i can now afford to not take loans this summer and take a low- or non-paying legal job. yesssss.

Listened to it on repeat for hours last night.

I’d write more, but I’ve got bookoo stuff to do.

The person upstairs is taking a shower and I can hear the pipes sqealing. And I think someone just turned on a freaking generator outside.

Paper, write yourself.

I talked to the old roomie yesterday. We both graduated from UT with the same degree at the same time and got hired at the same company at the same time. I left in July of last year for law school, and he stuck around to figure things out. Well, he figured things out. He’s off to L.A. to see about that screenwriting passion of his. I wish I had the balls he did. If it were me, I’d have left corporate life and toured with a band. I went to law school instead. Yeah, I’m really interesting.

Good luck, dude. You gonna start a blog or what? “Poker-Obsessed Screenwriting Philippino Ditches TX for CA.” And don’t worry, blogs are free. (Hah).

Remember the Listerine thing from last week? Here’s the final installment.

Other Guy: well... my computer is fucked
ParticleMan: damn
Other Guy: must wait to see what the campus computer gods can do for me
Other Guy: it sucks... cause my files are there... i just can't get to them
ParticleMan: but at least you have the blue listerine
Other Guy: no i don't... i'm holding that for you
Other Guy: i'm not gonna open it
ParticleMan: SWEET
Other Guy: you owe me $3.47 by the way
ParticleMan: fuckin cheap ass
Other Guy: i didn't have any coupons
ParticleMan: liar.
Other Guy: it was expired
ParticleMan: BS
Other Guy: fuck you dude
Other Guy: that's the last time i do shit for you
ParticleMan: good riddance

I’m sorry to say that the friendship is over. I’ve erased him from my cell-phone contacts list and blocked his AIM messages. Sorry buddy, it’s just not going to work out. You can keep the Listerine and the $3.47.

You might be wondering what the deal is with all those links at the top of the page, and specifically why there’s one called “bikes” when I never really talk about bikes. Well, it’s there for days like today, days when I actually get off my ass, tear myself away from my books (emphasis on the ‘tear’), and go for a ride. Clicking one of the links up there will sort every post I’ve ever written by that category. Neat, huh? Damn straight. And it wasn’t even my idea.

I woke up today at 9 am. I don’t know why, of course. I have no school, and yet, I’m up at 9. Whatever. I resolved to do something useful with myself that involved being outside. So I went mountain biking at Memorial Park. When I got there, the cop hanging out at the entrance told me I couldn’t park in the park because everything was closed off for an Art Festival. Art Festival? Fuck that, I wanna go mountain biking. I’m finding a way in.

So I park across the street where all the joggers and whatnot park and stealthily rode past the cop. OK, it wasn’t stealthy at all. There were other cyclists riding past too. All he said was that I couldn’t park there, not that I couldn’t ride the bike trails. This park has three or four main bike trails, so I hit my usual warm-up trail for a while and felt good, so I tried to go to the longer, more challenging trail towards the back of the park and encountered an obstacle: the Art Festival, and more cops, and buses, and lots of touristy looking people waiting in line to pay $8. Eight dollars? Fuck that, I’m not paying $8. I head across the street to ride the “secret” trail (it’s unmarked) and got lost in there for a while. After I found my way out (via a detour through the Arboretum), I decided to give the other trail another try. I tried to haggle with the guard and said that I just wanted to ride through and get to the trail in the back. He said no, but mentioned he’d seen other cyclists heading towards an entrance at the back of the park… and that’s when I remembered the entrance in the back of the park that I’ve used a million times. Wow, all that drinking is taking its toll on my number of available brain cells.

I ride the trail and, by the time I was done, had logged about two hours of riding for the day and was spent. I look at my bike and notice it’s slathered in mud. I’m satisfied and leave for home. Unfortunately, the Art Festival resulted in several road closures and detours and I get totally lost. I end up downtown somehow and get back on 288. Weird.

Below are my rear brakes.

Buried beneath all that crud is a set of these:

unbenkownst to me, and probably millions of other law-abiding citizens, it is now illegal to have a frame mounted on your license plate. my dear friend and classmate just sent a message to our class listserve:

...in case there is someone out there who is also not paying attention - it's illegal to have a license plate frame on your car. And if you are lucky enough to get pulled over by the jackass of a police officer that I found myself face to face with, you won't get a warning. Just wanted to let you all know... take advantage of the beautiful weather to spend some time outside with your car and a wrench!! ;)

Lower courts have sided with the P2P companies, but there's no telling what the SC will do. Chances are (and the article says as much) that the loser will take their grievance to Congress.

