I watched the weather on the local news this morning and the weather guy went on and on about how devastating the hurricane in Louisiana is. He showed us colorful satellite movies of the hurricane’s activity. He drew on the screen and showed us where he thought it was going to go and which areas were most prone to the violent winds. He compared it to older storms from the 60s that leveled the coast.

Then, in the same breath, he told the viewers that things here in Houston are fine and dandy, and my, thanks to the hurricane, we’re actually getting a gentle 10-mph breeze! What luck!

internet is working. i've come out of my corner.

*name the movie and win a special prize.

In a bid to get some exercise today, I rode my bike to the Rice University Library, which, according to Google Maps, is 1.7 miles from where I live, and that’s going the long way around the campus to the official “front.” When it’s 134 degrees outside with 99.999% humidity, and soccer moms in Ford Explosions are crowding you to the very edge of the street, that 1.something miles can get pretty long. Not that I’m complaining. It was my idea to ride the bike.

As I pull up to the library, I glance down at my rear tire and notice I’m riding on the rim. The tire is flat. That means I had to walk back home sans bike and eventually go back with a pump and pump up the tire or take a spare tube and change it there.

So basically, I rode my bike to the library, got a flat tire, and had to walk home. My life is boring and this blog is not interesting. Except maybe for the lady upstairs who scored the other night, that was funny.

For those of you too lazy to click the comments, the answer to the riddle is:

Which road would your brother say is the right one?

If you ask the liar, he will lie and tell you the opposite of what his honest brother would say, so you do the opposite of what he says. If you ask the honest brother, he would tell you what his lying brother would say, so you do the opposite. With this setup, you always do the opposite of whatever answer you get from whichever brother. You don’t need to know which brother you’re asking.

I hope you liked the riddle. It’s basically my only riddle, so now I’m out and I have nothing else to talk about.

Of course not, I can always talk. I’m in law school, gimme a break. Today was my last day at the court. It was an amazing experience and I encourage every law student out there to work for a trial court for at least half of a summer. It is an invaluable experience. You get an understanding of what goes on behind the doors of the court. You learn what the clerks do, what the court coordinator does, and how the judge thinks. You get a bird’s eye view of a smattering of lawyers from all walks of life. Some are good, some are great, and some are well, lawyers. Now that I’ve worked for a trial court, I’d like to work for an appellate court to see what happens at the next level, but I don’t know if I’ll get a chance. I’d like to work at law firms next summer, but we’ll see how things turn out.

School starts Monday. This summer has gone by way too fast. But at least I got to do a lot of cool stuff. I went to Chicago, Austin, and Little Rock (to see my sister) with E. I got to spend time with old friends. I got to work for a law firm and a judge. I got to read a few books. I got a roommate and a cool apartment. I also got mono (damnit) and therefore did not get enough beers. And by not enough, I mean like two. Yeah, two, and then my sore throat came back a couple days later. Relation? Who knows. But now I’m not drinking again until Doctor says so. But as a result of the mono, I also got a pinch-blogger. The verdict is still out on how cool that was.

In short, it’s been a pretty badass summer. I just wish I could fast forward to December, post-finals. That would be nice.

I spent my freshman year at UT in an off-campus dorm. My roomie and I shared one wall and a bathroom with two other guys. The way the rooms were aligned made it so that one guy’s “head” of the bed was right across the wall from the other guy’s. So essentially, all that separated our beds was a thin wall. Needless to say, one of my suitemates shared his bed quite often with girls, and I heard more than I cared to.

After several years of sharing apartments with other guys, and living alone, I decided the time had come to leave apartment-life altogether. Thus, just three weeks ago, I moved out of my apartment into a duplex with an old friend. No more sharing walls with strange people. A woman who the landlord says is 40 years old lives upstairs. She’s a teacher. She seems very nice. My bedroom is directly beneath her bedroom. Please hold on to this nugget of information because it becomes vital very soon.

I came home around 11 o’clock last night from having dinner with an old buddy from UT. As I pull up to the house, I notice a red SUV out front. None of my friends drive a red SUV and, to my knowledge, neither do any of my roommate’s. I figured the lady upstairs must have had a friend over.

GOOD LORD did she have a friend over. I got to hear him, and her, and the bed, all while I was trying to fall asleep. I don’t think I can look her in the eye ever again and not remember the things I heard.

