Winter Comes to Kill Us All

07:15 pm - Book List (2007)

07:17 pm - As promised (sort of)

I know, I know, some of you (dear god I hope this isn't true) were anxiously awaiting a post listing the books I read in 2007.  Just be patient, that will come, but it is on my laptop and I'm writing this from my desktop. 

Here are some facts (warning, this is sort of about sports, but I do make up words and such, so maybe read it anyway if you don't care):
I like sports, but mostly I like football.  Despite this, I probably follow professional basketball and baseball more closely than I do college football.  How can this be true you ask?  Well, in addition to my love of the NFL, I am also an extreme Philadelphia homer (true life example: I wore a Flyers baseball cap for years, despite (at the time at least) not giving even one shit about hockey, not to mention two), as well as somewhat of a contrarian (the equivalent of a librarian, only at the contrararia or "biblioteca").  This means that I have no true local team to support, given that the two best teams in Philadelphia are Villinova (which is no longer Division IA, but only because IA changed its name to Division I Championship Subdivision or something like that) and Temple, which is division I, but I listed those two in the order of their quality.  And due to my contrary nature (that is, my wont to contraryness) I refuse to support Penn State on more than a semi-casual basis.  This leaves me with Rutgers? (Not likely, since like any good Philadelphia I have very mixed feelings about the Garden State with its Zach Braff homesteads, jersey devils, cranberries, landfills and highest population density of any state in the union), following Division IA (which I will not do, despite being one of the two guys who actually watched NFL Europe games and thus clearly showing my willingness to support sporting leagues of lesser quality) or becoming a Temple fan.  So, long story (or should I say, run on sentence) short, I'm the one guy who didn't go to Temple and roots for their Football team.  Why not support the college I went to?  Easy, it's very hard to root for a team that disbanded a decade prior to my arrival.  And no one roots for the football team of their Law School, that would just be weird.
So, next season, if you're one of the teams in the MAC East (or a team that traditionally plays Temple for the easy win cough-Clemson-cough) you'd better watch out.  Because the Owls are coming.  And an Owl is a dangerous mascot.  Imagine you/your football team are (metaphorically) in a desolate field, just below the tree line, on the first cold night of October with a full moon and a hankering for seeds.  I should mention that you are also (metaphorically) a field mouse.  You cock your head to listen, but all you can hear is the sighing of the breeze through the branches of the douglas firs surrounding the open field.  You scurry out into the field, in search of  some seeds or bugs or whatever it is you (metaphorically) eat.  Suddenly, the field darkens as a shadow crosses the moon.  You freeze, and then you hear it.  Whoooo, whoooo.  That, my friend, is haunting.  Try running a screen play while you're that haunted.  Can't be done.  Whoooooooo.

To finish this off strong, I'll list for you the various birds of prey mascots, from best to worst:
Philadelphia Eagles
Temple Owls
Whichever one of Phillies, Flyers or 76ers is a bird (I'd guess Flyers, but Philies seems like it could be too)
Eastern Michigan Swoops
Eagles of color (Golden perhaps, or bald) of various college teams
Seattle Seahawks
Baltimore Ravens
Hawks (various college and NBA teams)
Ibisises (mostly sabastian)
Jay hawks
New York Jets
Hornets/Wasps/Bees/Blue Jackets?  or Yellow ones?
Arizona Cardinals (new ones with angry eyes)
Condors
Toronto Blue Jays
Toronto Raptors (either because a Raptor is a bird of prey, or because dinosaurs were basically birds)
Cardinals (various, except for the Arizona ones)
Baltimore Oriels
Chicago Blackhawks
Atlanta Falcons
Arizona Cardinals (old lame ones)
Turkeys in general
The New York Giants

06:35 pm - Here I coooooome!

Yes, I haven't posted in many a moon (for those of you who don't "hablar native american" that means several periods of roughly 28 days in which the moon cycles between full and new/dark upon which early calendars relied, leading to the modern day concept of months) and I have an excuse.  My fingers were eaten by rabid bees.  I also have a more "true" but less satisfying excuse, in that I've been very busy being a law student.  You say I finished classes in the middle of December?  I reply that I then left the country for Spain, where the internet is not a series of tubes, but rather a dump truck (for those keeping track, that is a lie, Spain has perfectly good internet, it just spirals down the internet wires counterclockwise instead of clockwise like in America).  You might reply to that that I got back on New Year's Eve, to which I would reply that shut up your mouth.  The point is, I haven't posted the list of books I read in 2007 (which I know, no one wants to read, but I like to have a good record) or my new list for 2008 (is one thing a list?) or any of the brilliant insights I've had over the past three and a half minutes (which felt like a life time). 