There’s just something very high-school (junior-high? grade-school?) about getting caught goofing off in class. There I was, minding my own business, surfing the web and checking my email, when my classmate’s site made me laugh. The teacher managed to take notice of my amusement and, mid-sentence, left the lectern, walked around to the desks, and inquired about what was so funny. I saw him coming out of the corner of my eye and minimized my browser just in time. Yeah, I got caught fair and square. Next time I’m reading funny websites in a class, I’ll be sure not to laugh.

In Torts today, I heard what is likely the funniest thing anyone has said all year. Here’s the setup: a student was called on to discuss a hypothetical case involving convertibles and product liability suits. It helps to know that this particular student does not talk too much in class (neither do I) and this professor is more sarcastic than most. The exchange went something like this:

Prof: why would someone buy a convertible?
Student: style, status symbol, look cool, get chics...
Class: [laughs]
Student: ...I don’t have a convertible. That’s probably why I don’t have a chic either.
Class: [falls out of chairs]
Prof: [laughs] I think we’re nearing the TMI point.

i realize there are a select few of you still in existence. firefox and other comparable browsers are eons ahead of IE but you continue to clutch to the past. that's ok - i understand. i used to be like you. but since some of you are still using IE, i must make my site IE-compliant.

i recently noticed that my site looks a little whack in IE. the 't' in 'about' up there in the green navigation bar is cut off. this does not happen in mozilla or firefox. so, i am frantically working to figure out a way to fix it.

or rather, i hope to get to it this week. a special someone told me how to fix it and i just may follow their advice.

ok, i lied again. big deal. i'll follow the advice. gawd. (vote for pedro).

If planning to drink four margaritas and eat beef quesadillas after class, do not plan to take two-hour nap afterwards and wake up feeling like a normal person.

Swandive mentioned me tw ice – in one day. I know this kind of defeats the purpose of a blog. You’re supposed to write about stuff, not about other people writing about you. But it’s already too late to turn back and I’ve already written this much and you’ve read it. I’m glad I was successful at wasting a minute of your day. And if all else fails, that’s what blogs are really for.

ah, to be a kid again.

i wrote two pages of my paper yesterday. i think i deserve a bike ride. the 76% humidity isn't too nice, though.

All the SXSW bands I won’t be able to see because they’re in Austin and I’m not:

Sleater-Kinney
Elvis Costello and the Imposters
The Donnas
Billy Idol
MXPX
Cowboy Mouth
Flametrick Subs w/ Satan’s Cheerleaders
Grand Champeen
The Deathray Davies
Shonen Knife
The Aquabats
The Queers
David Garza
South Austin Jug Band
Nada Surf
Cruiserweight

Spring break is around the corner and I can’t freaking wait. On the other hand, as my classmate said, “it’s spring, but it sure ain’t a break.” I plan to spend my break teaching myself Contracts and Property and starting my appellate brief. Good times. Can’t wait.

The weather in Houston is whack. It was warm and sunny for a few days and then the weather did a 180. It’s cold and rainy now, and by cold, I mean 45 degrees. Don’t laugh at me, I’m a warm weather person. And better yet, it’s supposed to rain this weekend.

Here’s a special message to my buddy in San Antonio who’s leaving for law school – I still think you’re crazy for going to Baylor over U of H, but whatever. I talked to some people today who said it’s crazy hard at that school. I mean, law school isn’t a cakewalk, but Baylor apparently makes it extra-hard for some unknown reason. Don’t come crying to me when Civ Pro kicks your ass and the curve sucks because there are so few people in your class. Yeah that’s right. The less people, the worse the curve. Think statistics. The smaller the sample, the harder it is to make a smooth curve.

Ok stats people, you can leave comments on how right or wrong I am.

Once again slightly behind the curve, I just found out Apple has sued three bloggers for divulging information about Apple products currently in development. From siliconvalley.com:

…Apple argued that neither the free speech protections of the United States Constitution nor the California Shield Law, which protects journalists from revealing their sources, applies to the Web sites. The company said such protections apply only to “legitimate members of the press.”

Court documents here.

I haven’t sifted though all the court docs yet, but a once-over of the Shield Law does state pretty clearly that freelance writers are not protected. All the protected classes of people are employed in a media occupation of one kind or another. The judge has tentatively granted Apple’s request that the bloggers surrender their sources, and I don’t disagree. There has yet to be a trial, so maybe he’ll change his mind, but based on a literal reading of the law, it doesn’t look good for the bloggers. Of course I think it should be irrelevant whether or not the authors are freelance or employed, but the law is what the law is. I think this where good lawyering comes into play.