I used to live alone in a McPartment – one of those massive apartment complexes with too many buildings and boring architecture. They basically looked like something out of an Old Navy commercial. Worse yet, it was across the street from a stadium, meaning traffic always got terrible whenever there was a game or any event. I moved into the bottom floor of a duplex in a more residential area and got a roommate. He’s an old buddy of mine from college, but he did go to my high school and middle school, though I didn’t know him too well then. He just told me a couple stories that I think you need to know about.

In high school, his mom cooked fish for dinner one night and he asked her to save some of it – it looked like too much food. The next day, he threw the raw fish in the hallway before the bell rang and freaked everyone out. No one knew it was him.

Another time, he and a couple guys were bored one day and got a hold of some chickens. We’re talking live chickens here. Wings, beaks, feathers, the whole deal. There were three in all. They stuffed the chickens in their backpacks, went to school, and transferred the birds into three adjacent and empty lockers. Five minutes before the bell rang, they asked their respective teachers to be released from class a little early and made way for the lockers, opening them just before classes let out. There, in the hallway, were three squaking chickens, and students poured out of their classes just in time to greet the confused birds strutting around the hall. Pandemonium ensued.

He is now an accountant.

Or is it down-low?

I’ve been putting this off for some time because it’s not easy to talk about, and, like many bloggers, I try to maintain some privacy between internet-land and my life. But I can’t exactly avoid this any longer, so here goes.

Before I met E, she had her heart set on spending a year in South America teaching English. It’s something she’s wanted to do for years. She decided to follow through on her dream, and she left for Ecuador about three weeks ago. We talk on Skype and webcam pretty much every day – they’re both life-savers. Maintaining a long-distance relationship takes work and I’m still trying to get used to it. The past three weeks have helped me gain a newfound respect for couples that have made it through long-distance. It’s very, very different from maintaining a local relationship. Thankfully, my family and friends, including her parents, have been very kind and supportive.

I’m going to visit her over labor day weekend for four days. I have no classes on Tuesday or Thursday, so I’m taking a long weekend and flying down. I’m beyond excited. You can expect lots ‘o’ pictures and a summary when I get back.

She also started a blog about her experiences and you should take a look. It’s amazing to read about what she’s doing. Check out her Flickr uploads too, she's already gone on a field trip of sorts.

and i quote:

"Plaintiff, to his horror, discovered that the house he had recently contracted to purchase was widely reputed to be possessed by poltergeists, reportedly seen by defendant seller and members of her family on numerous occasions over the last nine years. Plaintiff promptly commenced this action seeking rescission of the contract of sale. Supreme Court reluctantly dismissed the complaint, holding that plaintiff has no remedy at law in this jurisdiction."

"[A]s a matter of law, the house is haunted."

Here’s a riddle a friend of mine told me a long time ago. I like it a lot.

You’re driving in your car and you come to a fork in the road. Only one road is the right way for you to go, but you don’t know which is the right one. Two brothers stand at the fork and they both know which way is the right way. All you know is that one brother only tells lies and one only tells the truth, but you don’t know which is which. If you could ask one brother one question, what would you ask?

It’s the night before the first day of school and there are plenty of readings already assigned for day one, and I have absolutely none of my books. Nada. Zilch. Not a single one. It’s shaping up to a fabulous semester. I ordered most of the books at half.com and figured I’d wait till school starts to see if the others are really necessary or just ‘recommended.’ I’ll probably borrow books before class tomorrow and skim all the readings. I’m all about the skimming. Skimming is my life. It’s how I function.

For everyone else across the country starting school, good luck to ya. I hope you have your books.

If you’ve been watching the news (which I don’t) or reading it online (which I rarely have time to do) you might have noticed that there has been some hubbub in Israel the past few days. Well, let’s say more hubbub than usual.

The situation goes like this: in the Six Day War of 1967, Israel captured a narrow strip of land on the Mediterranean Sea. That strip of land is called the Gaza Strip, and it’s about 141 square miles. To compare, consider that Rhode Island, our smallest state, is 1,945 square miles. No, that’s not the best comparison. Gaza is about the size of your average Wal-Mart. Wikepedia also said it’s “one of the most densely populated territories on earth.” So, it’s small, it was won in a war, and it’s densely populated – the perfect combination for being a highly contested area. It also happens to be rife with crime, poverty, and unemployment.

