Six Weeks

Oh, what a terrible movie. But I digress.

The sixth week of my final semester in law school came and went with nary a whimper. I am now forty percent finished with the semester.

Several proposals for papers were due this week and I actually turned them in on time and under budget. I also managed to go for a run on four of the seven days and am beginning to up my milage in a way that’s leaving me progressively tired but feeling great, mentally.

Let the endorphin high reign, baby.

No real development on the job search front, but I applied and was asked to join the Albuquerque Chapter of the American Inn of Court. Not only will it be a great opportunity via monthly dinners to get to know a variety of local NM Bar members, but I realized that I need to get out of the house and do something social on a more regular basis.

It’s an understatement to suggest that relocating to a new city is tough on the social calendar, i.e. my circle of friends refers to my mobile calling plan and not who I can call for an after-work drink.

Hmmm.. goal for week seven: increase happy hour opportunities.

Definition of Censorship, Please.

In the category of too unbelievably obvious to be really what they intended, this just in from the Daily Show with Jon Stewart...

Newsweek's cover story this week is an in-depth piece on the US involvement in Afghanistan, i.e. how the policy and military decisions are carefully, methodically and undeniably causing the US and its puppet government there, to be losing control of the country. Perhaps the article's conclusions are not all that surprising, given the reality on the ground and an ever-expanding morass of more extensive commitment (i.e. sucking sound) in Iraq.

The surprising thing (at least to this naive believer in a press that remains somewhat opposed to censorship) is how Newsweek decided that Americans did not need to read this story. Everyone else in the world may be informed, but not us.

Newsweek publishes three international editions, Europe, Asia and Latin America as well as the U.S. edition, and all three overseas editions ran the same cover story, "Losing Afghanistan: The Rise of Jihadistan" an in-depth report by Ron Moreau, Sami Yousafzai, and Michael Hirsh.

The U.S. edition ran with "My Life in Pictures: Through Her Lens" a photo-essay and interview with Annie Leibovitz. I didn't believe that the Daily Show had it right until I went to Newsweek Online and saw the banner with the four covers.

Do you notice the uh, discrepancy?

So, my question remains. Is this censorship? Or simply a recognition that the Jewish high holidays are upon us, and Newsweek wants to celebrate with Ms. Leibovitz? Or, it is really a reflection that the White House has the ability to make a phone call and quash cover stories which appear less than favorable to the Administration? Either way, does it bother anyone else but me that Newsweek's action so obviously smacks of censoring the content for its U.S. audience?

If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, is it still a duck if we say otherwise?

Uh, quack, quack.

Stalking News I Can Use

A friend was giving me a hard time yesterday about not following current events. Ok, so now I'm caught up:

Colin Farrell's 'Stalker' Apologizes
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 26, 2006 08:25AM EST (People Online)

The woman who confronted Colin Farrell during a taping of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in July apologized Monday – but insisted she's no stalker.

During a hearing Monday in which judge John Reid upheld a restraining order against her until August 2009, Dessarae Bradford, 31, said, "Your honor, he's trying to give the impression that I'm some stalker, some delusional fan, which is absolutely not true," Court TV reports.

Reid responded: "But you are somebody who comes up from the audience, which is not allowed, during the live taping of a TV show, to confront him."

"I might have been overzealous in trying to get this done," Bradford said. "But I am by no means a Farrell stalker. I had no intention of getting that close to the stage and I apologize for that."

Bradford claims Farrell reached out to her in 2004 after hearing about her self-published book about Alec Baldwin. "He basically just wanted to be book No. 2," she said Monday. "He was chasing an adrenaline rush, possibly."


Soon, Bradford said, Farrell began harassing her. She approached him on The Tonight Show on July 20, she said, in an effort to create a diversion so that her private investigator could serve him with legal papers.

The next day, Farrell requested a temporary restraining order, saying in court documents that he feared for the safety of himself, ex-girlfriend Kim Bordenave and their son James.

Bradford was in court Monday trying to get the order lifted. She represented herself and even called a witness: a Burbank police officer who said he worked security at NBC studios when Bradford approached Farrell. The man said Farrell seemed "alarmed" when Bradford approached him.