I went mountain biking yesterday at Memorial again and something really cool happened. Besides getting lost in the secret trail (not so secret anymore) end ending up in a huge swamp of mud for which my drivetrain is thankful, someone helped me at a moment when it could not have been more appreciated.

Towards the end of my ride, I was getting a little tired and could feel my lungs struggling to find some air amidst the rampant humidity. I came to a dip in the trail littered with bulging roots snaking the dirt at angles just waiting to direct my wheels in the wrong direction, i.e., a tree, that would precipitously send my crotch into the handlebars.

I sought to avoid this unfortunate event and tried to get as much speed as possible to ‘float’ over the roots instead of letting them catch my wheel. Well, I didn’t get as much momentum as I wanted. Just my luck, I lost all momentum just as I was about to crest the other side of the dip. I let one hand go of the handlebar just in time to grab hold of the tree to keep myself from falling back down into the dip. The other hand held the brakes. Letting either one go proved problematic.

I should mention now that many cyclists invest in a set of pedals and shoes that “clip” together. That is, the shoe has a cleat that clicks into a spring-loaded mechanism built into the pedal. This makes for more efficient energy transfer because not only are you ‘pushing’ down on the pedals, but you can also ‘pull’ up, thus allowing you to make use of the entire pedal rotation.

So there I was, clipped into my pedals with one hand clutching a tree and the other clutching the brakes, precariously balanced on the crest of a dip. I didn’t want to let go of anything and I didn’t want to unclip from my pedals.

The moment I grabbed hold of the tree, I cursed (loudly) and the forest shuddered. But also, a guy on his bike standing 10 feet away from me noticed my predicament and came to the rescue. He shoved me up the crest, sent me on my merry way, and exclaimed “Keep going, dude!” as I thanked him profusely and cruised on through the trail.

Steve Miller was cool. He looked like he could be an English teacher, or my friend's dad.

Today is Purim – a day when Jews worldwide will shoot Vodka, dance in circles, and eat baked goods. OK, I tend to do that every week, but whatever. In some ways, I’m an overachieving Jew. In others, I’m most certainly underachieving. It’s all about balance, right?

So if you know a Jewish person, wish them a happy Purim; and if they’re hungover tomorrow, point and laugh. It’s what I would do and I’d expect nothing less from anyone else. I’d also dump a glass of water on your head – water I was chugging in a vain attempt to combat my hungoverness.

And just ‘cause I’m nice, I wrote “Purim” in Hebrew (cursive) for you. My Microsoft Paint talents are second to none.

In other news, PA demands apology from Libya's Gadhafi for calling Palestinians 'idiots.' Gadhafi also called the Israelis idiots, to which Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev responded: "It takes one to know one."

This has been a crazy weekend so far and everything I wanted to get done hasn’t gotten done yet, but I still have 24 hours.

Friday was the usual happy hour at Front Porch. I managed to avoid getting towed this time, but my friend didn’t. Bummer. I feel his pain. I left around 7 to meet up with a couple other classmates to see a sweet bluegrass band, The Greencards. They consisted of a violist, mandolist, bassist, and guitarist, and they all shredded. Well, maybe except the bassist, but her vocals were excellent. If you get a chance to see them, do so. They played a great two-hour set complete with encore.

Aside from random cleaning up around the apartment, which you don’t wanna hear about anyway, I spent most of today working on/thinking about a paper and taking pictures at school. More on the pictures thing later. I don’t want to jinx myself.

I’m going to see Sophia for the first time in six (?) months tomorrow. She and her man will be in town for lunch on their way to Austin, and we’re getting together with another UT friend at La Strada. I’m psyched. I haven’t seen them in ages.

After that, I’ll try to get outside at least a little bit and enjoy the weather. But I’ll most likely end up at my desk working on that paper that’s due Tuesday, which coincidentally won’t get done Monday night because I’m going to see Steve Miller Band! Can you believe it? I never thought I’d get a chance to see SMB. My only memories of SMB revolve around high school and its various questionable activities at house parties and/or riding around in someone’s car. I don’t really listen to SMB anymore, but I know all the songs on that greatest hits album everyone has.

anyone wanna spot me 400-something dollars?

addendum, 3/22: make that 700-something.