I am having problems thinking of stuff to write. I guess writing a novel that is a fake book that tells a story using made-up yet realistic sounding documents is making my head spin. I think I just gave myself a headache. Where is the online aspirin when you need it?

Time to go and have fun with International Trade Law and work on Federal Income Taxation. Two classes that I have neglected to study for. And two classes I am most likely going to up to answer questions during class...oh the joys.


That's all for now.

A Look At The News

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un.

If you have been keeping up with the news, you will probably know that the Democrats have gained enough seats to take control of the House of Representatives. The Senate, however, is still up for grabs.
Of course, the Republicans are stating that this is common for a midterm election, which is true. During most midterm elections, there is a loss of seats by the President's party. Let the gridlock and political sniping begin in January when it becomes official.
Anytime that George W. Bush has to come to your state to boost up campaign support, there is a definite problem. You can be sure that something horribly bad will happen. Think of the former head of FEMA, who got the "heck of a job" praise from Bush. We all know what happened to him...
This year's election can be summed with the following: catchy phrases with little substance. Republicans claimed this election was about keeping the United States safe from terrorists, tax cuts, and illegal immigration. The Democrats countered with the War in Iraq and President George W. Bush. Was there any real discussion about such issues? No. Will there be any fundamental changes like actual bipartisanship in the Congress? That's to be seen, but odds are, probably not. It's sad to think that democracy has gotten to this point. You kind of long for the days when things actually got done. As many wits have noted, "Congress is the opposite of progress."
I sum up the elections with the following by using many catch phrases used by the Republican party and some web links:
You can use catch phrases so long, but once you "tax and spend" the patience of voters, it is very likely they will "flip flop" to the other party. In essence, voters will not "stay the course" but they will "cut and run" to the other party.

That's all for now.

Correction ...Because Of Some Other Conflict

The stand up comedy competition will be at the Centennial Room on the Sixth Floor of the Kansas Union. Apparently, there was another conflict of some sort. I'm not sure what it is, but that's the way things are. It's nice to know that they just happened to change this some time today.
First it was a basketball game and now it is this. At least it still is tomorrow at 7:00 PM. If you happen to be on the KU campus tomorrow and you are near the Kansas Union, please come by.


That's all for now.

Another Update to This Blog

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only known site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. As you have guessed, it's anything and everything that I find interesting. You've been warned.

It's Election Day and I can't help but be cynical about this day. You've got voter suppression in Virginia, the new electronic voting machines hopefully working, and the only good news, no more of those freaking annoying political commercials. Those are enough to drive a person to not vote. After all, just like every time we go and elect someone, we still get screwed badly. Some pictures:


Not that I'm saying we all should be worried or anything. This is the United States of America and nothing like this would ever happen.

I'm doing a standup comedy competition along with other people trying to look like they are funny. Come and see me and these other poor souls as they try to make an audience laugh:
DATE: NOVEMBER 8, 2006
TIME: 7:00 PM
PLACE: KANSAS UNION, HAWK'S NEST (First Floor)

I've got another massive update to the story. It's nice to know that I am getting a better grasp of the fake documents. Plus adding a whole bunch of random notes from the editor can really pad the word count to ludicrous levels. Go figure that one out.


That's all for now.

New Update

I've got an update to the story at Gray Hall. It's a big update since I had a test to take on Saturday and I've been having little time to get online and update. That's the life of a freaking 3L law school student.

I'm most likely doing the stand up contest on November 8th at 7PM. It will be on the 1st Floor of the Kansas Union. If you want to see me make a fool of myself, then please come.

That's all for now.

New Update to Story and Other Stuff

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. That means stuff all about me.

I'm going to take the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam(MPRE) tomorrow and that promises to be such a load of fun (sarcasm being used here) or BS depending on your view. From the mouth of someone who took it last year, "It was like being raped" and this was coming from a guy. I'm not exactly sure what he meant by that phrase, but I think that his general meaning was that the test was not a pleasant experience. You know, I think I will need a good dose of mental bleach to get that image out of my head.

Ahh...much better now. Back to a clean mind in such a short amount of time. I might need an extra dose after the test.
I can now understand why people do not consider lawyers to be the most upright or most morally outstanding professional people out there. In Trial Advocacy, the professor said that politicians ranked higher than lawyers in credibility. Haven't they seen all those negative ads? Come on.
Actually, they might not be so far off with their thinking. I was taking a practice exam and the questions I got wrong, I chose the obvious common sense answer. This was based upon my personal beliefs, so I should have known it was wrong. Well, at least with the judiciary, it's more cut and dried. Doing bad things is definitely wrong and will get you in trouble.
So basically, in order to do extremely well and get a near perfect score, I will have to lower my personal ethical standards down to the level of a lawyer. Go figure.

