Sports law no more....

I'm 29 minutes into my last sports law class, and I'm in the interesting position of having absolutely no reason to be here. This course is graded about 35 percent on a class presentation, which I've already done, and 65 percent for the term paper, which I've already written. So.... why am I here? I don't really know... I should be working on my Charter paper. I agreed to send the first page to the prof tomorrow, which of course I haven't written yet, so I'm going to need to do that at some point.

I have three papers this term. That's a lot, considering law school classes are usually graded 100 percent on a final exam. It sucks right now but it'll all pay off pretty soon because I've only got two finals... IP on the 9th and taxation on the 21st... and by the 12th all my papers will be done. Okay well that's definately enough law school talk for now. I'm starting to bore even myself here so I should find something exciting to talk about before I alienate my faithful reader (hi thanks for reading!). So no more law school talk in this post. Um... except for this:

Somebody here in Vancouver, who for now will remain nameless, has set up a list of blogs written by law students accross the country. I should mention that this person works for a law firm. I would not want to be on such a list. The idea of a list that employers can use to find blogs seems a bit... unhappy. If they find me on their own then whatever... but I don't want to make it any easier for them than I have to. So if you're the aforementioned person and are reading this because you're about to add me to the aforementioned list, please don't. Thanks. I promise I won't add you to my list of... um... something. Happily, after Googling myself I'm satisfied that, to date, there is nothing incriminating out there... heh well aside from this I mean. And this isn't that bad...

If you aren't currently making a list of law student blogs and want to blogroll me or add me in some other way then please do... I need all the readers I can get.

I ordered the best of Friends of Distinction from Amazon the other day. I don't really know why. I was working on a paper and listening to one of the iTunes radio stations and one of their songs came on. Does anybody out there remember then? They were the artists responsible for such hits as Grazin in the Grass and Crazy Mary. The only word I can use to describe them is groovy. Check it out:


For an example of their coolness consider these lyrics: "Grazin in the grass is a gas baby can you dig it." Seriously, that says it all. If the cartoon picture doesn't do it for you here's a real one:

I think people should have to dress like that. It shouldn't even be optional. When I'm on the Supreme Court of Canada I'm going to somehow find that it's unconstitutional for the government to allow people not to dress like that. I'll let you know when I figure out exactly how that argument would work. Stay tuned.

And speaking of staying tuned.... stay tuned for the first installment of Half Nekkid Thursday coming up right here in about 48 hours. You can read about it here.

Twelve weeks down... one to go

Well, now it's even more down to the wire. In fact we're right on the wire. I was counting down weeks of class here... but that doesn't mean much anymore. Now it's all about finishing the papers before they're due. Sports law is done and negotiation is due Monday. That might be kinda tough, but I'll get it done.

I can't wait til I can talk about stuff besides school... actually, I can't wait til I can think of something besides what i have to do for school. After the 12th things will calm down considerably... I'll have nine days to study for my taxation final on the 21st. When I first found out the tax final was on the 21st I was pissed it was so late. Now I wouldn't want it to be one day earlier because I'm going to need every minute I can get.

In non school news, Sam the ugly dog died this week. Too bad... rest in peace Sam. I wonder who the ugliest dog in the world is now.


Click here to read about Sam. There's a video link on that news story if you're so inclined....

The nutritional situation in the last week and a half has fallen to a historic low. I'm embarassed to admit how many pizza boxes I have piled on the kitchen table... and of course the last thing I have time for is the gym. But I figured that grocery shopping and cooking are luxeries I can't afford right now, so it's double pepperoni pizzas and Subway til at least sometime next week.

But seriuosly, I think I might need a pizza intervention when this is all over. I'll let you know if I do. Um... or maybe not... is that the way it works? Interventions, I think, are supposed to be a surprise for the people who need them. So feel free to surprise me at any time. But not until after Monday, because this weekend I don't have time for cooking, shopping, the gym or interventions.

Okay.... speaking of no time... I don't have time to be doing this....

That age old question: Grey's Anatomy or sports law?

Well it's down to the wire. The sports law paper is due on Tuesday and it's now Sunday night. Here's an update:

Old plan: 10 pages Saturday, 10 pages Sunday, 10 pages Monday
New plan: 30 pages Monday.

A slight adjustment, but overall I think it's workable. Yeah I know, 30 pages in one day sounds like a lot. But I've got a 40 page outline. That's right, a 40 page outline. So all I have to do is take that outline and turn it into a paper. I'll try to provide an update of this endeavor tomorrow night, but I suspect I may be typing frantically in the law library cursing my proclivity towards procrastination.

There's no escaping the fact that I've got a lot to do. But still, I'm faced with an all important question: Should I miss Grey's Anatomy so I can spend that hour working on my paper? The answer, of course, is no. Of course I shouldn't. And I probably shouldn't miss American Dad either, but I'll see how that goes.

