Happy Halloween

Generally I'm not a fan of dressing up pets. But this was just too funny not to post. (Picture taken from this site.)

It also provides a perfect segue into my next story. Professor Velasco made it totally worth it to go to BA this morning. He came into class wearing a Darth Vader helmet (the new one that comes with sound effects). After striking a few classic poses, he took off the helmet to start class. But even this was part of the show; because of the way the helmet is constructed and Prof. Velasco's prefered "hairstyle," his unmasking played out very much like the end of Return of the Jedi. It was undoubtedly the most amusing BA moment of the semester.

Boston Saga, Part 2: Lost and Found

As I crossed to street to greet Honor (in Harvard Square), my wallet slipped out of my back pocket. Honor saw it fall, and immediately let me know. I retrieved it and, genius that I am, I put it back in the same pocket. We headed off, leaving Harvard Square to go to Honor's dorm. We decided to take the scenic route through Harvard Yard (where, surprisingly, no cars were parked). About ten minutes into our trek, I realized that I had once again lost my wallet. Leaving my bags with Honor, I retrace my steps hoping to find my wallet where I had dropped it. After a fruitless search, I returned to where Honor was waiting, and enlisted her help in going over our steps again and adding a second pair of eyes to the search. Again, we found nothing. I had been in Cambridge for less than an hour and already lost my wallet. Unbelievable.

Upon reaching Honor's dorm, I called the Harvard Police and the Cambridge Police to let them know I had lost my wallet. I described it, and then left my name and cell number in case it turned up. I also cancelled my credit card. Still, I was thinking about what else was in my wallet: cash, some gift cards, my student ID, and my driver's license (which incidently has my SSN on it). It's actually amazing to me how much of my life is inside my wallet. So there I was in Cambridge with no way to prove who I was and about $1.50 to my name. Thankfully I was with Honor. She was very helpful, understanding, and supportive. I can't imagine what I would do if I had lost my wallet while travelling/staying on my own.

As the weekend progressed with no word from the police, I really began to worry. Not only would it be a hassle to replace my various IDs and such, I could easily become a victim of identity theft. Ironically, I had been reading all about phishing and online identity theft (for my Cyberlaw paper) throughout my trip.

Then Saturday night, I got a call from my mom. She had received a call from the Harvard police that my wallet had been found. (The call actually came on Thursday afternoon. My mom was out of town at the time, but my dad was home. He has a habit of never answering the phone, but I don't know why he didn't call be after hearing the message (assuming he even listened to the message, that is).) Interoffice communication must have broken down, and they ended up calling my mom instead of me. I got in touch with the Detective who had called my mom, and picked up my wallet Sunday morning. It was completely in tact, cash and all.

So this little crisis had a happy ending, and I was only inconvenienced for a few days. I'm not sure who found my wallet and turned it into the Harvard police, but this is proof that there are good people out there. While it's unfortunate that this happened, at least it's reaffirmed by belief in the goodness of human nature.

*Note: My trip to Boston was actually really wonderful, despite the impression you might get from reading the first two posts about the Boston Saga. I'm just retelling events in a more or less chronological fashion, and as you can see things got off to a bit of a rocky start.

Boston Saga, Part 1: Derailed

The day before I left for Boston, I saw an ad for this movie. Meanwhile, Honor had been reading some of the train accident cases for Torts. Though these less-than-auspicious portents might worry the average traveler, I intrepidly headed out to embrace my train destiny.

Things started out a bit rocky. I had thought that the Amtrak station was at the South Bend airport; it's not. Oh, there are trains that leave the airport - the South Shore line with service to Chicago. Not what I was looking for. So I arrived at the airport about 45 minutes before my train was scheduled to depart only to realize that no train bound for Boston (via Albany) would ever be leaving from the South Bend airport. A sense of dread overtook me as I started back to my car. Fortunately, I knew Meghan was in town for the week and she was far closer to an internet-connected computer than I was. She was kind enough to look up where the actual Amtrak station was and give me directions to there from the airport.

Fifteen minutes and fifty cents later, I arrived at the South Bend Amtrak station. Which is basically a shack in the middle of nowhere that just happens to be next to some train tracks. I picked up my internet-purchased tickets from the window and found out that the train was running a little late. This was not terribly surprising, as many people I'd talked to had warned me that Amtrak is notorious for running behind schedule.

My train was scheduled to depart at 9:25 pm. Actual time of departure: 11 pm. So I'm running about 90 minutes behind. But no worries, the connection in Albany is guaranteed.

