The Battle Rock SpotThe Battle Rock SpotThe 2nd Rate Blog of a 2nd Rate Law Student Articles
Gardener Am I
2007-05-31 00:45:00 Today I planted my first garden. It’s tiny. It’s a planter about one foot across and three wide that sits just below my north facing balcony. I’m growing basil, parsley, and dill; there will be many others if the first batch survives. I’ve had many houseplants before, and all have faired well. But this is the first time I’ve begun with just soil and seed, and also the first time that my plant plans have involved more than decoration. Herbs are needed in the kitchen. My new place has a fantastic kitchen. By fantastic, I mean the stove is gas and the smoke detector does not go off every time water boils. Standards, obviously, have been quite low. As many of you know I love to cook but have been hampered these problems as well as the city’s annoying forbiddance of gas grills in apartment complexes. Why a gas grill is more likely to start a fire on an apartment’s deck than a house’s is something I’ve yet to decipher. But in any event, my current abode has n... More About: Gardener , Arden , Garde
Expectant Neighbors
2007-05-31 00:28:00 I apologize for the low quality of this photo. She's further away from my deck than I originally thought, and while I'm sure my camera has a special setting for shooting tiny things at great distances, discovering this setting would almost certainly require 'reading the instructions' and, quite frankly, I have scruples. So for now good ole' fashion zoom is all I've got. More About: Neighbors
Dust Settles
2007-05-29 05:48:00 It’s quiet. A week here has cleared the clutter, but left nothing in its place. Outside the sunlit world is inviting. Trails beckon and pools embrace; my skin has already made the transition from ivory to bronze. I love it. Then night falls. The voices from my past have grown quiet, though I must admit that I am sending fewer words there way as well. It’s funny how much communication between friends hinges upon the prospect of a meeting in the near future. We still talk, but for my stories they now lack context and from theirs I have been written out. The bonds remain but the subject matter is diminished. The voices from the present are still few and far between. A scattering of friends provides a scattering of company, but otherwise the nights are dark and still, save for what life the computer and television can together muster. Better than nothing, but in truth I seek a glow of another kind. For now, dreams will have to do. Goodnight.
The Last Ten Days (Highlights):
2007-05-25 16:17:00 Observed Professional Tetris Match The night before I moved I was panicking. I had finally finished cubing up my possessions, and had picked up my aptly named u-haul. But I had a problem. The truck was smaller than I expected, and they had no others available. It was the classic ‘ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag’ scenario. My soon-to-be employer had provided me with a budget to accomplish my move. However, with packing supplies purchased, the truck paid for, and movers hired (to carry everything down my previous three flights of stairs…I’ve recently declared myself too old for that crap), the budget was mostly exhausted, and there was simply not enough money left to rent and fuel a second truck. So, I crossed my fingers, went to bed, and prayed the movers I hired were actually miracle working profits. They were. Never had I seen Tetris so well played. Everything fit, and the rest is history. My hat is off, gentleman. Learned Meteorology Once nicety ... More About: Highlights , Days , The Last
Boxing
2007-05-15 15:41:00 Whatever other skills I may have acquired during the course of my life, I remain completely unable to accurately guess the amount of crap I’ve accumulated. I have, quite confidently, declared that “just a few more boxes ought to do it” three times now. I’m guessing there will be a fourth. Really it’s staggering. Considering the student loan factor, my net worth is well below freezing. You’d think I’d own next to nothing. Instead my living room contains a heaping pile of life’s debris, served up nicely in brown-cube form. I’m going to need a bigger truck. Sometime tomorrow my computer will take its place among the boxes. After that, I’m not sure when my next post will come. Right now, internet service in the new place isn’t supposed to start until the middle of next week. I’m going to try the ‘call them 30 times in 24 hours’ customer service request technique and see if I can’t get that bumped up. Otherwise, barring a delightfully close and... More About: Boxing
Yesterday I was a student. Today I’m just unemployed.
2007-05-12 16:13:00 The partying continues today. I have no idea what happens next. On some level, I know that I’ll be studying for and taking the bar exam. Before that, and in less than a week in fact, I will move to a new state. But really, these concepts haven’t hit me yet. Counting kindergarten, I’ve been in school for the last twenty strait years. The thought that I’d someday not be in school has, up until now, been living comfortably with all of the other “someday” thoughts; they’re fun to think about but don’t get out of the house much. They’re certainly not intended for actual use. Oh well, we’ll see what happens. In any event, all of the festivities have been keeping me away, and are likely to do so for a few days longer. I was golfing within an hour of my last exam, and had an evening of dinner and drinks afterward. Yesterday saw the ceremony, and the dinner and party hopping that always attends the shared events of many mutual friends. Today I’ll travel ho... More About: Student
It's Over
2007-05-11 14:13:00 Today I graduate from law school. Tonight I drink. The rest is just details.
