Damon Posts

Thank goodness we live in a country where everyone is straight until proven gay beyond a shadow of a doubt. When Merv Griffin died recently most obituaries didn’t mention rumors that he was gay. Most newspapers operate under strict rules of journalistic ethics that dictate that unless a person says they are gay or there is evidence of their homosexuality that would be admissible in a court of law, and sometimes not even then, they are presumed to be straight no matter how many people of the same sex claim to have slept with them.

The tragic saga of Idaho Senator Larry Craig is a perfect example of why journalists have this important rule. For months The Idaho Statesman investigated rumors that Craig was gay, but withheld publication of the article until he pleaded guilty to seeming to be gay, which apparently is a crime in Minnesota. According to the officer who arrested him in a restroom at the Minneapolis airport, Craig used gay “code” to signal that he wanted a sexual liaison, tapping his foot and fidgeting with his hands and touched the officer’s foot with his foot, which Craig attributed to having a “wide stance.” In Minneapolis one doesn’t actually have to proposition someone to have sex in a bathroom to be arrested, one just has to give off certain signals that can be decoded according to a gay handbook the police have apparently obtained.

Of course, seeming to be gay is not the same as actually being gay, despite what the Minneapolis police department believes. In fact, the more one looks at the evidence that Craig seems to be gay, the more one can see that it is really just evidence of being conservative. There are many attributes of conservatism that seem really gay and unfortunately the more we deny that we are gay, the gayer we seem. This incident should put a chill in every conservative who has a “wide stance” or belongs to a barbershop quartet.

Rumors of Sen. Craig’s homosexuality date back to 1982 when Craig denied sleeping with male pages even before anyone had accused him of doing so. “Persons who are unmarried as I am, by choice or by circumstance, have always been the subject of innuendos, gossip and false accusations,” Craig said in his premature denial. “I think this is despicable.” A month later, the page making the accusations recanted, but I’m sure Craig felt inoculated against any future accusations that he was gay by having a denial already out there. I wonder why more conservatives haven’t made pre-emptive denials that they are gay–just in case.

Unfortunately, many conservatives are awkward and shy around women, which just fuels rumors that they are gay. That is why, for example, blogger Ace of Spades often seems so gay even though he is one of the most heterosexual unmarried bloggers on the Internet. Like many conservatives, Ace of Spades tries to overcompensate for these unfair perceptions by making a lot of anti-gay jokes. But sometimes his efforts to use light-hearted anti-gay humor to deflect these false impressions make him seem obsessed with homosexuality. And no matter how many times Dan Riehl tells us that he turned his back on his gay brother who died of AIDS or that he can’t stop thinking about how homosexual acts disgust him whenever he sees Barney Frank on television, there are still people who will say that maybe he protests too much. It is a Catch-22 situation that many conservatives sadly get caught in.

Despite Craig’s strong denial that he was in any way, shape or form gay, his marriage six months after denying he was gay, and his 100% anti-gay voting record in Congress, rumors nevertheless persisted. According to The Idaho Statesman story, one of his accusers claimed that Craig “cruised” him at an REI store in Boise. Craig had a logical explanation, of course. “Once again, I’m not gay, and I don’t cruise, and I don’t hit on men,” he said. “I have no idea how he drew that conclusion. A smile? Here is one thing I do out in public: I make eye contact, I smile at people, they recognize me, they say, ‘Oh, hi, Senator.’ Or, ‘Do I know you?’ I don’t go around anywhere hitting on men, and by God, if I did, I wouldn’t do it in Boise, Idaho! Jiminy!” Conservatives are very friendly, open people, the kind of people who make eye contact for longer than some people might find comfortable, so it is easy to see how this could be misconstrued by a gay man looking for love from a kindly older man. Conservatives also often use words like “Jiminy!” which may sound gay to some people.

Craig’s speech patterns do seem awfully gay, but Jim McClure, the man Craig succeeded in the Senate, offered a helpful explanation for that, too. “Larry’s speech patterns are very precise,” said McClure. “They’re not what you expect from a rancher from Midvale. His speech patterns say, ‘Hey, here’s a guy who’s a little different.’ And he is, he’s a little different. But that doesn’t mean he’s homosexual for heaven’s sakes! You have to jump from prejudice to suspicion to I don’t know what to give the rumors any credibility.”