The train was nice. The seats are larger than airline or bus seats with a lot more legroom. The seats can be reclined quite a way back. There are even footrests. And there's plenty of room for your luggage.

I drifted off to sleep for a few hours. At about 4:30 am I woke up and realized the train wasn't moving. I looked out a window and realized that we were at a train station, so I figured it was just a scheduled stop.

I had just started to nod off again when a conductor began to address our car. It seems we weren't as far along as I had thought we'd be -- we were only in Toledo. Additionally, we would be in Toledo for much longer than the time generally alotted for the stop. A freight train ahead of us derailed, and was blocking us from going any further east. The conductor explained that he didn't know much more at that time. Depending on the extent of the derailment, we might be bussed elsewhere. Great. As we waited for more information, the conductor told us we'd be free to get off the train and wait in the Toledo station. I was still sleepy and fiarly comfortably situated, so I elected to stay put.

A short time later, the conductor once again addressed our car. The Toledo station had all the necessary equipment on hand to put the freight train back on the rails, but it would take some time. On the bright side, I wouldn't have to take a bus. But it did mean we'd be running WAY behind schedule.

The train was supposed to depart Toledo at 1:30 am. Actual time of departure: 10 am. I'm now running 8 1/2 hours behind. Lovely. It's about this time that I began to really regret taking Amtrak. I should have just sucked it up and bought a plane ticket.

After talking to a conductor, I found out that no matter how late we arrived in Albany, there would be a train to take me to Boston. So at least I don't have to worry about missing my connecting train and being marooned in Albany.

At around 1 pm (the time my second train was supposed to be leaving Albany), I called Honor to let her know that I'm running way behind schedule and wouldn't be getting into Boston that night. It looked like we had made up a little time, and now were only running 8 hours behind. So I told Honor that I'd give her a call when I got to Albany, around 8:30-9 pm.

But somewhere between Utica and Schenectady, more delays cropped up; signal "difficulties" brought our train to a crawl. At 9, I call Honor again and let her know that I'm still not in Albany, though I'm getting closer. We arrange to meet in Harvard Square early the next morning.

We finally pulled into Albany at 10 pm. We're back to 8 1/2 hours behind schedule. But at least there was a train there waiting to take me to Boston. That train pulled out of the station at about 10:30. After settling into my seat and giving my ticket to the conductor, I leaned back and drifted off to sleep. This leg of the journey went remarkably smoothly. We even made up quite a bit of time. According to the schedule, the second part of my trip was supposed to last 5 hours, 20 minutes. So I was expecting to get into Boston at 4 am at the earliest. Instead, we arrived at about 3 am. But at this point, the made-up time was of little consequence. It just meant I'd be waiting around the Boston's South Station until the subway opened up instead of sleeping onboard the train.

I killed about 2 hours at South Station, doing some reading and playing around with my laptop. Eventually one of the train station shops opened up (au bon pain) and I got some breakfast. A little after 6 am, I headed down the stairs to the South Station T stop. After an uneventful subway ride, I finally arrived at Harvard Square. I waited for a few minutes on a bench outside the T until Honor showed up. Although I arrived at Harvard Square about 11 1/2 hours later than I originally planned, it was all worth it when I saw Honor walking toward me.

Update snack

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but alas the drought will last a little while longer. Consider this post a little tidbit to hold you over. Of course if you get bored with checking for new posts here, feel free to peruse some of the blogs over on the right. Brendan and Derek tend to be far more prolific in their updates.

Now for a quick whirlwind tour over what's been going on:

Callback interview - I enjoyed the trip out to D.C. I really liked the firm. That's all I'll say here; if you want more details, be sure to contact me via email, IM, or in person.
"Thanks, Danny. I love Washington." -- Col. Nathan Jessup (A Few Good Men)

College football - Ohio State got off to a rocky start but ultimately prevailed over Michigan State. Notre Dame played its heart out against USC but lost in the final seconds. The hardest part of swallowing the defeat was the fact that the officials let the clock run out, so ND fans thought we'd actually won the game. Side Rant: I'm tired of hearing USC fans saying that ND played its best and was still beaten by a USC team that wasn't playing its best. Even if I buy the argument that USC isn't playing up to its potential, so what? Let's face it, USC has been scraping by. At best, they're (lazily) doing just enough to get by the teams they face (with the help of a few lucky breaks here and there); at worst, USC just isn't the team USC fans keep saying it is. My take is that USC is no longer the powerhouse team they were last year, and they are definitely beatable. We're halfway through the season, and frankly I'm not all that impressed. USC will get its comeuppance soon.