Call the Ball
2007-05-09 02:21:00 Three down, one to go. Finals are almost over, and graduation is within site. Law school will finally end. Most of my classmates, apparently better at long term planning, have already finished. I sputter on. Classes are a distant memory; I feel as though I’ve been taking exams for weeks. In the last hours the minutes lengthen. The end is closer than it ever has been, but it seems further away. I have no motivation left. At this point I will glide to the end or crash in the attempt. I’m pretty sure I’ll make it, but the landing won’t be pretty. More About: Call , Ball
You Can’t Talk About That
2007-05-08 05:26:00 Yesterday, a friend of mine was furious over the words of a stranger. The stranger, it seems, had commented on the conditions of men and women in this country, and had declared that they were more or less equal. My friend was outraged. She responded that the plight of women, if not desperate, was at least severe. Furthermore, she declared that as a woman, she spoke with more authority on the subject than he could possibly muster, and that as a result he was essentially wrong by default. He stuck to his guns; she refused to listen. Whatever the merits of the argument, and I think she had the better of them, my friend’s tactic annoyed me. First, it’s hollow. Any argument can be won by declaring that only “my” group has the clout with which to speak. Here the topic was gender, but the same ploy is equally applied to debates over race, religion, war, money, and nearly everything else that can be divided into groups. Nevertheless, that isn’t what bugs me most. It... More About: Talk
Apologie$
2007-05-06 20:38:00 We should not have fought just now. There was no reason for it. If anyone had thought to film our little exchange, I dare say the audience would have been confused. “How could the lunch menu generate such a tirade?” They’d wonder. They wouldn’t be alone. But we know. It’s not the lunch menu. It’s not even today. We’ve been saving up this anger for a while now. If only money earned interest the way annoyance does. Or that we treasured it as much. We’ll indulge our every fiscal whim, yet instead of taking pleasure in our days of enjoyment we’ll spend our time auditing every flaw, ready to pounce on the first new sign of old patterns. Sooner or later our choice of words will be poor, and a slip of the tongue will become a martyr for a bad habit it knew nothing about. Then we’ll start saving again. It shouldn’t be so. There is so much more joy between us than anger. If we saved it in the same way, no transgression could ever bankrupt us. But we don’t. We save... More About: Polo , Logi
Thud.
2007-05-04 13:44:00 That hurt. Two exams in two days. I’ll be sane again this afternoon. Until then, let me see if I can explain how things went, with a little help from The Big Lebowski:[My brilliant legal reasoning]: “And let’s also not forget…let’s not forget, Dude that…keeping wildlife, um...an amphibious rodent, for...uh, domestic...ya know, within the city... that ain't legal either.”[My professor’s response]: “What are you a fucking park ranger now?”Yeah, this oughta add a little diversity to my transcript. Two more to go...UPDATE: So I get to my final a few hours after I wrote this this morning, and the names of the people in the hypo are Donny, Walter, & Maude. Someone's watching over me...---Exchange between The Dude and Walter Sobcheck, The Big Lebowski, 1998.
A Day’s Difference
2007-05-03 04:03:00 I can’t concentrate. I’d like to write something clever or funny, but the words won’t come. My mind is elsewhere, moving with great speed and no purpose. It’s my own fault. Tonight, happiness is the drug of choice, but it’s the wrong kind. It’s the fleeting kind; the sort of ephemeral joy that refuses to acknowledge the future or be judged by the past. And oh, how it teases me. I know it can’t be made permanent. I know also that men have wrecked their careers, their marriages, and even their lives in the attempt. But it seems so very close. It’s the apple hanging just a little too far out on the bough; the one that, if I were quick enough, I might just be able to grab before the branch snapped. If I were quick enough…But I’m not. I never have been. I’ve fallen before, and have the scars to prove it. I’ll fall again. Whether by error in design or operation it seems that the better part of my life is to be spent doing my very best to avoid doing ... More About: Difference , Diff
Come What May
2007-05-02 04:53:00 It’s pouring. Dime size hail threatens my windows. My car is glaring up at me from the parking lot, obviously annoyed. I treat her badly. Someday she’ll leave me, if she survives the hail. Well, that and the lightning, which coincidentally has just informed me that I probably shouldn’t have my computer plugged in at the moment, and I definitely shouldn't be touching it seeing as how it’s hard wired into the building. But I’m betting that’s a bluff. May has arrived. It wasn’t supposed to. May of 2007 has, for a long time, been a date in the far distant future. It’s the sort of date that doesn’t actually come around; at least, not in the same way you’d expect a Christmas or a Next Tuesday to. It just feels wrong. There should have been trumpets. A proper fanfare would have been a nice way to announce the dawning of the sun—local time of course. You people in the Old World are always cheating; it’s not tomorrow yet dammit! Let me enjoy my today. ...