A lot of conservatives got picked on as children because they seemed “a little different.” I don’t know what kind of childhoods William Kristol, Jonah Goldberg and John Podhoretz had but I’m sure they got made fun of a lot by the other kids because kids can be cruel. Luckily, they all have very strong mothers who protected them. But being “a little different” or being close to one’s mother does not make someone gay.

The Idaho Statesman article also dispensed with rumors that Craig was drummed out of the military for being gay. Craig is a staunch opponent of gays serving in the military, writing to a constituent just a month after the unfortunate incident in the Minneapolis airport, “The armed forces exist to wage war. It is unacceptable to risk the lives of American soldiers and sailors merely to accommodate the sexual lifestyles of certain individuals.” Although Craig was honorably discharged from the military after only 20 months, it was not for being gay but for a “physical disqualification.” Although conservatives are big supporters of sending other people into combat, many of us also have physical ailments that disqualify us from military service, which we would be happy to do if only we could. Of course, that doesn’t make us gay.

You might think that with all the things conservatives say that seem really gay, but aren’t, we would all be more sympathetic to Craig’s plight. When conservatives gush about how macho Fred Thompson and President Bush are, we do sound a little bit like Village People fans. Some people could mistakenly view conservatives’ passion for the bulging, oiled-up muscles on display in the movie 300 as homoerotic instead of merely intellectual admiration for the allegorical parallels with the War in Iraq.

But, in fact, many conservatives are now abandoning Craig, despite the fact that he denied, with biblical defiance, three times that he is gay in his press conference. Hugh Hewitt says that Craig should resign, even though he admits that he didn’t call for David Vitter to resign, which has nothing to do with the fact that Vitter admitted to hiring female prostitutes, which makes him, thankfully, not gay, or that the Governor of Louisiana, unlike the Governor of Idaho, is a Democrat, but for some other reason that he can’t quite put his finger on. Other conservatives, who reacted to activist Mike Rogers’ outting of Craig before the November 2007 election with outrage, saying that it would be “irrelevant” even if true, have now had a change of heart. Apparently, 11/06 changed everything.

But I think my fellow conservatives should not be too quick to turn on Craig. If everyone who just seems gay is drummed out of the Republican party or the conservative movement anyone could be next. Every effete mama’s boy with precise speech patterns, every hawk with a physical inability to perform military service, every unmarried man with an awkwardness around women, every admirer of Fred Thompson and President Bush who gushes over how manly they are, every aging adolescent fan of comic books, Star Trek, World of Warcraft, Star Wars action figures and the movie 300 will come under suspicion. If we start going after every conservative who seems kind of gay, the only conservatives left will be Fred Thompson, President Bush and Rudolph Giuliani. Well, maybe not Giuliani.

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Technorati Tags: Jon Swift, Larry Craig, Homosexuality, Gay, PoliticsFair and balanced commentary from a modest and reasonable conservative.

Chris O’Brien writes in the Beijing Newspeak blog about the recent mass rape of young girls by a teacher in the Gansu Province. He highlights the fact the Chinese media intentionally played down such a tragic event in the name of saving China’s face, as well as due to lack of information released by authorities. From Beijing Newspeak:

…Such a horrific event, so little effort in conveying it to the world. Pressing the journalist for more information on this story brought to light some opinions I found very difficult to accept and which luckily are not held by anywhere near the majority of journalists in my department.

The journalist in question began his case as to why he could not possibly get more information by bemoaning the lack of substance to a Sichuan newspaper report…Then he decided to raise his hand, shield the side of his mouth nearest to his colleagues, and whisper, “This kind of thing is quite common in rural areas. People there are very uneducated.” He moved on to say how he didn’t want to exaggerate the story for the sake of the children who had suffered and that they should be allowed to forget. The final excuse was predictable and one I suspected was coming all along. “It would not be good for China’s image.”

…But how can the downplaying of this kind of crime be considered a safeguard of social stability? The facts are there in the story to suggest censorship in this case can cause more suffering.[Full text]

For more information on the rape case, see Earthtimes.org’s China Sentences Teacher to Death for Raping 18 Girls.

Stuff from sports:

:: Every year in the various playoff periods for each sport, I’ll encounter a bit of logic that always escapes me: the idea that if your team loses in the playoffs, you should root for the team that knocked your guys out, on the basis that then you could say you lost to the best, or something like that. Personally, I think that’s complete poppycock. The team that beats my team deserves to suffer a defeat ten times as stunning as that which they visited upon my own long-suffering burgh. So, Go, Ducks!