Farrell, 30, did not appear in court Monday.

(Oh, but I'm certain his lawyer did!)

Estate and Gift Quote of the Day

"Fat hogs get slaughtered"

Translation: Taxpayers who think the IRS doesn't notice all those interest-free loans to family, or the multiple years of unreported gifts should remember that for every 1000 income tax returns audited, the IRS makes an average of $16,000.

However, for every 25 estate tax returns audited, the IRS averages $40,000.

While New Mexico is not really considered “hog” country and thus the metaphor required some explanation, apparently my professor originally hails from Iowa.

Week Five Complete

I finished the week with dinner at a New Mexican place I'd eaten at last summer and enjoyed very much, El Patio (on Harvard).

For those who know El Patio, you also know that it's not possible to get there and not have to stand in line. We got there around 5:30; which is pretty early for dinner I know, but we were meeting people with a small child who wanted to beat the crowd... of course our friends weren’t the only ones with that idea and so the crowd met us there as well.

Nearly 45 minutes of small talk later, we were seated and served! The carne adovada was nicely flavored and came with both red and green, but no tortillas. Was it worth it? Um, let's just say that while the conversation was interesting, I wasn't overwhelmed by the food.

Now that I think about it, the week was kind of like my dinner experience. There were some reasonably high expectations going in, but one too many obstacles were thrown up as the week progressed, to the point that I didn't get half of the things finished that I'd scheduled.

Ah well, after a quick, midnight "run to the border" week six is looking better already.

Irrigation Blues Deux

Charts and more charts (and a refresher course on basic trigonometry), I think I've got the watering cycle down to an approximation of where I need it to be.

It seems that each system was keying a second system whenever the first came on. Got that? Me either but I spent about an hour turning everything on one subsystem at a time, noting down the zones covered and then moving on to the next one. Oh, and as you can see, my serious attention to detail was documented.


Tracking down the system's quirks, kind of reminded me of tracking down what particular event triggers a computer crash. The technique is to turn everything off in your control panel and then reboot, followed by successive reboots but with only one new thing turned on each time... eventually, if you have enough time and patience you'll find the little bugger that's crashing your system.

Lucky for me I have patience.

Or is it just that I have sufficient anal retentiveness?

Democracy? What a Concept

I'm reminded today of a saying I heard once:

"Democracy is application of the idea that large groups of people are somehow better positioned to make decisions, than just one person is."

Come again?

To whit: In Albuquerque yesterday, 39,000 people went to the polls to approve a bond measure for the local school district that will raise property taxes by an average of $170. Those 39,000 represent just 9.5 percent of eligible voters. The bond measure will pour more than 300 million dollars into the school district's coffers. Ah, let's just skip the part about ABQ schools and their local reputation of being subpar. Or, the view that the district management is only skilled at fiscal mismanagement (not my idea, this is an ongoing viewpoint from the local media I read here in Albuquerque). It's for the kids after all, always for the kids.

So, to tally up, we've got poor schools, increased property taxes, no accountability for spending decisions and the democratic process… Wow, now I understand why home schooling remains such a viable option for my (future) children, but not for the majority.

Conversations of the Mind

"Dude."

"Yeah."

"Where you been?"

"Me?"

"You."

"Oh, I've been right here all along."

"No way, I didn't see you."

"Oh, you just couldn't see me because I'm being small today."

"Whoa, dude. That is so cool."

Week Four No More

Deadlines passing me like an unruly flock of number ten envelopes.

More approaching on the horizon, but I think I've figured out the best manner in which to herd them forward to their ultimate demise.

Another week is gone and I'm feeling pretty good; not great, however, and I think that’s because I'm still on the upward climb to the midpoint, i.e. week eight. Still, I feel encouraged about the end being in sight.

Classes remain time in which to catch up on all my assigned reading in the midst of student pontification, with the exception of Estate and Gift Taxation. The class is not only interesting but unlike most courses, also has a significant amount of practical information for a future lawyer.