Chillicothe, OH - Still boring. But sudoku is pretty cool.

Skating - Yesterday I returned to the ice after a nearly two month absence. Luckily, I can still skate, and even remember my dances. I need to work on stamina though... maybe I can hit a few sessions during the second half of the semester. If I feel bold, I might even try jumping. I just have to put 911 on speed dial first.

Boston, MA - In a few hours I'll be boarding a train headed to Boston, via Albany, NY. It'll be a very long trip (I won't arrive until tomorrow night), but it'll be more than worth it. And I have plenty of work to keep me busy along the way. I'll get to check out Beantown, stroll through Harvard, and most importantly, see Honor. Fortunately the Red Sox are done for the season, so there won't be any baseball craziness in Boston this year. Look for a Boston recap when I get back next week.

The wonders of modern marvels -- Cyberlaw QOTD

"TiVo changed my life!" -- Prof. Bellia

Our professor then went on to explain how useful TiVo was for situations where you have to put your children to bed during a Boston Red Sox game.

When a student pointed out that that shouldn't be a problem anymore (since the Red Sox are out of the playoffs and therefore done for the season), Bellia retorted, "It's a good thing you're auditing this class."

A pat on the back

Funny clip of the day.

Thanks to Nugatory for the tip.

Great Bilbo's Bones!

...or alternatively, Concerning Hobbits.

Today's "Truth is Stranger than Fiction" story will probably be of interest to LOTR fans.

A 12,000 year old jawbone discovered in a cave in Indonesia adds to evidence suggesting the existence of a separate species of early humans. Most anthropologists believe that a diminutive hobbit-like species of humans lived on the island of Flores, apparently stranded there along with a whole host of miniaturized animals, including dwarf elephants. However, some scientists have proposed a different theory -- the specimens recovered are simply bones of modern humans who suffered from microencephaly (a broad genetic disorder that results in small brain size) or dwarfism. You can read the full story here.

I think the next time I want to make fun of someone for doing something dumb I'll have to ask them whether they suffer from microencephaly.

From the random holiday files

Happy Columbus Day.

The benefit of being a judge or some other government employee is that you get random holidays like today. Unfortunately I still have class.

Razzle-dazzle weekend

"I Strenuously object? Is that how it works? Objection. Overruled. No, no, no, no, I strenuously object. Oh well if you strenuously object, let me take a moment to reconsider."
-- A Few Good Men

Just a quick post as I take a break from my trial prep for this weekend. It's going to be an all-Trial Ad, all the time weekend. I'll be in a total of four trials, two as lawyers, two as witnesses. Ah, just like the ol' mock trial days.

The two "important" trials are the ones in which I'll be a lawyer (as this is all part of a law school class). Saturday afternoon I'll be defending a liquor store which allegedly knowingly sold alcohol to someone who was allegedly intoxicated. (Note the use of "allegedly," the defense attorney's favorite word.) Then Sunday morning I'll be prosecuting a former police officer who brutally shot her boyfriend twice in the chest. (Note the absence of the word "allegedly.")

My co-counsel for both cases is Kristine, another former mocker. We're something of an unholy alliance -- she's a Michigan grad.

My witness roles: a police officer (somewhat less shady than Officer Gerch -- at least I won't be accused of planting evidence) and a Belgian marketing director.

It's like Mock Trial: Gold Edition -- now with all new features: juries and real judges!

I'm looking forward to it: the rush of adrenaline as you start an opening or closing; the satisfaction of pinning down a witness on cross; the momentary panic of an unexpected response; nervous pacing during the breaks... Ah, good times.

And I'm sure there'll be a number of interesting moments (think neglify, pot machines, and pits of shale -- if you're not familiar with these stories, I'll have to fill you in sometime) over the weekend. Look for a highlight reel of memorable moments sometime next week.

"The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am."

Okay, so I'm not the only one who thought Harriet Miers resembles Emperor Palpatine -- a poll over at Wonkette had a similar result...

Cyberlaw QOTD

S: “If you type a law firm’s name into a search engine, you often get a sidebar that asks, ‘Need an attorney?’”

P: “What we really need is a sidebar that will ask, ‘Need a job?’”

Turkey to join EU?