My main reason for reentering the blog-o-sphere with my special heat shielding ceramic tiles of sarcasm and lies is that
a) I feel like I should write things that aren't explaining why people in an elevator shouldn't get money despite having to share their ride with a disembodied head (true story, ask me about torts)
2) I'm secretly (well, not secretly so much as openly) in favor of being famous, and I'd like to have one of those things described by Living Colour (don't you love having to Google to figure out what I'm talking about?  Or know your pop culture).  Isn't it weird that they spelled color the British way, despite being not British?
D) If the firms I'm applying to Google me, I don't want them to think I'm lazy, boring, a professional wrestler or the kind of person who once wrote a column that had a complete disregard for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.  In fact I am only one of those things. 

So look forward to my triumphant return.  Topics might include humorous (or more likely disturbing) cases from my studies, discussions of sports, complaints that it was supposed to snow 4-7 inches last night and it only snowed 0 inches, and other enlightening fare. 

10:27 pm - As it were

Following in the footsteps of so many that have started relatively anonymous blogs about their occupations or whatnot, I introduce to you: http://columbia1l.blogspot.com/
Go to town (both of you who read this).

08:43 pm - Book List (July)

Here they are from last month:

July (9)
To Say Nothing of the Dog By Connie Willis
Eaters of the Dead By Michael Crichton
Dune: Machine Crusade by Brain Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
One L by Scott Turow
Holes by Louis Satcher
Inside Job by Connie Willis
1824 by Eric Flint
Dune: The Battle of Corrin by Brain Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
Passage by Connie Willis

04:36 pm - So what, Holmes?

I'm here, moved into NYC, at Columbia Law School, learning the law.  I'm doing a law student blog (prolly) so look out for that.

I might be able to bring my cat (Heathbar most likely, not Grainne) up here to live in my apartment with Lisa and I.  I sure hope so.

03:53 pm - Books

Here are my June Books:

June (7)
Flash Fiction by James Thomas, Denise Thomas and Tom Hazuka
The Pleasure of my Company by Steve Martin
What is the What by Dave Eggers
Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Rebels by Sandor Marai
Limitations by Scott Turow

12:07 pm - Crusing

Have I mentioned that I really like driving?  I think it's somewhat of a strange thing, since most people just think of it as something to do to get from point A to point B which is hopefully a wawa where they'll pick me up a raspberry iced tea (speaking of which, VC is back, but more on that laters).  For me there isn't much better than driving 30-50 mph down a semi-windy road with the windows down and the music waaay up.  Speaking of which, if you don't listen to Better Than Ezra, or you stopped because you havn't heard anything you've enjoyed by them recently, you're a fool.  To turn on "A Lifetime" and then go through Good, Rolling, and some more of your favorites.  Trust me on this one.  And don't forget At the Stars.  Anyway, driving.  I enjoy driving with Rachel (family dog) sticking her head out the winder, I like driving short distances or long ones. It's just something I like to do.

This is probably why I drove close to 30 hours last week in our five day trip from Pasadena to Palm Beach, including 11+ hours from New Orleans with a tarp instead of a back window.  This last bit happened because while in New Orleans (which was pretty fun, minus this next bit) someone smashed into the car through the back window.  They also pulled out the battery, we assume because the alarm went off when they smashed the back windshield (it's a hatchback, so it was quite a big smashy part).  The AAA guys, who came to tow the car to a shop where they could fix up the mess they made of the battery part of the engine (litterally broke the car battery into two parts, which seems excessive to me, but I'm not master electrition, so maybe the e-'s were still jumping from box o'electricity to car engine after they ripped all the wire out, because they'd gotten in the habit of doing so or something) said (you may need to refer back to the begining of the sentence, because I'm not likely to rewrite a long rambling non-sequiter in an online blog just so it's coherent) that the guys who did it must have been dumb kids, because they really did a bad job of the smash and grab.  They also messed up the grab, stealing only an iPod, a bag with nothing of significant resale value in it and a bunch of unhealthy snacks.  DAMN THOSE PRETZAL STEALING SNEAK-THEIVES!  They left a laptop, digital camera and a bunch of other stuff in the car, so maybe they were retarded.  Or blind.  Or in a hurry, whatever.