Note to prospective law students: Don’t expect law school to teach you much about being a lawyer. That’s not its role. The practical information you need to know will only come from other attorneys (i.e. through an internship, externship, summer job, etc.) or from those rare professors that have actually worked as a ‘practicing’ attorney. Of the latter, I’ve only had three in my two and a half years of law school. The remainder were simply refugees from the real world.

Like other educational institutions, law school is a racket that’s promulgated by the individuals who derive their livelihood from its existence. Whether such institutions are necessary or even relevant to what they purport to teach is beside the point.

The adage, “those who cannot do, teach” is as appropriate to a legal education as it is to any other.

Cynical? Sure. But my viewpoint is based on an undergraduate degree, a master’s degree and now a nearly completed law degree.

Adovada Update

I took a chance and was rewarded for my risk. Gracias Dora.

One of the better adovada I've now had comes from.... are you ready?.....

Golden Pride - BBQ CHICKEN and RIBS!!!!!

Who would have thought that under a veneer of chicken parts, there could be such amazing carne adovada for my gastronomical pleasure. It seems the local chain of Golden Pride Chicken and BBQ stores offers up New Mexican dishes that compete very well with the many local places that only serve such fare.

I stopped yesterday for lunch at the Golden Pride on Lomas (at University) and was not disappointed. Nope. In fact, the meat was tender, the sauce oh so spicy and it all came wrapped in a warm flour tortilla. At a $1.95 each, I had splurged for two.

Oh, and I got it with a side of green chili. Need I say more?

Although, now that I think about it, mine was crack-free.

Ah well, mui bueno!

Extra Special Bonus of the Day

Wow. I do love the written word.

When the message conveyed also resonates with my own philosophy of life, that's just the extra special bonus.

Have you ever waited tables? Bartended even? If not, you probably won't be as enamored with WaiterRant as I am. As with most things it's a matter of perspective.

But today his message just seems to fit in with where my head is at...oh so nicely.

Kind of like a comfortable pair of uh, chinos.

Whirlwind...

My mind is a raging torrent, flooding with rivulets of thought, cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.

Harvey Korman - Blazing Saddles

In other words, the last week has been a busy one. I'll have to fix this.

Nothing Yet to Commemorate

I remember where I was on the morning of September 11, 2001. I don't doubt that you do as well. Recollections aside, the real point has yet to be made.

My issue with all the 911 activities is that we don't seem to have learned anything from the event. Instead, we continue to commiserate about how we've been affected, without taking the time to examine why the very bad thing happened in the first place.

Why did 19 people choose to take out their anger and frustration against the United States in a highly coordinated, carefully planned and ultimately successful manner?

I don't feel "safer" knowing that the probable reasons for their motivation remain as relevant today as they did five years ago.

I just wish we would spend less time commemorating and more time contemplating.

One moment of silence isn’t enough.

Week Three Fine'

I'm recovering from a long week of deadlines, i.e. multiple drop-dead deadlines are either fast approaching or have just passed as I type this.

To whit:

Applications for federal clerkships were due in the system and released to the federal judges (those who participate in the online OSCAR program) on Tuesday. The others are due in the next week. I had a motion to be filed on a case I'm working on that was due Wednesday. My tax professor seems to think that the best way to ensure class participation is to require daily, typed homework assignments (due on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday). My externship "statement of goals" was due on Thursday. The deadline for applying to the NM Court of Appeals (more clerkships) was today. I have a memo on another case due next Thursday. A shakedown payment, i.e. tuition is due to UNM on the 15th. And finally (for now), my application for the New Mexico Bar is due by Monday, September 11, COB.

Just to be clear, I'm not really complaining. Life is really good right now and only 11 more weeks to go.

Still, it does me good to detail my activities in the hope that some local bartender will take pity on me.

Dry, with two olives please.

Irrigation Blues

Water is on my mind this afternoon.

The landscaping is part of what attracted us to this house. To support the beautiful plants, it comes with two distinct watering zones and a total of 11 subzones; one each for the many terraces containing mixes of perennials, fruit, ornamental and hardwood trees, as well as a small lawn.