Eleven weeks down... two to go

My sports law paper is due on Tuesday. Well, it's not due for real, but it's due for people who want to hand it in early and get comments from the prof before the real due date. I think this is something I need. Badly. So this weekend is all about sports law. It's supposed to be about 30 pages, which I think is approximately 10,500 words. My current word count is 131. So I'm well on my way. But hey, the research is all finished and I've got all the sources I need. So the only thing to do now is write 10 pages tomorrow, 10 pages on Sunday, and 10 pages on Monday. No problem right? Yeah sure right we'll see how that goes.

So with only two weeks of classes left, four out of my five profs have scheduled make up classes. One word: lame. Why? Because the last two weeks are freakishly busy without profs scheduling classes to make up for times when they were sick, at a conference, or whatever. My IP prof has even scheduled a make up class during exam period. Can he do that? What if people have exams on that day? I mean, I don't, but some people must. Anyway, I'm going to the ones for taxation and IP because I have finals in those classes but I'm not going to any for the classes I'm writing papers in.

Okay well I guess I have nothing else to say. There are a lot of things I could talk about but there's no time. I'll try to post some pictures in the next few days. And I'll provide a sports law paper update tomorrow night.

Here I am with my friend Andrea in the Strait of Gibralter in 1998. We worked in the same office together onboard the Grand Princess and ran up to take a picture when we heard where we were. 

Let us speak of the evil...

I have a major problem: I can’t stay awake. I’m in my sports law class trying to pay attention but my eyes are closing and the only thing I can do to stay awake is type. Hence this blog entry. Why, you ask, am I trying to pay attention? Because the wireless network is down so I couldn’t stick to my original plan, which was to spend this class researching articles for my sports law term paper. I think I’m falling asleep because I was thinking about research too much. These days whenever I think about or try to accomplish any kind of research I fall asleep almost immediately. Like I was saying in response to a comment a couple entries ago, I think it's some kind of misdirected defense mechansim. But yeah, the topic today is gender equality in sports, which is actually pretty interesting. Still, it’s not enough to keep me awake.

At least I have my laptop back. I took it in yesterday to get fixed again. When I got it back last week it was still pretty noisy... also the bottom vents hadn’t been put back on right, the sound still wasn’t working right, and that obnoxious alarm sound had been enabled. So now everything is good except for the sound problem. But that’s okay, it would have taken a lot of time to fix and it’s not really that important because when the sound stops working (after the computer comes out of hibernation) I can fix it by rebooting. The main point of taking the computer in was to get it cleaned out and they seem to have done a fairly good job of that.

Besides, there are BIGGER fish to fry. Like Martini’s Restaurant (hereafter referred to as Martini’s). So here’s the story: Last Thursday I ordered pizza at 8pm. The woman on the phone said it would be there in 40 to 45 minutes. Great. So we waited… 40 to 45 minutes came and went. After an hour I decided to phone and check on the order. I had no malice or even disapproval to offer at this point; it was simply an inquiry. So I phoned and the girl who answered put me on hold for a couple minutes. She finally got back to me and said it would be there any minute. Great. So we waited some more… any minute came and went. Finally, at twenty past nine, I phoned again. Phone girl put me on hold again, came back again, and said “yeah it’ll be there any minute.”

Now hold on. That’s what she said last time. Only it never came. So why would it come in any of the next few minutes. I suggested that maybe it wasn’t fair for me to pay full price for a pizza that was so late. Her response? She gave me a nice little lecture on the restaurant business and how delays happen. Now, I have to agree with her on that point. As someone who spent a couple years managing a pizza restaurant I know delays are common. But I thought it was customary to apologize to the customer in these situations and offer… maybe… a free order of breadsticks or a couple bucks off the order or something.

But no, what I got was a lecture. Then, when I reiterated the part about the order being 35 minutes late (at that point) she said “well sir, you were quoted an hour and it really hasn’t been that much longer so far. What argumentative phone girl did not count on was that I have a memory span that is somewhat greater than that of the average goldfish. Not only did she quote me 40 to 45 minutes but the recorded phone message, which I had to listen to every time she put me on hold, was saying “please be advised, orders placed now will take approximately 45 minutes for delivery” or some crap like that.

So after explaining that to crabby phone lady, I pondered out loud the fact that, because the pizza had left the store at least 20 minutes before, it was probably going to be cold. Phone girl didn’t care. No apologies, no regrets. What she did tell me to do was to phone back if it was cold. I said “well I guess if that’s all your willing to do for me that’s what I have to do” to which she sarcastically replied “yep have a good night!.” And hung up.

Okay so I didn’t deserve that sarcastic shit. I don’t even like complaining (I know some people do). And those rare times when I do complain about something, I try to be polite and respectful because really, the delay isn’t evil phone girl's fault. The way she treats me when I phone, however, is entirely within her control and I was a little pissed about that. Anyway, the pizza finally got there after an hour and a half. As predicted, it was cold and it actually stuck to the box.