The upshot (I'm still not comfortable with that phrase) of this is that I drove from New Orleans to Lisa and Becky's house from about 4 pm to 4 am last Thursday without the benefit of being able to see out the back of the car.  By choice.  Because I like that.

Lisa's house was fun, they were having a big family thang, complete with a bunch of family members.  Did you know that it's hot AND humid in South Florida in June?  Who saw that coming?  And there wasn't a working badminton net.

So, VC, as I casually call Vanilla Coke, is back.  I believe that this is due to my lobbying (if you don't remember, reference this tech article: http://seamonkey314.livejournal.com/138863.html).  And it is still tasty. 

04:35 pm - Done

I just graduated College.  How 'bout that?

09:19 pm - Book Blog

No, I'm not really going to "blog" about books, just write down the ones I read last month.   Do you believe in Marigolds?

03:02 pm - Done da-da daa

Done da da.

I'm done, done done done.  Assuming I did a good enough job to pass, I'm done with Caltech.  As in, I graduate next week and I never have to do Caltech work again for as long as I live.  w00t to the max.
 In other news, I'm done.

12:10 pm - Harvard Sucks... (like the t-shirt says)

I realize I should probably post this: I'm going to Columbia Law School next year (starting August 13th) after Harvard took three months to decide I didn't get in.  So I'll be in NYC for the next three years (at least).  Here is what I'll be doing in the soon time:

Graduation on June 8th
Drive to Lisa's house in Florida (June 10th-17th or so)
Fly to Philly (June 19th)
Home (June 19th to sometime in early July probably)
Lake (Before July 4th until ~July 12th)
Guatemala (July 13th-31st)
Home (July 31st-August 3rd or so)
Maine (August 4th to 11th)
Then I'll be officially installing myself in law school.

11:03 am - Some Updates

Ditch Day, in addition to being "Tomorrow" was yesterday.  I'll get to that, but that's why I've been redonkadonk busy and I can use it as an excuse for not posting.  That of course is a lie, as I would have had plenty of time for 10 and 25 minute sitting downs and posting now and then, but it's a lie you tell yourself to keep out the cold.  I have been reading (I'm on my fifth book for this month, having having a dry spell) so I can get through some of the stuff I want to from the Caltech leisure reading collection before I graduate, and also because I love reading and I don't have TV to be addicted to right now. 

Before I graduate, I need to:
Make poster for Ge 109
Give poster presentation for Ge 109
Go to talk and report on it for Ge 109
Lots of stuff for Ge 121b (I'll look it up later)
Sell things before graduating (Bike, lots of extra junk)
Pack things up
Plan trip to east coast (by auto-moblie)
Take care of any other california Bizznas
Win interhovse football
FIGURE OUT WHERE I'M GOING TO BE NEXT YEAR

On this last topic, Harvard still hasn't decided (as of Monday, I'll check again soon, probably today, so you may get a new entry on that shortly).  I should note, this isn't a wait list or something like that, they just havn't made a decision.  Their story is that it takes 8 weeks after they officially get my application to decide, and because I turned mine in near the end of their process it took them a while to officially process it.  Eight weeks after the date the officially got it was two mondays ago though, as they have admitted, so who knows whats goign on now.  Between Lisa and I we've gotten more extensions of grad school decisions than we got on work at Caltech (where we didn't get as many extensions as most people, but it still is a school of getting extensions all the damn time).  So we'll see how that goes.

11:25 am - All the books in April

11:48 am - Law School

I officially accepted Columbia Law School's offer of admissions today.  I turned down NYU and I'll be writing to Cornell tomorrow or the next day to let them know I won't be going there.  I'm still waiting to hear from Harvard, but if I get in there, Lisa and I will go there instead, and I'll lose 350 dollars of my seat deposit, but oh well.  So as of now, I'm a columb, or something.

