the Astros had a good run, but the World Series went to the Cardinals. there's always next year, though...

on that note, i need your help. i need a Halloween costume and i need it stat. there's a mandatory costume party i have to go to on Thursday night and another one on Saturday. i have no qualms with wearing the same thing for both parties, but it's gotta be good.

perhaps some costume history would be appropriate here. i usually end up doing the Nerd thing (i can pull it off really, really well), complete with hiked up pants and an old school Spiderman tie. one year, i rented a Luke Skywalker costume. it came with a light saber and everything (lots of great drunken lewd jokes) (not by me, of course). i guess what i'm trying to say is: my costumes are geek-based. i should probably stick to that theme.

so enlighten me - seen any good costumes lately? got any ideas?

The Astros are one game away from making it to the World Series. This is huge. Houston is ready to go nuts. My law school is ready to go nuts. And, Internet, I expect you to go nuts too. I’ve been spending my evenings watching the games and trying to get through my assigned readings simultaneously. Rest assured it hasn’t worked out too well, but the games have been great (the ones we’ve won, at least). Class just ended and I’m camping out at the library until game time, 7:00, at which point I will stake out a spot at a pub with my friends and watch the Astros commence their assault.

GO ASTROS!!!

(this is pretty much what i hear, too).

actually, it happened 25 years ago today: I showed up.

Happy Birthday to me!

My gift to myself: two hours' worth of reading about Contracts, 'cause i didn't do it last night. Sweet.

And just for fun, here's some other people born today:
Hillary Clinton
Pat Sajak
Jaclyn Smith (one of TV's Charlie's Angels)

mine is already on order.

I’ve jumped out of airplanes. Rolled as one with my mountain bike down hillsides. I’ve even applied and am actually attending law school. Frightening, I know. But I’m wary of installing Windows Service Pack 2 on my laptop. Some people have had no problems, some have had nothing but problems. Internet, please, convince me to install the infamous SP2. I want to be a good Windows lemming and give my computer the updates Microsuck says it needs.

Will my computer explode into a series or Blue Screens or am I safe? For the record, Blue Screen and I don’t get along very well. Our relationship began to falter right around when Windows 98 came out. But I’m willing to put that all behind us if – and only if – SP2 for XP isn’t a total dud.

The Texas Travesty. It’s like The Onion - albeit written by a bunch of college students with nothing better to do.

I just really wanted to say “albeit.” Anyway, go read, now.

The Travesty used to be a staple of mine during boring classes. Like Economics. And Marketing. And Statistics. And Accounting. And, dare I say, ACCESS PROGRAMMING. Yes, I was a bad MIS student.

It seems I’ve been neglecting the blog. The .org part of particleman will have to take a break at least until I get some of this law school work out of the way. But then, more work will inevitably materialize in the form of another paper, and, ultimately, finals. Without further ado, I bestow upon myself the decree to go on hiatus. Like a rock band reeling from the rollercoaster of its last great album, I will take a break and camp out in the mountains [library] before the release of the next great album. Except, of course, that I haven’t released a great album and am not a rock band.

See you again in a couple-5-10 days.

So there’s a presidential election coming up, and I’m strangely not going to be a part of it. I know I know, I’m a terrible citizen, I should rock the vote, people in other countries would fight (have fought) for such rights, so on and so forth. I must have an excellent reason.

I don’t, but it’s really quite simple.

Once upon a time, I was registered to vote in Houston. Then I moved to Austin, and registered to vote there. I voted for the guy that won, but strangely didn’t make it to office. (I’d like someone to explain that to me, in legal terms, and please be sure to cover the issue of FLORIDA.) Then I moved to San Antonio for 16 months and didn’t change my registration. Then I moved to Houston, started law school, and proceeded to bury my head in the sand to the point that by the time I realized I was still registered in Austin, I was one day past the deadline. Shiat.

Kerry, my man, you’ll have to do without me. You might be able to take Austin. But, unfortunately, the rest of Texas will probably side with the other guy. All of Texas except for his hometown, that is.

This concludes all election coverage you will see on particleman.org, extensive and in-depth though it has been. Tune in in 2008 for a likely similar piece of astounding analysis.

search engine hilarity:

1. humorous jokes 0.000000 comments on female tweekers
2. John Law Burned Down the Liquor Store chords tab
3. Who said We stand for things
4. apartment network edonkey is unreachable

it's too good to be true. aaron has enlightened us to the glory that is They Might Be Downloads. can you believe it? TMBG downloads for $.99/ea. how cool is that? when my broke ass gets some cash, i'll let you know how cool it actually is. at this point, beer trumps music, but only barely.

speaking of downloadable music, possible savings from internet distribution, [ via Lessig ]. four short slides, two pie charts, and a few words. the only thing missing from a fully electronic music industry are those nifty liner notes that come with cds. people seem to be attached to those things. i know i used to read them cover to cover. but i think i could live without them if it meant the record companies would become a moot point...

