The Strangest Thing...

Being a second year law student brings with it a series of interesting quirks that had not presented themselves throughout my education until now. For example, for the first time in my life a good portion of my fellow students are wearing suits on a regular basis. It's not that the feeling of young people in suits is foreign to me, I have been to too many mock trial tournaments for that, what is strange is that while they are dressed to the nines I am wearing flip-flops and shorts. Another strange thing is that I am finally starting to look at people with "real jobs" as peers rather than as symbols of dreaded adulthood. These parts about the second year are strange but not the weirdest things I've noticed in the few short weeks since becoming a 2L.

The strangest thing about being a second year law student is that, for the first time ever a significant number of people in the grade below me are older than me. There are some first years who are well into their 50's or 60's struggling with the concepts of contract law the same way I did as a brash young newcomer straight out of college. While it is somewhat strange to see someone filling out their AARP application in torts what is even stranger is the people in the grades below me that I know from life before law school.

For example, I have one friend who was 2 years ahead of me graduating from the same high school who has now just started his first year as a law student here. This was a little strange but I got kind of a kick out of it. Trying to show him the ins and outs before he even started class was fun and I felt good about myself. That situation was one thing, the one I encountered this afternoon was completely different.

I had just gotten done swimming at the YMCA and I was walking into the library when I saw a face that was familiar. After closer inspection I found out that I wasn't merely hallucinating from the fatigue of swimming, I did know this person from a prior life. This guy, Andrew B. had gone to both my high school and grade school, riding my bus in grade school. When I was in third grade, relegated to the front of the bus with all the other uncool kids he was a suave and debonair 8th grader. Now that I am the older kid, my head is reeling from the role reversal.

I wonder who else I will meet in the 1L class...

Quiz Show

It has been a while since I posted here in large part because school has started back up and once again my life is consumed in various legal doctrine. Although school keeps me busy with work most of the time I still try to find time for a little bit of fun. While most would take a break from intense thought and focus on school by doing something that takes as little mental energy as possible I figured it would be best to find a way to keep my brain active. Thus I am now a regular at a quiz night.

My friend Phelps introduced me to his regular gig, Thursday nights at the TGI Fridays in St. Louis Park (a Minneapolis suburb.) Don't let the location fool you the competition I am up against are far from a group of slack jawed yockals. The trivia, split up into 4 rounds of 12 questions each tests my pop culture knowledge like it has never been tested before. Usually if you miss 4 questions you are out of the running for the top 3. This is where my misspent youth in front of a television becomes beneficial. I am pretty good, but unfortunately not good enough to get our team over the hump and into the winners circle (the best we have ever done is third.)

Here are a few examples of the questions they ask:

1) In the TV show Smallville Clark Kent's father is played by the actor Jonathan Schneider, name the character Schneider played on the TV show The Dukes of Hazard.

2) Name the star of Valley of the Dolls who was murdered by Charles Manson and his followers

3) What was the last name of the principal in Ferris Bueller's Day Off?

if you know the answers to all of these questions you might be a good addition to the 1.21 Giggawatts (our team name.) Please fill out an application and have it on my desk first thing in the morning.

The Swimming Post

This summer I have been doing a lot of swimming. My life almost feels like this Loudon Wainright III song (which I love by the way).

I was swimming in the ocean on the other side of it for the first time. I have swam a lot in the pool on the roof of my parent's building. I went swimming in a river at Brewdog's cabin. Today, however was different than all of those. For the first time in my life today I swam only for exercise.

I went to target before my swim to buy goggles. Much to my dismay the selection of adult goggles was limited to 1 pair of ugly bright pink contraptions made of rubber and plastic. I bought them anyway because honestly if I gave a crap about what people thought of me I wouldn't be swimming at the YMCA in the first place.

So I went and I did 10 laps (or 20 laps depending on if you consider a lap from one side of the pool to the other or require a return trip for an official lap.) I thought it was a lot of fun doing cardio this way. You feel so much more peaceful than when biking or running on a treadmill. it is so nice I don't even really mind that I can't listen to music while working out. That being said, I am going to keep at it because right now I am an embarrassment. I will just tell you I hope I never get stranded in the middle of the ocean because I would be fucked.

Superman Returns

Tonight on my fathers recommendation I decided to re-watch the movie Superman Returns. This was a big mistake.

When I originally saw this movie I remember the excitement that coursed through the very fiber of my being. Because I had not seen the movie yet I did not know all the plot holes and horrible writing that awaited me. At that point all I had seen was the amazing trailer and the production stills which both showcased the only good part of the movie, the unbelievable visual sense that Bryan Singer uses.