02:50 pm - Law School

Harvard has mad beef.  I called them, and they say they won't know for another week or two if I can go there.  Those mother-f-ers.
So as for now, I'm asking for extensions from Cornell and Columbia (I guess I'll turn NYU down) and being annoyed.

God Speed Harvard people.  And by God Speed, I mean, please go faster.

05:57 pm - Boston Creme

So, we pranked MIT (check it out at tech.caltech.edu if you haven't already) on Friday, and afterwards we got to go out with Mannion to a nice seafood place, where I had a great fish chowder, fried clams, scallops and shrimp, and a lobster.  Unfortunatly they didn't have steamers (steamed clams) so they wern't serving real delicious sea food, which I can't wait for in Maine, but it was very very tastey.  Afterwards we went out around the North End? of Boston and eventually found a great desert shop, with extreamly tasty and not very expensive pastries.  Delicious!

Saturday started well, but ended not as much so.  I visited the MIT campus and saw Nancy and Dimitri, but then had to roll out to the T to get to the airport.  We arrived more than an hour before out flight to find that the lines were friggin long, although they pulled us to the front after a few minutes so we'd get to our flight.  Except that we got to the front and they said the flight was over sold, so we could go screw outselves.  Well, what they actually told us was to go wait in a line.  Where we waited, for more than four hours.  When we finally got someone to talk to, they said that AirTrans (the crappy airline that we were supposedly flying) didn't have any more flights, even with connections, until Tuesday.  In addition, we couldn't take any other flights if we wanted for them to give us hotel room and other compensation, and there was no chance at all of anything but United or US Air for us to fly on, because they were somehow affiliated with AirTrans.  Long story short, AirTrans sucks super-balls, and I had to take a bus to Philly and fly out of there the next day (sunday) night.  It turned out well for me, because I got to hang out with my family for a day.  Still, never ever fly on AirTrans.

05:43 pm - Grad (Law) School Update

Yesterday I heard from UPenn, who told me I could be on their wait list if I wanted, which of course, I don't particularly want.  So that one is done. 
Several weeks ago I heard from "the school of hard knocks" by way of Waylonis, which told me I am "madd" in, so I've got that one going on.
I heard from Columbia today,  by e-mail, even though they apparently sent their paper letter two weeks ago (The Tech Express strikes again!).  The news was good, and I have been accepted.  So I've got to consider that.
I called Harvard yesterday, and they havn't even decided yet, much less sent me any kind of information.

So here's the breakdown (using last years rankings, this year Harvard and Stanford are tied for 2nd, Penn and Chicago are tied for 6th, Columbia and NYU have switched places, and I think GW has fallen a few spots.  If you actually care, google U.S. News and World Report Law School Rankings).

Yale (1) I'm not in
Stanford (2) I'm not in
Harvard (3) Still waiting...
Columbia (4) I'm In!
NYU (5) I'm In!
UPenn (7) I'm wait listed
Berkeley (8) I'm not In
Cornell (13) I'm In!
GW (19) I'm In!
School of Hard Knocks (29) I'm In!

07:11 pm - Boston Prank

So, since Wednesday I've been in Boston for Caltech and the California Tech (our newspaper) preparing and executing a prank on MIT for their Campus Preview Weekend (when admitted students visit them).  We printed out thousands of fake MIT Tech papers and distributed them and handed them out all over campus to the students and prefrosh.  The reaction was almost entirely positive, and we had a good time.  They were also distributed at Caltech.  The issue can be found at tech.caltech.edu, sometimes, although right now it may have been hacked and removed somehow.  That website will also have a long of most of my recent humor columns, in the humor section, and should not be IP-address restricted (usually it is only avaliable to Caltech students) for a while.

Enjoy

04:57 pm - Books list

Here's what I've read this year.  I think watching TV and playing video games has taken up a large part of my reading time, which explains the lower production, but I should still hit 50.

January (7):
The Blind Side by Michael Lewis
Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
Practical Demon Keeping by Christopher Moore
Harry Potter and the Half -Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

February (5):
Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore
The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Wintersmith by Terry Pratchet
Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

March (3):
Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Darwin Awards Four by Wendy Northcutt
America's Best Non-required Reading of 2006 edited by David Eggers

Well, shoot, I only read 3?  I need to get cracking on reading more.  15 for the year so far...