A Familiar Step
2007-05-01 03:17:00 It’s begun again; the slow waltz towards life’s little highlights. How strange that we measure our lives by the happy moments and the time between. The sad ones only map out history, never the future. To there we already know the way. So we’ll set our minds on the next few hours of bliss and think of the last few to ease the wait. The melody is familiar. The week is a prelude to the night. Each one is different, but the anticipation remains the same. We’ll make friends, we’ll make merry, and we’ll make love. For a few hours, life will be a drunken reflection of itself; a fool happily oblivious to his less pleasant habits. Together we’ll either laugh or fight. Our pastimes can never get along. Still, we’ll do the best we can, and more often than not the night will be a happy one. But the night always ends. The lights will grow dim and the vision blurry. Music will fade without ever losing volume. Liquor will be grumpy after a double shift. We’ll lo... More About: Step
About my About Me
2007-04-30 02:54:00 I’ve changed. I’m not the person I’ve described. That person never really existed. Sure, the demographics are the same. The census bureau would never notice the difference. But a reader might. When I first put fingers to keys, I had in mind a very different message and a very different voice. I was terribly angry at the anger in the world, and I was determined to create the outlet I could not find. But the sword became the shovel; I’m proud of my work, but by the results you could never guess the intentions. And so I’ll finally abandon the description I abandoned long ago. Nevertheless, as it has been with this blog since its inception, it seems fitting that it should be remembered at least, even if no longer used. For memory’s sake, I began this way:There is nothing interesting about my life, except perhaps my total lack of authority to speak meaningfully on any subject whatsoever. I have lived the same life of comfort that virtually all middle-class American...
Introduction, Summary, and Update
2007-04-28 15:44:00 Hello, squirrels? Meet ‘neighbor who should take out his trash.’ ‘Neighbor who should take out his trash,’ meet s… What’s that? Oh! You’ve already met? Ah, I remember, it at was the "I’m a Lazy Ass Who Leaves Garbage on the Apartment Doorstep for Days at a Time Instead of Taking it to the Dumpster" party that was thrown here last week. Yeah, that was a wild one. Lasted for days; the trash was everywhere. Well no, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the one the week before...Yeah, that's a good point; I do think that dumpster is almost forty steps away. You’ve got me there. Anyways, since you two are already acquainted, why don’t you figure it the fuck out already!---Vodka Martini - $7Shrimp Cocktail - $7Beef Capriccio - $6Another Vodka Martini - $7Black Bean Soup - $5A third Vodka Martini that you leave full on the table because you vaguely remember needing to drive later - $7Beef Tenderloin with a side of King Crab Legs (What? Just put them on the side!) - $3... More About: Introduction , Update , Summary
I’m not a supermodel, but I play one online.
2007-04-26 20:24:00 I’m confused. I can’t quite seem to get a handle on the online population. The stories don’t add up. We’re either the world’s best, brightest, and most beautiful, or we’re somewhere below banana slugs on the sociological food chain. It depends on who you ask. For instance, you could ask a certain acquaintance of mine. Or, you could not. You could just sit there and hope that for once she will talk quietly enough that her conversations can’t be heard from across the room. Either way, you’re probably going to hear what she thinks about online people at least once a week. Lemme es'plain. This girl can be kindly described as hideous. She’s also not particularly intelligent, wealthy, or friendly. Aside from her complete lack of volume control, she suffers from a total absence of anything resembling manners or etiquette. Surprisingly, she hasn’t been having very much luck with the online dating scene. She’s terribly embarrassed about it. Not about her... More About: Play , Online , Supermodel
The last, last day of school
2007-04-26 05:21:00 Tomorrow I will get up and go to school for the last time. After tomorrow there will be finals, a bar exam, and probably lectures of one sort or another scattered throughout the balance of my life. But it won’t be school; at least, not the way it has been. The nineteenth grade will be over. There will be no twentieth. From here on, any education I receive will be in furtherance of my career, and not a prelude to it. School ’s out. Forever. Cheers!Tags: Law School Graduation Classes Career More About: The Last
Windigo
2007-04-26 01:12:00 What a shame that only by breaking my body can I fix my mind.Tags: Body Break Mind More About: Indigo
It’s my party.
2007-04-24 21:15:00 After a week of analysis, the talking heads have reached a consensus; the shootings at Virginia Tech were definitely, definitely the fault of the other political party and its policies. Definitely. But then again, that's what they always do, and that's what we pay them for. Because of them, we can rest easy at night, knowing that nothing horrible would ever happen if only more people agreed with us. Babies should sleep so well. Yet why should we have to depend on party hacks for our good night’s rest? The system obviously works, and the parts are obviously interchangeable. Why then, should we be required to outsource our conscience cleaning? We don’t have to. Now, using my soon-to-be-never patented system, you can become the pundit of your very own brand new political party!* In just three easy steps, you get it all! And better yet, it’s absolutely free!** Operators are standing by. Step 1: Identify the people at fault for the world’s problems. It's important... More About: Party |
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