For years, the Palestinians have wanted Gaza back, but Israel held on to it because several thousand Israelis settled there. Whatwith the continuing conflict in Israel, it seems the Israeli government has decided to give Gaza back. This seems like a simple task, for all one needs to do to convey land to someone else is basically sign a few papers, but in this case, there’s a hitch. All those Israelis that settled there need to go too. Part of the deal of the withdrawal from Gaza is that Israel will, in its entirety, vacate the area. That means its settlers too. Some of them don’t much want to leave, though, so the army has come in to forcibly remove them when necessary. It’s not pretty. But hey, orders is orders.

So if you’re wondering what the hell is going on in Israel, that’s what’s going on.

some are kinda cool. some are kinda stupid. but we're paying for all of them!

As planned, I got there early, bought all my books, and skimmed. Except the bookstore didn’t have one of my books and I had to borrow one. And as planned, Copyright is my favorite class so far and is also the smallest at about 30 people. My second favorite class, shockingly enough, is Tax. I thought it would be my least favorite, but it’s a lot more interesting than I thought it was. I like categorizing and compartmentalizing things, and tax seems to be all about categories and compartments, so I think me and Tax are going to get along just fine.

I suppose this makes me yet more of a geek. Can we pile on any more geekness? Please? I think there’s still some more room left.

We reckon that Fucking has been around a lot longer than 800 years, otherwise there wouldn't have been any Fucks to lend their name to the village in the first place, would there?

thank you rebecca.

in other news, my schedule is insane. it's entirely MWF, which is nice because it leaves my T TH wide open, but sucks because it makes my MWF insane. I get to school around 9 and read till 10:30, at which point i eat lunch because at 11, i go to class, and i continue going to class until 3:30. yep - i go to four one-hour classes back-to-back. and to top if off, i have a night class on M and W from 7:45-9:15. which means that it is now 11:00 pm and i just finished eating dinner, washing up, and eating my ceremonial post-dinner bowl of Cookies and Cream ice cream.

I’m out. Been hanging on a bike rack for the better part of five years. Particleman over here has all but forgotten about me, so I reckon it’s time I found my own way out the door. We used to go for rides all the time, but those days are long gone. I figure I can serve the world better by going someplace where I’ll be better cared for and actually ridden. Ain’t no reason for a classic like myself to sit around while the sun is shining. I’m sure some college student can take me to and from class, or maybe an older fella can take me out on the weekends. Maybe he’ll take his kids with us or something. Anything. Adios Particleman. Take ‘er easy.

I got the new Foo Fighters double album. Yes yes, I know it’s “mainstream” rock and I’m not supposed to talk about bands on this site that anyone else knows about for fear of losing my indie cred, but damn, that Dave Grohl can write a catchy rock n roll song. I’ll concede that some of the lyrics are corny: “this is the last song that I will dedicate to you” doesn’t really do a whole lot for me. But overall, it’s a good batch of songs.

CD 1 is all rock-out. CD 2 is all acoustic folky stuff. When I found out that the Foo Fighters were releasing a double album, I thought of something I read about Kurt Cobain before he offed himself. He wanted to release the Nirvana Unplugged cd as a double album together with a compilation of live concert tracks. Seems he never got to follow through with that idea. Instead, Krist and Dave got to sift through hours and hours of tracks by themselves, the results of which formed the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah live album (1996).

I don’t think it’s fair to keep the Foo Fighters and Dave Grohl in the shadow of Nirvana, though. Any similarities could be completely coincidental. Foo Fighters ought to be looked at independent of anything Nirvana ever recorded.

Thus, I direct you to Pitchfork’s review, which actually makes some good points, the best being:

"Virginia Moon" allows Grohl to croon gently into the night sky, singing lullabies to an army of dudes driving home from their girlfriend's houses in their Honda Accords.

Unfortunately, the Pitchfork author can’t avoid making the usual Nirvana references and also manages to throw in Dave’s side projects:

Nirvana felt wobbly, fragile, and fleeting, Queens of the Stone Age pound deranged, Probot are full-on bananas: The Foo Fighters are strong, neat, and clean. So we wonder: Can a steady, hard-working everydude from northern Virginia make transcendent art? Sure. Does Dave Grohl? Sometimes.

this is my new desktop wallpaper. it's more applicable to you than it is to me, only becasue you're more lazy than i am.

looks like i picked the right neighborhood.