February 18th, 2010
Not the best song, but that hasn’t stopped me from listening to it about twenty times today. I love how Regina Spektor meshes these adolescent freakout bursts of who-knows-what with killer hooks and some really great one-liners.
One of these days I’m going to get all music blog up in here, but until then:
(I especially like the bit starting at 2:03; the build at 2:28 is genius.)
February 17th, 2010
I got myself run over this week. I’m fine, but my car wasn’t as lucky.
Unfortunately I wasn’t hit by a drunk or a stoner or even an ugly person. I was hit by the nicest, sweetest old lady I have ever met. She was all almost crying and apologetic and I was all hugging her and telling her that everything was fine and it was just a little accident. Then she admitted fault, my lawyerly instincts kicked in, and I screamed, “Don’t do it! NEVER ADMIT FAULT!!”
Ok, so I didn’t yell at the old lady. But I did think it. And as we kept talking I kept feeling worse and worse about being hit by this lady to the point that when the police officer arrived I was actively thinking of ways I could convince him that I drove sideways into the other car.
Thankfully she had insurance, which has made this accident a much, much better experience than the last time I was hit by an insurance-less illegal immigrant. I wasn’t super mad at him either, but will say that having someone else pay the $2000 to fix my car and pay for a rental car is kind of nice and is the kind of behavior generally calculated to engender good will.
All in all it really was about as pleasant as a car wreck can be. I’m sending the old lady a card this week, and the car will be fine. I mean, yeah it’s damaged, but if Barack Obama can save the economy, he can take care of this too. Take that, haters.
February 13th, 2010
If you have ever been to an event at the J. Reuben Clark law school where food is served, you may have noticed what is quickly becoming the defining experience of my law school career: no forks. Plenty of food, an abundance of knives, and engaging debate and lecturing, sure. But don’t expect forks or plates if you’re last in line. A few weeks ago I was forced to drink Mexican food out of a cup, which wasn’t as bad as it might sound until I accidentally swallowed a pepper stem. Ugh.
I mention all of this because at the J. Reuben Clark Law Society dinner this Friday there were plenty of forks—just no seats. Thankfully these guys were there to keep me company while I tried to eat, photograph, mingle, and hold my drink all while standing.
Looking back on my halcyon undergraduate days, I can see now that chamber music was sorely lacking at pretty much every party I went to. And if you’re not going to have chairs, you’d sure as hell better have a quartet. Am I right? Also, future advice for whoever planned this thing: “Foods of the World,” is a great theme. Jello with carrot pieces in it, however, is barely a food let alone one of the world’s finest. Leaving it out of future events would be much appreciated. Thank you for your consideration.
The moral of this story? Bring your own fork. And folding chair. And be sure to ask if a quartet will be at the event, because you just may want to bring one of those too. Preparedness is never tacky.
February 11th, 2010
We had an ACS event this week about the constitutionality of public healthcare and it was awesome. While our plans for a full-on debate were ruined when one of our speakers’ flight was cancelled, we still had a pretty great time. I designed the posters and the flyers this time around, and had all kinds of crazy fun. Though almost all of my work is on the web, I still love doing print work.
The debate-turned-lecture was really great, and listening to anyone support a public healthcare option at BYU is both rare and wonderful. Things managed to get really exciting when some homeless looking guy in the Utah Minuteman hat came in and started heckling the speaker about the constitutionality of the public option. The speaker explained his position again, and then the guy freaked out over how the income tax isn’t constitutional and how people who don’t work shouldn’t be allowed to live.
This is awesome to me because 1) when the speaker basically says, “Eff you and your freaky income tax argument,” the Minuteman is all, “Well income tax COULD be constitutional, but you’d have to pass an amendment.” Good sir, may I present to you the 16th Amendment:
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
Second, if you are the kind of hard working, contributing citizen who DOES deserve to live, what the hell are you doing hanging out at a law school at 3:00PM in the afternoon? Someone wiser than I took the opportunity to ask him what he was doing, and Minuteman did not disappoint. He had come to the law school directly after a meeting with the Provo City mayor in which he was unable to convince the mayor to strong-arm the local police into enforcing Utah HB237. He was hoping to meet with a law professor who could give him free legal advice. If there was ever a case to split a single three syllable word into three separate words, this is it:
A. Ma. Zing.
I love when you fly a respected lawyer and policy maker to Utah and the crazies come out to make sure that he never, ever comes back again. God bless Utah.
January 27th, 2010
So the Apple Tablet (hereafter “iPad”) came out today, and I’d be a fool if I didn’t post something about the iPad in the hopes of taking some of that iPad traffic for myself. And, like the evil SEO marketing genius that I am, I’m going to use the word “iPad” as much. as. possible.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present the iPad:
First, the name. I know that I’m not the only one who thinks that iPad sounds more like a tampon than a tablet PC. A tampon that can surf the web, yes, but a tampon just the same. Other possible name? iSlate, iTablet, iTouch, or iAnything that doesn’t make me feel like I’m menstruating. Apple: 0, Me: 1.
(And yes, I’m keeping score. Every time that Apple does something awesome, they get a point. Every time that I make fun of something Apple has done, I get a point. It makes perfect sense.)
Second, I know that I’m probably sounding like a bigger hater than I am, but in a word I’m underwhelmed. I don’t know what I was expecting exactly, but I know that I wanted it to be on par with world peace, universal salvation, or Arrested Development. What I got was a 10″ iPod Touch. It will certainly have its uses: education (though I’m 99.9% sure I’ll still prefer reading books on my Kindle), healthcare (doctors already love their iPhones. This thing is going to inspire a giant wave of physician tachycardia), and even law (as an aspiring lawyer, I can’t wait to use this thing for data entry as I’m meeting with clients or as a quick reference while sitting in the courtroom). But outside of that, I can’t imagine toting this thing around everywhere I go in my man purse or my backpack. And that’s the problem: If I’m carrying a bag, I already have my 17″ MacBook Pro that does everything. Maybe I’m just being short-sighted, but I feel like this fills a need I don’t have. It’s a need I don’t even understand enough to be able to articulate. Apple: 0. Me: 2. (I was going to give Apple a point for designing my MacBook Pro, but it crashed last night so I’m withholding it)
As an aside, I am rocking my cooking experiment this week. Last night was Spaghetti in an Arrabbiata sauce, and tonight’s meal threatens to eclipse it all with its sheer awesomeness. When was the last time Apple made my dinner? Exactly. Apple: 0. Me: 3.
I hope that the iPad is awesome and it’s a huge success and that I’ll buy one and we’ll have lots of very happy iBabies together, but so far I’m not totally feeling it. I’m also a little skeptical about it’s lack of a camera. Is it just me, or is leaving the camera off just an excuse to release an updated iPad with camera a year from now? Either way: Apple: 0. Me: 4.
So Steve Jobs, when you read this please take a moment to assuage my fears. Remind me that you have done more, save Jesus Himself, for the salvation of mankind than any other person living or dead. Remind me about how much I love wasting time on my iPod Touch. And most of all, remind me that my gadget hunger is growing and can only be sated by something new and shiny from Cupertino. And please, for the love of all things good and holy, PLEASE change the name of the iPad. If you do, I might even be convinced to make you dinner.