HANDY TEST TIP:
Remember, with the MPRE, it's not what you would do, it's what you could do and still sound respectably ethical. The best answer is the second-most ethical answer. After all, lawyers and humans in general, are not perfect.

Then again, why do the state bar associations and the ABA say that lawyers need to be trusted as professional and ETHICAL people if you're allowed to do stuff that may not be the most ethical thing to do?
Like for instance, try the following test to see if you can think like a lawyer and survive among a sea full of sharks. It's only one question.
1. Which of the following actions, if done by a lawyer, will most likely result in a suspension of their license or result in a permanent loss of license in the state they can practice in?
A. Showing up to court during a trial while under the influence of alcohol and the scent of alcohol is noticable, even by the judge sitting twenty feet away.
B. Showing up to court during a trial while visibly strung out on cocaine and such conditions are noticable since you are jittery, acting paranoid, and a ring of white powder is visible on your shirt. While under such condition, you fail to give a proper legal defense of your client and he gets sent to jail.
C. Having repeated acts of sexual intercourse of all types with a female client thereby clouding your judgment.
D. Putting your client's money (any amount what so ever) into your personal bank account and not into a separate account.
E. A, B, C and D.
F. None of the above.

If you chose A, B, C, E, or F, you are wrong. The correct answer is D. If you show up drunk or high on drugs during a trial and your client gets sent to the slammer or loses a case due to your habitual drug use, you get a slap on the wrist punishment like drug rehab and a censure, plus a possible malpractice lawsuit. That's it and this is based upon actual case law. Even if you do it four, five, six times. Having sex with a client is bad, but not that bad. In fact, it's perfectly fine, though not an activity one should do. You might get disciplined but not disbarred. The ABA adds that if you've been having a sexual relationship with a person and they later become a client, that makes having sex with them while a client OK. But it's not like if you're having sex with them it will affect your responsibility of being fair and impartial in any way...
If you chose D, you are correct. It's the rule that many lawyers have broken throughout the years. Then again, many lawyers have gotten drunk and used drugs many times throughout the years, but that's not serious enough as comingling funds. Doing a crappy job in being an advocate, that's not serious. To be a total cynic, I guess this proves that MONEY and getting paid is more important than being a vigorous lawyer who does their best for a client.

Oh yeah, I've got another installment of NaNoWriMo on Gray Hall. It's a really long section as writing a convincing psychological report can be tricky.


That's all for now.

Forget What I Said...

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un.

You remember what I've said about NaNoWriMo 2006 and posting the novel online on this site? Forget it. I am going to use the Gray Hall site for this year's entry. I just realized last night that I like to rant and rave and trying to rant and rave on this site while posting several thousand words of an unrelated story would be too confusing and make every post way too freaking long.
So yeah. Go to Gray Hall (also known as the NaNoWriMo link on the sidebar), and read the stories posted on there. As with last year, you will be notified on this site if there is an update.
If you choose not to take a look at the other blog I kinda operate but once a year at about this time, I will have to invoke the name of the Elder Gods from time immemorial to devour your Internet connection until decide to do otherwise. And I mean it. Now, where is my human skin-covered and bound copy of the Necronomicon? Ah yes, here it is... "To invoke the name of the Elder Gods, repeat the following chant twice: Hastor, Hastor..."
There is an update so you must read it. There might be one tonight as well, since I am taking a fun test on Saturday. Being a lawyer-in-training sucks.


That's all for now.

NaNoWriMo 2006

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.

It's that time of the year again. Yes, NaNoWriMo season starts anew. For the next month, you may notice that this blog will look strange...as if this blog was not strange enough for your tastes. I will be posting up my effort for this year's NaNoWriMo on this blog. It's a story about the general unprovability of conspiracy theories.
I knew that reading statutes and all of those indecipherable law school materials would come in handy as instead of following the traditional storytelling method of "Steele pulled out a Baretta 92 pistol from a shoulder holster," it is all told by documents. Basically, I get to make up a whole bunch of fake yet authentic sounding documents. I guess I wanted a little challenge. And I got it.
So, as a warning, if you happen to stumble upon this blog and you are wondering why you're reading a bizarre sounding entry, that's why.

That's all for now.