:: I continue to be amazed at all the media hand-wringing over the Bills’ decision to allow Nate Clements to leave without even making an attempt to re-sign him. Look, Clements is a good player, no doubt about it, and his departure does leave a hole in the secondary. But there were too many games where his presence created a hole in the secondary, the Bills would have been crazy to commit that much money to the position of cornerback, and it all boils down to the harsh reality that the Bills weren’t going to get any better by keeping him. When the choice is a guy leaving now or a guy leaving later, I’d always take the guy leaving now. I’m a big “Get it over with and move on” person.

:: For all the metaphorical ill-wishing I tend to direct on this blog toward the NFL franchise from New England, I hope it’s clear that I confine my ill-wishes to just the field of play. I want those players to live happy lives off the field, and just go 0-16 on it. I certainly wouldn’t ever wish anything like this upon them. Condolences to his family, friends, and teammates.

Music: The Young Knives - The Decision (click to download)

It wasn’t a schmaltzy affair. Fond memories of the ten year old Cathay cineplex in Bukit Jambul Complex crept in when they waved goodbye to their loyal patrons for the past decade with a wonderful buffet dinner (provided by Bamboo Catering) at their premises along with a free screening of ‘Mr Bean’s Holiday’. Cinefreaks were also gifted a remarkable traveling bag to thank those who came by. I’d like to wish the cinema company all the best as they shift their focus on bigger ideas at Prangin Mall - extending their capacity to a total of seven cinema halls come mid-2007.

Here are some shots taken:

Farewell to Cathay Bukit Jambul…

Fried chicken, courtesy of Bamboo Catering services.

Oi! Film buffs eat too you know?!

The ticketing staff on their final day of duty.

“Hear ye! Hear ye! Last call for invite tickets!”

The nifty gift for all attendees! Wicked mate!

Magic seeds A Novel by VS Naipaul. Published by Picador : An analysis

Trying to read this book of Naipaul becomes trying experience for one, even before one is half way through it; particularly when one is also reading ‘A house for Mr. Biswas’ for the third time; and had recently, temporarily, abandoned ‘Guerrillas’ - finding it a bit convoluted and unintelligible.
Of all ‘A house for Mr. Biswas’ appears most convincing even in the third reading, with Mr. Biswas amusing one by his limited vision of his world that he is intellectually unable to grasp and is reminded of his pettiness by the diverse world he sees around. But he has the delusions of grandeur as well, that got reflected in the language he uses to write his headlines in, for the articles he publishes in the newspaper he is working for. But he has the security of his bullying but also forgiving in-laws, who always give him the shelter and food, when he returns to their crowded abode defeated by the world, along with his wife and four children. But he is not grateful for their kindness and is resentful of it; and hides in the cocoon of his defensive thoughts and emotions in secrecy, apparently mocking everything and everyone around. The house that finally Mr. Biswas buys; that looks fine but has deep flaws; after taking loans on top of all the saving of his life; he considers it as a fort in defense against his in laws and the rest of the world; for which his children would pay back when they start earning. Sadly, burnt out by a life of poverty and malice, Mr. Biswas does not live long to enjoy the freedom and independence his house provided him, and died when his grown up son and daughter are away, who might have helped him most at that stage.

‘Magic seeds’ brings into light this inchoate vision of grandeur of Mr. Biswas, as the chief protagonist of it, Wllie, goes to Africa and then India, to look for the circumstances that will make a real man out of him. As is prompted by his sister Sarojini, who, while living an uncertain life herself in Berlin with her German partner, acts like the intellectual guide of Willie, to send him to find his war in the purported Indian Leftist revolution, after his visa could not be extended anymore in Germany. She helps Willie see how a Tamil man selling flowers in Berlin is doing so to help a war in his homeland (Sri Lanka?). Willie, only half convinced, comes to India to join a revolution that he soon finds out to be a wrong one. And he remains only half convinced of everything, till he surrenders after doing his bit for seven years, in the wrong revolution. In jail too he is not able to stand the political debates of the prisoners like him and requests to be shifted to live with petty criminals there.
And the revolution is described as a mimicry that could not have a future, because it is being fought in the wrong society and by the wrong people: who mostly were earlier comfortably placed, educated, urbane middle class people, instead of the destitute peasants. The revolutionaries who have joined the revolution either frustrated of an adulterous wife or due to the lack of a sex-life due to ones inability to do the courtship with a town girl, troubled by the inferiority one feels due to ones small physical size and rustic, peasant manners. These people unsuccessfully try to prompt the killing of village moneylenders by their impoverished peasant tenants. Willie considers this as a wrong revolution and is not sure, like others, if there is a more genuine revolution, taking place elsewhere; that would make him what he is not: a complete man, who needs to be thrown into a revolution by his nagging sister. The children of a high caste man and a lower caste woman remain the victims of caste politics, though they leave India and travel across the world. But Willie fights for seven long years nonetheless, before he surrendered with a few of him comrades, to be sentenced for a decade.

