February 10, 2007 :: The Perception of Reality in Our World

Here's a good one: the comedy channel, trying to market one of their cartoons, placed "live" versions of their cartoon characters around boston -- large, led lit characters hanging from bridges, poles, signs, etc. Citizens thought they were bombs. Holy moly! They claimed that the lit faces looked "angry"



The ensuing panic from some citizens claiming that they must be bombs drew the police to an immediate, emergency response and blew up at least one of them to see if they were, in fact, terrorist bombs. Turns out to have only snared traffic for a few hours.

Attack of the Mooninites!

Crazy world we live in, huh? Even crazier is that the guy who thought this up or approved it or something quit over this. Reminds me of the assistant/deputy director of some federal department (or was it a top city official somewhere?) who was asked to resign over his correct usage of the word "niggardly" when referring to their apportioning of funds in the budget. Ah-ha! It was an aide for mayor of D.C. (Mayer was Anothony Williams and aide/speaker was David Howard). Turns out, a black member of the mayor's staff, incorrectly thinking that the word "niggardly" was a racial slur, lodged a formal complaint causing howard to resign.

Wikipedia: David Howard incident

niggardly - adj.
1 : grudgingly mean about spending or granting
2 : provided in meanly limited supply

January 24, 2007 :: Snow, Cold Weather, and Grades

Bella going for a walk in the snow covered roads of D.C.

It finally winter here in D.C. and the snow is still on the ground from Sunday night's 1-2 inches of snow. It was very pretty out.

I've gotten all but one of my grades from law school, and when complete, I'll post a summary (maybe). If you know me, you probably already know that I've done pretty well.

One change this semester: I've had two of my casebooks bound by section to allow me to carry less tonnage in my pack. My criminal procedure book was 1600 pages and now is in 300-600 page sections which are, clearly, around one third of the weight of the book as a whole. Turns out that the binding alone is 6 ounces or so. My torts casebook before binding was 5 pounds 2 ounces. Now, each section is a little over one pound, or two pounds max for the largest section. So, for a day that I have either of those classes, or any day I'm reading those subjects, I have at least three to four pounds less to carry. Imaging carrying your books for a semester then finding that not only can you put down the equivalent weight of one half-gallon of milk, but also reading gets easier with a spiral binding that can be folded back on itself, suitable for "easy-chair" reading instead of "table-only" reading. Nice. :)

Christmas lunch desert

Decemer 17, 2006 :: One last exam, and The Wii (Torts example, maybe)

Now that my Civil Procedure exam is behind me, I have one more exam to go: criminal law. I studied for a few hours yesterday, and will do so again today, hopefully with a few people this evening to clear up anything vague.

On a totally separate matter...

The Wii, nintendo's new gaming console where users actively move the game control to simulate sports movements might be a little dangerous. In late november, when holly and I first saw the unit demonstrated in the video at best buy, I said, "someone's going to get hurt with that." and I've been steadily sending holly emails about all the things damaged by the remote control which started with a television screen that "caught" a wii controller. The controllers come with a wrist strap to avoid accidentally throwing the controller (about the size of a tv remote control). There have even been enough complaints of the wrist straps breaking that nintendo initiated a recall to replace the wrist straps with a stronger, more durable strap. My first thought I said to holly, standing at the store, was that I could easily imagine grandma, sitting and knitting on the recliner, getting smacked in the head with a controller while little billy played tennis, a hard lob rebound, or something.

Yesterday, after a lunch of lamb kabobs near rockville, md, holly and I walked into a gaming store that charged by the hour for kids to play computer games, consoles, etc, and stood watching an eight year old (maybe 6 or 7), playing a bowling game with a wii and the funky, in-air controller. Within 90 seconds of watching, the wii controller was doing a fast 7 foot tall, 10 foot long arc away from the boy, luckily not hitting anyone.

Now there is a post on engaget that collects reports of wii injuries, and an entire website too. How fun is that!

Decemer 12, 2006 :: Second Final Exam Done (Two more to go)

Torts exam done this morning. It was a negligence exam which, after four hours of writing, my hand is somewhat sore. But I think I hit all the high points of the exam, and a couple of the low ones....

Which reminds me of a potential tort I have against either my neighbor or my cable company. Several days ago, I noticed that the cable connection from the street was split from my house to my neighbor's house from the wall of my house. The original installer and I finally found a configuration which was perfect: the cable run from the pole at the street connected to the inside of my house using a barrel connector. This provided the maximum signal strength to the digital cable converter at the tv, and a good signal to my cable modem. Several days ago, I noticed that there is a completely unprofessional cable run from my neighbors house (about seven feet off the ground) to my house and down to where that barrel connector was. Plus, the barrel connector has been replaced by a shoddy looking splitter. This new configuration cuts my signal strength by half, as any two way splitter will do. Now I'm thinking if my neighbor did it, it's trespass to land as an intentional interference with my possessory property rights. If the cable company made this change without an easement from me or the property owner, as they would need to provide service to my neighbor using property that I possess, they would also be guilty of trespass to land, as they exceeded my express consent to enter my land for the purposes of providing me with cable service by using my property to supply others with service. I think I'm going to send them a letter in the next day or two. I'll think of something.

Two more exams to go. The next one is civil procedure. Sigh.

Decemer 8, 2006 :: First Final Exam Done (Three more to go)

One of three final exams finished. Contracts is done until spring. It was one hell of a long essay. I filled the two maximum blue-books. My hand muscles were cramping some, but I had to get my address changed right after the exam, and the lady asked me to write my new address. I apologized for the sloppy handwriting, but my arm from the elbow down was tired from writing from 10am until 1:45.

The title of this blog post is funny sounding: "First Final." Like there are more than one "final" of anything. It seems as though, logically, the final is the end. Well not in my case, as I have three more to go.

Next is torts exam tuesday morning. Is that negligence? I think it is :)

December 1, 2006 :: End of 1L 1st Semester Classes

Classes on the first semester of the first year of law school. Ahead now is a week to prepare for final exams on Civil Procedure, Torts, Contracts, and Criminal Law. As a gesture of good will, Professor Thomas threw a small pizza party after contracts class.



Yesterday, Friday, I took the afternoon and xbox'd watched tv, and got coffee with Bella. We enjoyed the afternoon of relaxation.

This morning, I have made a study schedule where I will tackle one subject per day, except for today, where I will work on Torts and Contracts. I need to wrap my brain around the major points of negligence firmly, and rewrite my outline to reflect better organization around the five main points: duty, breach, cause in fact, proximate cause, and harm. So, now I become a law hermit.