* seriously, how fucking beautiful is this?

Unfortunately the visual aspects are where the good stuff ends and the horrible begin. Re-watching this movie is an exercise in frustration for me because all I can think about is how awesome this series could have been.

For those of you who do not know, Superman Returns chronological place is after Superman 1 and 2 and before Superman 3 and 4. Certainly I can't blame Bryan Singer for his attempts to scrub 3 and 4 from history. 3 was essentially Richard Pryor's opus on how to kill a superhero franchise while 4 is best remembered as the movie where Superman is pressured by a 12 year old to throw all nuclear weapons into the sun. The problems with these movies are many and too extensive to get into here, this is just about the latest installment.

The problems with Superman Returns, interestingly enough, arise primarily from Bryan Singer's deep rooted respect for the Superman franchise. Singer has such a hard on for Richard Donner's movies that he refuses to deviate from their themes, even in places where the themes are horrible. The best example of this is that the whole plot of the movie revolves around Lex Luthor's crazy real estate ploy, just like in the first two movies. Another big problem with the movie is the screen play. There are so many holes in logic and overly simplistic lines that come up in this movie I am embarrassed to call myself a comic book fan. I won't do justice to exactly how bad they are by writing it here so I won't even try.

In short, this movie had so much potential it makes me cry to see it so wasted. If Bryan Singer had given Superman the style of reboot that we saw with Batman Begins I would guess we would be on our second Superman movie if not third. Now I fear the franchise will be dead forever.

The Death of an Icon.

For those of you not in the know, I used to run my own business in high school. I sold bagels to my classmates for about a year and a half and made some pretty serious bank doing it. What is funny is that more revenue was generated from the T-Shirts associated with my business than from selling bagels themselves.

T-shirts started being tied to my business when, one spring break I loaned my brother my car so that he could make a cross country trip. As a thank you he and his girlfriend (now his wife) made me a T-shirt that I could wear while I sold my bagels. The shirt, made with iron on letters on a beautiful royal blue shirt has held up amazingly over the last 7 years. Even in heavy rotation it never showed any real signs of wear and tear. Then I took my trip abroad.

I chose that shirt as one of the 6 I was able to bring with me for my 2 months of trekking around the world. As a result the letters have worn off and my shirt now looks like a dilapidated movie theater marquee. I think that it is finally time to retire the shirt. RIP Originator. You will be missed.

The Flight Back

So I am sitting here in Chicago O'Hare airport and have dropped the $7.99 that was required of me to feed my Internet addiction for the next hour until my flight back to Minneapolis. For those of you wondering, my flight back was much more pleasant than my flight to Egypt (discussed a few posts ago.) I sat next to a lovely German woman who is currently a citizen of Italy. The only problem came from the in flight entertainment.

I haven't taken all that many long flights in my life, as a result I have fairly limited experience with American Airlines most bitter sweet feature: the In-Flight Movie. It is bitter sweet because while it is very nice to have something to watch to keep your mind off the fact you are rocketing through the air in a metal tube at 800Mph the movies are inevitably gonna be crappy.

This flight in particular became an acting clinic by Brendan Frasier (read: a shitty acting clinic.) First came Inkheart, the story of a father who is able to bring literary characters to life when he reads books out loud. His daughter has inherited this rare ability and things go awry when the team is attacked by the cast of a medieval adventure book called Inkheart. This movie is every bit as trite and horrid as it sounds. Please never watch it.

The next movie on tap was Journey to the Center of the Earth. Also starring Brendan Frasier. Also involving an in depth knowledge of literature from the Encino man. Also a piece of shit wrapped in tin foil molded into the shape of a swan and then reheated 3 weeks later. What do I have to do to get a half way decent movie in flight?

Last Day in Rome

So my program had it's last exam on Thursday which means my little international adventure is coming to an end. Today is my last in the eternal city. Last night everyone from our program went out and the alcohol was flowing freely. Most dangerous event of the night: my buddy BigEsmalls passed out on top of a retaining wall. This ledge was about 3 feet wide, had he rolled over I do not think he would be with us today. No one was around to tell him that that area was not a good place to nap. As he tells it he woke up at 5 AM with a woman screaming at him and pulling him off the ledge. As one might imagine I woke up with the hangover of the century today.

Unfortunatly I did not budget my time in Rome as well as I shouls have and with a splitting headache still had a fair amount of Roman sites to see. I fit in the Colleseum, The Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain into one afternoon, this process required about 7 hours of walking, but at least now I can leave Rome satisfied that I have done everything I needed to. I am so tired now, but very excited to get back home to take a vacation from this vacation.