But then it became known, to the Indian authorities that he is a writer. His work is considered ‘… a pioneer of modern Indian writing’. Or so one of his friend, Roger; who informed him about the publishing of his short stories’ collection in London thirty years ago, by a left wing publishing house, in the first place; makes the people to believe, to arrange his amnesty from the prison term In India. It happens after Sarojini, the fixer with a political instinct, wrote him about Willie and the wrong revolution. Rogers comes to receive Willie at London to take him to his home. But Willie soon seduces Roger’s promiscuous wife Perdita, something that he could not do twenty eight years ago for the lack of courage, enjoying fully the hospitality of his friend.

And Willie closely observes the decorations of the room his friend has given him to live, while making love to his friend’s older-looking wife, in a position in which he considers himself younger than her, and tells her so uncontestedly; as he has to bend and stretch in that position; though both apparently are of the same age; discovering the areas of smoothness in her skin. In one instance he makes love to her over phone, and afterwards empathises with her for her husband lost the job and they might have to sell that house. Perdita, however complying and timid, refuses to accept his sympathies, Willie notes. But it was after he thought about learning some skills to start working to make a living, as the people in India also might do then, forgoing the call of revolution, as Willie argues. He meets the characters in London who all have a secret sex life, cheating their spouses: avenging for their adultery. And there enters a character in the book, who is a black and a diplomat, surviving many revolutions at home to retain his ambassador’s job; who is fond of inter racial sex and aspires to have a white grandchild to take him for a walk in his retired life. And it looks as if it will be even laborious to read this book of Naipual, beyond this point, however unreal, slow and pretentious it has hitherto been. If not the in-laws, one can laways fall back upon ones story telling skills, if one has reached a dead end in life, led by others, as it may appear to one, comparing Willie with Mr. Biswas.
The armchair vision of revolution of Naipaul is as unconvincing, as is the centrality of his protagonist in the novel among everything that happens around him, that more so in spite of his being so withdrawn. Naipaul seems oblivious of the fear and uncertainty people feel in an area undergoing revolution of the type he talks about. He also has a limited vision of human possibilities in most of his work, in which he mocks and ridicules his characters and the people he reports about, some of them he dose not understand enough. He possibly is troubled too much by the world around him where he does not belong, which he pretends to know, however. But he also pacifies often, by the end of his books, to his readers, whom he has agitated enough earlier. And ‘Magic seeds’ is no exception, which concludes while Willie, a child of an inter caste marriage, thinks: ‘It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That’s where the mischief starts. That’s where everything starts unravelling. But I can’t write to Sarojini about that.’
‘Magic seeds’ might easily have qualified as one of the worst book ever written by Naipaul. But then you have the salutary comments by various reputed literary critics on the back cover of the book to baffle you. But then you know how the publishing industry of present day works. However, V S Naipual has not been fooled by his own book, as after writing it he declared that the novel is dead, and announced his retirement from his writing career; before he went on attacking Thomas Hardy and Dickens. It seems difficult to resume reading “Guerrillas” after reading ‘Magic seeds’, for one.
May 28, 2007.

And now, the latest from Racked, covering NYC shopping from the sidewalks up.

[Image by noanoanoah/Racked Photo Pool]

1) Meatpacking: The melancholy of the above image of the darkened Woofspa at Hudson and West 14th Street speaks for itself. Farewell, oatmeal baths and hot-oil treatments! Also shuttering in the general area: kitschy barwear and home goods Mr. Pink, and, a bit further south, it’s curtains for art: Tao {the art of} Living and Art of Cooking are both finito. Oh, and of course, there’s the Girlshop closing saga to round out the carnage.

