BLOG: October 2005

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2005/10/31

As promised...

I'm still a law school student.

I didn't do the worst in my class.

Thank God.

2005/10/30

First Grade

Tomorrow I'll ride the elevator down to the law school basement, peer at the list posted on the wall, and finally learn what grade I earned on my Torts midterm.

It's been almost a month since I took the darn thing, and I'm dying to know my grade. At this point I don't even care how I did- I just want to know my score.

I've decided not to tell ANYONE my grade for the following reasons:

1) If I do extremely well, my fellow peers will flock to me like some sort of demi-god, begging for the intellectual equivalents of bread loaves and fish.

2) If my grade is horrible, my fellow peers will shun me, thus cutting off a valuable source of information.

3) If my score is mediocre, I wouldn't feel like telling anyone anyway. No one wants to stand on a mountaintop and yell, "I'm average!" At least not me, anyway.

There are a possible 40 points one can earn on the exam. I would kill for anything over a 30. From the clues our professor has given us, most people scored in the lower 20s.

I've already decided that if I have the lowest score in my class (over a 100 people) I'm dropping out.

I'll let you know tomorrow if I'm still a law school student.

Wish me luck.

2005/10/29

I Love Autumn

I carved a pumpkin last night- I went with the traditional design, namely triangle eyes and a gap-toothed grin. It looks quite spooky.

About two weeks ago, we had a burst of cool air move into the state and drop the average temperature twenty degrees. As a result, the leaves have begun to turn shades of copper and bronze as the land begins to change into her autumnal attire.

I live in the country, and this time of year means that giant farm machines inevitably rumble slowly down the highway in a leviathan effort to harvest the multitude of crops. They are mostly done now, and the majority of the fields are ravaged and bereft. I wander through them from time to time and take note of the clumps of cotton left behind as witnesses to the taking. Nothing moves and the golden veil of silence covers everything like a quilt.

It is a blessing to watch the world, for a moment, stand still.

2005/10/26

Entrepreneurship

I've got a fairly decent business idea that I'm looking to implement in the next few months.

I have a penchant for woodworking, and a few months ago I built my first adirondack chair using free plans from the internet.

All in all, the materials only cost about thirty dollars, and I had a chair that was comfortable and quite sturdy.

A quick search on the internet informed me that these chairs (sold as kits) can easily sell for over $150 online. I find this to be utterly ridiculous. Thus, I'm going to build them myself and sell them at flea markets (and eventually online) for less.

In addition, I'm going to hand paint my chairs. This will help to distinguish my product from the others and add a touch of personalization to the finished product. I think that a camouflage chair would sell well with the local demographic.

Any other design ideas I should consider?

Farish Street Fire

My wife and I have begun carpooling in an effort to conserve gas. As a result, I get to campus around five-thirty in the morning. Usually I use the extra time to read and get up to speed for class, but I also make sure to allot some time to hobnob with the jocular security guard and wander around. Today I noticed a plume of dark smoke rising against the pale blue sky. So naturally, I drove to investigate. I read far too much Sherlock Holmes to let a mystery go undisturbed.

I turned down Farish Street and quickly found the source of the smoke- a homeless man had placed some dry branches in a drum and had lit them on fire to keep warm. We exchanged glances for a second and then I drove on.

The cold is a problem for those who have no place to spend the night. The local soup kitchens provide three meals a day, but to my knowledge there are no shelters where one can stay the night. I understand that Mississippi is not Chicago, but it still gets dangerously cold here.

I don't understand why the city can't take one of the many abandoned buildings, provide it with heat and place cots inside for people to use. Each person could get a small space, the city could assign a cop to guard the place (hell, it could be right next to the station) and if anybody caused ANY trouble, they would be kicked out with no exceptions.

I understand the argument that this will only encourage people to not work, but in truth I don't care. I think the preservation of human life should be a greater concern to a society than the inculcation of whatever societal standards we deem important.

2005/10/20

Part-Time Job

I started working at the Law Library this past week. The hours are flexible, and I'm able to take a day off every now and then.

All my life I've gravitated towards books- perhaps I'd rather be a librarian than a lawyer.

Regardless, the legal education will be helpful in the future.

2005/10/03

I could be dead.

Last Saturday night I almost died driving down the interstate. I was heading back from Georgia from another round with the townhouse and the first rain bands from Hurricane Rita were crossing the Alabama/Mississippi border. The darkness combined with the rain made it incredibly difficult to see.

Roughly twelve miles from Meridian, I saw what I thought were brake lights in the distance. The rain was pretty heavy, so I wasn't sure if the brakes had been applied or not- at any rate, the car was so far away I didn't immediately press the brakes. It was probably about half a mile ahead.

Something in my gut tipped me off, however, so I slowed down, probably to around forty-five miles or so. I was less than thirty feet away when I saw why the car ahead of me had hit his brakes.

Sitting in the lane (facing traffic) was a black truck without its headlights on. Imagine how difficult that must be to see- the black color, the darkness, the rain, etc. Also, I drive carefully, but I don't think anyone drives to anticipate a car sitting in the middle of the road, without at least the flashers on. I managed to veer off to the shoulder of the road- I didn't apply my brakes because I'm sure I would have skidded into the truck- and began honking my horn on instinct to warn other drivers. I was convinced someone would hit him if I didn't do something.

Thus, I swung my car around (toward traffic) and began to flash my headlights at the oncoming traffic. Later the first police officer to arrive on the scene told me that had I not done so, he would have slammed into the truck.

I was so close to death or serious injury there's not a day the incident doesn't pass through my mind. If the truck (the driver was intoxicated and had hit a bridge) had stopped on the bridge, my route of escape would have been closed off and I would have been forced to hit him. Others, coming behind me, would have hit me, probably at full speed.

It makes you evaluate your life, if nothing else.
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