Apparently it's a distinct possibility. The European Union has opened membership talks with Turkey. Turkey's actually been interested in joining the EU for some time, but EU member states Greece, France, and Austria have always blocked any negotiations for admitting Turkey.

The possible inclusion of Turkey in the EU raises an interesting question: How does one define Europe? As I see it, there are two main possibilities: geographically and culturally.

As you can see in these maps, Turkey rests predominantly on the Asian continent. Okay, so a small portion of Turkey is in Europe. But really, geographically speaking, Turkey is in Asia. Ah, but Turkey is culturally more similar to Europe, you say. Well, if we're going to play that game, maybe the EU would like to admit Australia, which still has close cultural ties to the UK. So how does one solve this riddle? Assign various points depending on cultural similarity and geographic proximity? That seems like it might work, even if it turns any intuitive definition of Europe on its head.

Maybe it's time to just abandon the old nomenclature and come up with a new name for the Union. Anyone have an interesting idea? [NOTE: I am personally disallowing "The Union Formerly Known as EU" or any ridiculous symbols.] Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Scoring the scores

AFI has recently released yet another one of their "Top Lists" for a random category in films. Personally, I think the fact that AFI keeps coming out with these things suggests that the stuff coming out of Hollywood these days is sorely lacking. We'll know things are really bad once AFI releases the "Top 25 AFI Film Lists in Movie History."

But back to the point at hand, the new list is for the top 25 movie scores. Topping that list is... Star Wars! Including that score, John Williams has two others in the top 25: Jaws (#9) and E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial (#14). The full list is here. I've seen 8 of these. How many have you seen?

Harriet Miers nominated to SCOTUS

Today President Bush nominated Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, where, if confirmed, she will replace Sandra Day O'Connor. Miers is currently White House counsel, and has never served as a judge.

People all over the political spectrum have been a-buzz over the nomination. Right-wingers are outraged that Bush didn't pick a more staunchly conservative judge with a clear judicial record. Some of them are undoubtedly afraid of a Souter-esque flip. From the other side of the aisle are cries of cronyism and a general lack of credentials for the position. (See e.g., Derek's latest post)

It is by no means unprecedented to nominate a non-judge to the Supreme Court. In fact, according to Emily, it's only a recent trend to tap judges for the nation's highest court. It would certainly make things a bit easier to know a potential Justice's views before they take the bench, but that doesn't mean that someone who's never been a judge can't be a good Justice. Personally, I'm a bit concerned with any Bush nominee because it is unlikely that anyone he nominates will hold the same views that I do on how best to interpret the Constitution. If anything, a lack of a clear judicial record demonstrating determined conservatism/originalism/strict constructionism (is that even a word?) gives me a bit of hope that a Miers may have a different outlook. But of course, it's impossible to say. What one does as a lower court judge may not even be a reliable indicator -- Souter had a judicial record and still managed to "hoodwink" the Right. And it's important to remember that a lower court justice is compelled to follow SCOTUS precedent in a stricter fashion than Supreme Court Justices are.

I guess that, like the Far-Right, I'm a bit surprised that Bush seems to be showing some moderation here. I understand the concerns and fears of the Left, but it could be worse. Overall, I'm pretty much with the vast majority of people on this one -- I just don't know yet.

As one might expect, Brendan has excellent coverage over on his blog.

On a lighter note, I have to say Miers looks a little scary. This picture was the first I'd seen of her; I'd heard the name before, but I guess the White House counsel doesn't pose for pictures too often. At first I thought it might be a bad picture, but then I found this. And Brendan's post a couple of weeks ago about Roberts's eyes got me thinking of a certain passing resemblance...

I really don't mean to pick on Miers though; certainly we all wrinkle with time. And I remain undecided as to what I think of her as a SCOTUS nominee. There's very little to go on right now -- which is why we have nomination hearings, after all.

Football, friends, and fun

Last night ND won big over Purdue, 49-28. I watched the game in the Community Center, where again (alas!) there was no food. Where exactly is my $20 activities fee going, if not to free food at the games?? The best part about watching the game there, though, was getting to hang out with John and Julie who came over to watch the game. (Apparently, Hooters was too crowded. Heh.)
Ohio State had the week off, so they should be fresh for their first away game, against Penn State. It looks like Joe Pa's managed to scrape together a decent team this year, so that should be an interesting game to watch.

In other randomness, here is a good reason not to blog about work.

And mostly for Derek, this is an excellent example of an instance where one really needs to put down the shovel.