2) Midtown: When the Gap Design Editions dropped yesterday, Racked camped out at the Gap’s flagship on Fifth Avenue and documented the mayhem.

3) Cobble Hill: Finally, one for all the old Bankfronting fans in our midst. Per an email from a Racked tipster, “The biggest retail space at the Brooklyn Heights Walentas development at 125 Court Street looks likes it’s beginning its retail development. My inside info tells me that Sovereign Bank will take over the massive storefront at the corner of Altantic and Court.” All together now—exhale.

A few other blogs have noted developments on the continuing story of how counterfeit drugs enter our pharmaceutical supply chain that are worth noting:

Adam Fein at Drug Channels in RFID Un-Hype covers the failure of the drug industry to embrace radio frequency identity tags as a means of tracking drugs as they wind their way through an often extended supply chain. The extended supply chain is safety weakness as it increases the chances for counterfeit infiltration. The subject is also covered by Ed Silverman at Pharmalot as he notes that the much ballyhooed RFID as a solution to tracking drugs in the supply chain appears dead in the water.

The failure of RFID comes as no surprise to me. When I previously spoke before the FDA’s Counterfeit Drug Task Force a few years back, I urged non-technology solutions. The remedy for a weak supply chain is to actually limit the number of hands the drugs pass through, not try to document a dozen different owners of the drugs. The more people that touch the drug, the greater the chance for infiltration of counterfeits (or destruction of the drug through negligent handling). Counterfeiters will always be around to try and corrupt the supply chain, for as Willy Sutton might have said, that’s where the money is. One day, some distributor that bought mystery medicine out of the gray market will be looking at dead bodies and trying to feign ignorance of the problem.

And on a related note, Jayne Juvan (Juvan’s Health Law Update), reports on an appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Rx USA Wholesale v. Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration. This dealt with an injunction against the FDA forcing compliance with the rules regarding the drug pedigrees (that’s the track of the actual drugs, discussed above). The FDA has now filed its brief, and Jayne has a copy of it along with a synopsis.

See also from this blog (with yet more links) :
Does Congress Understand the Counterfeit Drug Problem?
Counterfeit Drug Legislation Stalls in Court

Healthful Snacks For Kids Now days, more than ever children should be eating healthier. For millions of children in America consuming junk food and increased inactivity has led to obesity and an increasing number of children being above ideal weight. Not only is it important to teach your child which snacks they should eat, but educating them during the early, formidable years may help them sidestep obesity and becoming overweight in the future when they are adults. Here are some tricks on tasty healthy snacks for children. One way for your children to eat healthy snacks is to get them started on naturally sweet foods. Since most kids crave sweets for snacks, naturally sweet foods such as fruits are ideal. Encourage them to enjoy a banana, orange, apple, cherries, strawberries and other berries whenever they have a sweet tooth. You can mix in yogurt or even make a fruit smoothie for them with some milk and a drop of chocolate or other natural flavors. Another great way for your little ones to enjoy healthy snacks is to give them fresh nuts. Kids love peanuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds, almonds, etc. One of the things to recognize about children is that if they try enough types of natural and healthy snacks, they will find one that they love. The problem is that many times parents give up trying to find the snacks that their kids enjoy and settle for popular junk foods instead. When deciding on a healthy snack, what you want to avoid are products with boatloads of sugars, unwanted preservatives and empty calories. While most kids will fight you tooth and nail if they have to eat wheat germ and tofu, most children will be more than happy to eat snacks if they have a sweet taste and are presented in the right way. Other healthy snacks that many children like are dry cereals. For example, there are many breakfast cereals that are derived from corn, wheat, bran and include nuts and honey. These cereals when consumed at breakfast usually include milk; however, you can easily serve them without milk to your children. One of the most popular dry cereals which are healthy and nutritious for your little one at almost any age is Cheerios. Cheerios are lightly sweetened and tasty either moistened with milk or dry. If your little one craves a delicious snack for lunch or to take along for camp or little league, dry cereal is not only nutritious, but delicious. For those children that are terribly picky and only want junk food, one strategy to use in order to get your child to eat nutritious snacks is to buy premade natural snacks. Today, there are tons of prepackaged snacks that might look like junk food, but are actually healthy and nutritious for your little one. They include certain fruit roll ups, string cheese and granola bars. Many of these snacks look like junk food, but are actually made from natural ingredients and include relatively little sugar and empty calories. If you are looking for a great way for your child to remain healthy, check out the above mentioned tricks on healthy snacks for little ones. Dine Without Whine is a great menu planning service for active families. Go to http://www.dinewithoutwhine.com to discover even more rewards to menu planning.