The difficulty comes from having failed to yet figure out how the watering systems actually work. I'm not a technology deficient person, but each zone has a programmable controller and individual subzone watering settings. With the manual in hand I've tried several times to program them. After each attempt the water either begins at the incorrect time or stays on longer than it should.

Wasted Water = Wasted Money.

Luckily, we've been getting quite a bit of rain over the past month and so I've had the systems turned completely off. The monsoon season is now ending and so I decided to reset the systems once again in the hope that a totally new program would wipe out the systems uh... tendency to ignore my programming instructions.

Right.

Last night at 8:30, zone one, subzone two went off like clockwork followed by zone two, subzone four. Only problem was that both ran for 45 minutes instead of the fifteen I'd programmed. Oh, and I "thought" I hadn't scheduled the first one to go off until 10:30 p.m. and programmed the second for 5:45 a.m.

Sigh... maybe I’m just quibbling. After all, Einstein proved that time is relative.

More House Shots

People want to see more of the new house.



I want to take pictures.



Isn't it great when everybody's happy?



Oh, but it looks better in person. Come visit and see for yourself!

Imitation is Not Always Flattering

Friday afternoon.

Me, skipping Friday classes in lieu of a very very long run in the East hills. I managed to knock out just under 12 miles and only walked during a much needed hydration stop.

Which reminds me.... stop..... making.... Gatorade.... knock-offs.... you hear me Coca-Cola and Pepsico?.... just stop. Stick with the colored sugar water you're good at and leave the sports drinks to the sports drink company.

I hit the Stop-and-Go at Menaul and Tramway around 2 p.m. and only had two dollars in my pocket. Guess what? The Gatorade was $1.99 plus tax and the Power-ade was $1.59 plus tax. Same size, same fridge, same color and flavor.

I'm a Gatorade traditionalist, lemon-lime, sometimes orange, never any other flavor. I've got the powder at home to make pitcher of the stuff, but nothing beats a frosty mini-mart refrigi-ated quart of athletic nectar.

There is simply no reason to try another product, especially when Gatorade is usually always available and works well to hydrate and recharge the carbohydrate deficit. But I smell a conspiracy in that this time the Gatorade could only be had for a price that seemed unusually high.

And after taking the bait (I only had $2), I now know it was only in order to push a far inferior product.

Let me just say that Power-ade left me wanting more... water... to quench my thirst... as a result of the cloying, chemical after-taste that the junk left behind. I drank a quart of it. Hey, I was really thirsty (it was in the mid-90's yesterday and for some reason the parks in Albuquerque lack water fountains). And while I didn't then pass out from dehydration, I did find myself with an upset stomach and a serious case of dry mouth. Needless to say, I've yet to experience either condition with the big-G.

Lesson learned, no harm done. Maybe this posting will save someone else from my mistake. Power-ade does have one redeeming quality, however. It's the same color as its better competitor. So, instead of wasting all that great Gatorade, why don't they fill up the coolers used to toss a celebratory shower on the coach with.... Power-ade.

Who'd know the difference?

Week Two Adieu

Two weeks down, twelve to go.

No heavy lifting this week although my three hour seminar on Wednesday does leave me numb in the nether regions.

The professor enjoys the subject (Natural Resources on Indian Lands) very much and I do as well, but with two hours of classes proceeding it, I find myself getting antsy around the uh, bottom of the second hour.

Thus far, the amount of assigned reading is fine (although I'm not doing much of it right now) and most of the courses have a paper component which I prefer, as opposed to having 100 percent of one's grade being tied up in a final exam.

Also, most of the big talkers from week one have calmed down a bit. While they still ask some amazingly inane questions (Example: "Wait! What do you mean, mineral rights are property rights? I don't think so!") they do so with less umm, shall we say, desperation to make a name for themselves.

I, of course, never ask a question. In my last semester of law school, I prefer to remain silent and unobtrusive. Oh, well yes, that condition can also be referred to as dozing off.

But at least I don't snore.