...cruel and crazy town on a filthy river in East Texas with no zoning laws and a culture of sex, money and violence. It's a shabby sprawling metropolis ruled by brazen women, crooked cops and super-rich pansexual cowboys who live by the code of the West -- which can mean just about anything you need it to mean, in a pinch."

what's a pansexual cowboy?

[link via alison]

Whatwith all the trendy new technologies out there these days (internet, e-mail, microwaveable Ramen), one sometimes forgets about the more archaic ‘technologies’ that were once marvels of human accomplishment. Like the mail. No no, not e-mail, but plain old, stamp-and-envelope, wait-a-few-days-for-it-to-get-to-you mail.

After at least two weeks of neglecting to check my mail due to various school-related distractions, I finally took a walk to the mailboxes and found my little rectangular piece of postal space filled with coupons, ads, and dreaded bills. How crappy is that? You’d think someone would realize “Hey, this poor bastard is in law school. Let’s hold off on sending him bills.” But no. They have no shame. So what did I do? Why, I tossed them on my couch, unopened, and left them there.

Just kidding. I like having electricity and internet access. I’m not completely irresponsible; the bills did get paid. They did sit on the couch for a couple days, though. That part wasn’t made up.

On the bright side, one pleasant surprise did greet me in the mailbox: my bestest friend in California sent me an early birthday present. Every year, we send each other books for our birthdays. Last year, she sent me Liar’s Poker, which I ingested in about 15 minutes. It was awesome. This year, she got me Crossing California, and it looks equally entertaining. So thanks, my bestest friend in California, it’s looking like another great birthday present. I had better start looking for something to get you for your birthday… got an interest in law-related books?

First, it was the dishwasher. Now, I’ve come to the realization that the walls are made of notebook paper. Ok, maybe printer paper, but I’ll go no further. I can hear the guy across the wall close his kitchen cabinets. Run the faucet. Walk around in his bathroom when I’m walking around in mine. I can even NAME the BRAND of his cell phone, ‘cause I had a Samsung for a week, and the ring options were all fantastically annoying.

Shall we discuss his phone habits? Lets.

The phone rings twice and only twice, at which point it either goes to the answering service or is picked up. By him. That guy next door. Or so I assume. Thankfully, I can’t hear the conversation, because who knows what kinds of conversations are had by a guy who would buy and keep a Samsung phone. They could be reprehensible. Or completely inane. Or completely mundane. Either way, I’m glad the printer-paper walls filter out that part of his daily activity. I already know enough of his habits. Most calls, from what I gather, occur between the hours of eight and eleven p.m, with the occasional midnight to two a.m. drunk dialer (we’ve all been there). I’m gone most of the day, so I have no empirical evidence of calling trends during the daylight hours.

The lesson here is that, if you must live in an apartment with shoddy construction and Japanese-lantern-paper-thick walls, please, don’t use a Samsung phone. At the least, familiarize yourself with the SILENT (aka Vibrate) option. Your neighboring law student will be very happy.

My school is holding its 2nd annual softball tournament along with two other local law schools and several law firms tomorrow. As a member of the student government-like Student Bar Association, I was originally drafted to play on the SBA Team. But at the last minute, a prominent law firm that donated a nice chunk of cash bumped us, so we’re not playing.

Instead, we get to do something much cooler: hang out and drink beer. All day. This is all well and good for me because I haven’t swung a bat in at least 12 years. Hey, I’m an endurance athlete. I don’t adapt well to sports requiring competent levels of hand-eye coordination. And by endurance athlete, I mean that I was an athlete about 6 years ago. I don’t even think I can endure anymore.

Hence, the beer. Or is it: hence, as a result of, the beer.

Susan, Intellectual Property law prof in NYC, opines on Dubya's and Kerry's responses to the question: "What is the appropriate role for the federal government in addressing concerns about content over the Internet?"

My conclusion?

Both took about 150 words to say absolutely nothing - Kerry slightly less so. And Susan has a good time poking fun at Dubya, though it gets old. Dubya's blurb focuses on protecting children from the evils of the internet (ahem, notwithstanding this site). Susan knocks Bush for this, but what more can we expect? The guy is looking for votes. Conservative ones, and there are lots of them out there. Chances are he'll snag more conservative votes by strongly (and vaguely) appealing to the protection of children than by discussing iPods, the RIAA, copyright issues, and that Metallica mp3 you downloaded. (I hope it was from "Justice" or earlier).

an excerpt:

What do you hate most about John Kerry: his aloof, patrician air or his ugly fucking face?

[Sigh. Jazzercise continues in background.] I would say it's the way that his skin looks like it's going to slide right off of his skull, but it hasn't, and that's a real anti-climax. I thought the whole point of nominating him was to watch that process continue.

and if for some reason you can't read, the Travesty also has the interview in mp3 format. note bene: it "requires auditory cognition."