Internet Business Tip #1: Long sales letters have proven to be successful. Long sales letters provide customers with the information they want and entices them to buy.

Internet Business Tip #2: “Scientific Proof” are the two most important words and will make you the most money online if you follow strategies that have been scientifically proven.

Internet Business Tip #3: You need to learn how to use search engine optimization to earn top rankings in Google.

Internet Business Tip #4: Too many Internet businesses are product centric. An Internet business should revolve around a product LINE, not just a product.

Internet Business Tip #5: Business plans – 5 year business plans are silly because you can’t plan that far ahead. Instead, make 7 day, 30 day and 60 day business plans.

Internet Business Tip #6: Too many Internet businesses sell their eBooks for $19.97 which is too low. They do this because they don’t think people will spend more money than that on the Internet. This is a faulty belief. However, you see it all the time because one website business follows the model of another website business.

Internet Business Tip #7: Many Internet business entrepreneurs seek out joint venture partners once and are rejected so that don’t pursue any other joint ventures. Remember, most joint ventures will say “no”, so you have to keep trying until you get a joint venture.

The best way to find joint ventures is by going to a “live” event and networking. Only sending emails to set up joint ventures rarely works because it is too easy for potential partners to hit the delete key on their email.

Internet Business Tip #8: “Success leaves traces.” Follow and find successful people on the Internet.

Internet Business Tip #9: Take action before everyone else does. Take action now!

Internet Business Tip #10: Successful Internet businesses make more than 5-10,000 per month. There are very few Internet businesses that achieve this goal. Strive to be one of them.

Advanced degree students already occupy a kind of second class citizen status at law schools, what with the separate interview regime (by that, meaning that they don’t really participate in OCIP but rather bank on the big NYU job fair or, heaven help them, the new West Coast job fair at UCLA and independent resume sending) and being supported by rather understaffed and wholly inadequate program offices and directors.

But my biggest gripe, since I don’t really care about the segregated interview regime (or at least have no personal stake in it), is our late registration status. What’s up with that, man? I’ve been admitted to the S.J.D. program for months now–I could have registered for courses for this Fall last Spring. Instead, next Friday, at our orientation, they will explain to us how to register for courses that will begin in two weeks. All the seminars will be full of 2Ls and 3Ls, and so if I need a course for my dissertation I need to beg my way in. Which, by the way, doesn’t always work here at Liberal College Law.

Last year, there was a course on Federalism and Family Law–great! Kind of fits with my thesis on federalism and child pornography regulation (attenuated, but not so far a stretch). But, I didn’t get off the waitlist. I don’t get the professor–did she not want, as she said, intellectual diversity in her classroom? No to the J.D.-accomplished, Masters student with only one year to take courses (if I wasn’t doing the S.J.D.) already doing research in the area? I wanted to say, “Bitch, please, I could teach this course. If you don’t want to teach me, I’ll teach myself.” Of course, I didn’t say that. I’m not that stupid. Only on this blog am I so stupid. Anyway, I ended up taking Sociology of Law, which is how I got to my dissertation topic, so I’m not really complaining. Well, I am complaining, but it’s in my nature. Gripe and grumble.

So now I get to hope and pray that I will get into the Disability Law seminar (which you know, might be useful to one writing a dissertation on the FMLA). I am sure I’ll get into Administrative Law, because half the people there drop after looking at the syllabus (fools and suckas). And I will take a methods course, because I have to design the qualitative and quantitative portions of my dissertation. That will be a process, getting Institutional Review Board human subjects approval, drawing up interview questions, figuring out which companies to target, deciding what kind of models to use or what other data sets to mine, etc.

Of course, I am not a big fan of taking too many courses–at this point, they must serve the dissertation or produce another indepedent article, or they’re just not worth the time they take away from writing. So I guess I shouldn’t sweat the late registration status. But being ornery as hell, I wanted to gripe and grumble about it. It just doesn’t seem fair, and makes no sense. Why, why would you force students to wait to register for courses two weeks before class?! Seriously, do you want us to wear big L-shaped (for we are 5Ls, after all) loser patches on our foreheads?! On second thought, they probably do. There are two “L’s” in L.L.M after all.

Oddly enough, I will go to the orientation and then stay to congratulate, welcome, and talk to the incoming class of LL.Ms about how great Liberal College Law is, and how wonderful the LL.M experience. I will of course be lying. It was an intense year and no joke. But any badness last year had more to do with external drama than anything else (I wish I could be candid and tell them to make friends carefully and try to take their time getting acculturated). Well, if I could I would tell them to be careful about being matched up with an advisor–don’t just take the first one the school assigns you because they write tangentially in your area. It’s a lot more about interpersonal dynamic than I had thought. In retrospect, I learned over the course of last year that almost every S.J.D. student switched advisors–as have I. My master’s advisor isn’t even on my dissertation committee. But this is probably not something to go shouting on about.

I’m not sure I’ll tell them that while we live in an Awesome Part of the Country, it’s not so easy to get around to seeing much of it (let alone the rest of the nation, which those party-ambitious internationals do) during the course of that intense one-year program. Or at least, to see much of it and do well in school. I went to the city only a handful of times. But then again, I’m a big ol’ nerd and homebody. I like just having time to read and pursue my nerdy hobbies. I like taking working vacations to stay with friends and work at different libraries and universities. I have plenty of fun just hiking. I really didn’t get why a group of them went to typical college places for spring break–I mean, Daytona?! Miami?! Las Vegas?! Hmm, missed that boat the first time around 7 years ago, and I was happy to miss it again.

I traveled a lot last year for work and maid-of-honor duties, and I feel now more than ever that I just want to stay in one place for longer stretches of time. Except for visiting my family(something I guiltily admit not doing enough of considering the ease of the trip), I just want to get my work done and limit traveling next year. Otherwise, I’m happy to spend weekend after weekend at my house (which is really nice). And seeing as The Roomie is gone most weekends, it’s time I have to myself, and that’s time I really need. I wouldn’t mind spending such time chilling out with The Roomie or a SO, but I look at the 1Ls and their weekends at Nearby Tourist Destination in huge gaggles and groups, and I really just get exhausted at the thought. Seriously, folks: rethink the amount of time you have to be “on”–if you’re always going at a breakneck pace in your work, social life, and “downtime,” you’re probably going to burn out at some point .

Work hard, play hard, but laze hard. I think most 1Ls and new admits forget that chilling out is a perfectly good way to spend a few hours every weekend, if not an hour or so every day. I can’t believe how overscheduled I was in law school, until I think about how overstretched I was last year. If every weekend is booked and you’re not getting enough exercise or sleep–it’s probably too much all around. If you aren’t feeling guilty for wasting time doing nothing productive or exciting, you’re living too hard. Of course, that’s not to say you shouldn’t have fun. Just don’t make fun such hard work. It’s like dating: if you aren’t enjoying yourself, it’s probably what you’re doing or more likely the person you’re doing it with, not the entire enterprise itself. Have good, non-exhausting fun. Just don’t finish your 1L year or LL.M year looking like Lindsay Lohan after a hard Tuesday night.

So, what’s the plan for this third law degree? Again, since the academic stuff I have to do is clear and the path relatively direct, I am making the following social and way-of-living resolutions: Make friends carefully and selectively, if at all. I like one-on-one interaction and form close, if few friendships, so I won’t be joining any cliques at the law school. Repeat after me, faithful reader: lessons learned. I have enough friends here, and half of them were through The Roomie and so are not even in my program (ahhh, blessed are the bioengineers). I don’t need more. Again, avoid dating in the law school if possible. And I’ll keep with my introverted ways and so will be skipping all those school organized forced-fun events. I’ll probably also avoid joining student orgs (although I can imagine attending ACS lectures). I think I’m too 5L for bar review, and I really want to see if I make it through another program without ever going to the Law School Prom. I think I just might be one of those rare people that gets three law degrees without ever going to one of those shindigs.

If I have a new resolution this year, it’s to really explore the city I live in and the Bigger City next door. And to bake more. And run 10-15 miles a week. Yup, that’s about it.