I wasn’t in the mood to phone back on Thursday night though. Going a round with the phone troll had totally made me miss half of Apprentice! And if I phoned back I’d miss the other half too. Not to mention the fact that we were completely starving by this point. I needed to eat, not fight about late pizza. I had had enough of them for one night. And I was way way way too busy on Friday to phone, so I called on Saturday.

First off, I should say that when I called Saturday I was mostly doing it because I was pissed about the way I’d been treated. The pizza itself? Not the biggest of deals. I wanted an apology and some indication that they cared in some small way that I had crappy, crappy, service. Okay so I called in the afternoon and the guy told me to call back at 6 to speak with the manager. No problem. I called at 6 and she came to the phone. I started telling her about what happened, but before I got very far she cut me off by saying “this happened Thursday and you’re calling now?” I had assumed the fact that I was calling at the present time would have been self evident, but nonetheless I replied to the affirmative. I suspect she wasn't really confused about whether or not we were having a conversation in the present time; she just needed to make a little point by asking a question in that tone people get right before they tell you to take a hike.

Before I could say anything else she put me on hold. Finally she came back and said “I just conferred with the other manager and if you can’t call and complain within a day and a half of when the problem occurs there’s nothing we can do for you.” I see. At that point she was pretty much ready to exit the conversation. I tried to tell her about why I was so bothered but all I was getting in return was “okay thanks bye!” attitude.

And THAT, my friends, is why I don’t like Martini’s Restaurant. If I was making my list of 75 things I don’t like right now, they’d be on top. Even though the things on that list weren’t ranked in order, Martini's would STILL be on top. What I don’t get is why people act like this. When I was in customer service, and I was there for a long time, complaints were pretty common. Even though most of them were stupid and petty, we still put our best smiles on and tried to make people happy. I had some evil, stupid, miserable people to deal with when I worked on the ships, and in the restaurants, and in the hotel. Sometimes nothing could be done; they were haters and couldn’t be pleased. But most the time people can be appeased relatively easily. What they really want is for someone to care that they’ve been messed around. At Martini’s it seems like they just want complaining customers to go away. And they do go, but they also tell whoever will listen and then those people might go away as well.

If my pizza takes an hour and a half to get to me and it’s cold and stuck to the box then obviously someone, somewhere, at some time, has messed up. There has been a mistake. Was it me? No. But in these situations someone will have to pay for the mistake and it will either be the restaurant or the customer. In this case they chose that I, the customer, should pay for their mistake by paying full price for cold pizza and dealing with a bunch of attitude. Which really doesn’t make much sense. They were so reluctant to offer any type of concession as a way of making amends: No discount, no break sticks, no free drinks, nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zip. Niente. In doing so they chose the much more expensive option, which was to give up any future business I might give them and quite possibly the business of my friends who I complain to.

Anyway today I sent off a letter to the owner and I did it for two reasons: (1) I hate getting treated like a chump by some teenager with attitude and (2) anything is better than focusing on what I should be doing, which is studying. I told them that I want the charges reversed on my credit card and if they don’t do it I’ll take further action. And, if I am forced to take further action, I’ll also file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Lame huh? I only sent the letter today so I guess I have to wait a while for any sort of reply. It if get any sort of reply that is. I'll post an update when I have one.

Okay well class is over… it’s time for some fun filled research!

Ten weeks down... three to go

Well, technically this week ended yesterday because today's a holiday. It's weird how fast this term's going by. Only three weeks of classes?? That's insanity. Things are coming along pretty well though. I'm working on my sports law paper and actually getting some research done for a change. Not much else to say about school at this point...

But I do have some complaints about other things. I got my laptop back yesterday. I took it in to get the area around the fan cleaned because apparently a dust build up was making it really loud. And I also told them about a problem I've been having since I got it.... when it comes out of hibernation the sound doesn't work. As in no sound at all. If I make the computer go back into hibernation the sound usually works again when it comes out the second time. I've learned to deal with it over the last 15 months but when I stop and think about it it's actually pretty annoying. So I took it into a computer repair place yesterday to get it serviced and I told them what the problems were.

Do you ever get the feeling when you're explaining problems to people that they're nodding and understanding just a little too quickly? I had that feeling with the sound problem... I explained it twice on Tuesday when I went in to book the apointment and it just felt like they weren't really getting it. So when I went back to drop it off on Thursday I was all "you understand the sound problem right?" And they apparently totally understood it.

So... Thursday night... I went back to pick it up and brought it home. The fan? Still noisy. The sound problem? Definately NOT fixed at all. Oh and now, when the computer goes into hibernation or comes out of hibernation it makes a loud beeping sound that will be sure to solicit dirty looks in the library. Thinking that new sound was strange, I looked at the invoice they gave me. Sure enough, under problem it says: "When it comes out of sleep mode there is no sound, but eventually comes on." Then under the work performed section it says: "Enabled alarm sound (when computer going to sleep mode and when returns) in computer setup." So that's it. For some reason, even though I explained the problem thrice, they thought I was paying seventy bucks to enable an abnoxious alarm sound when my computer comes out of hibernation. Perfect.

The worst thing about getting computers fixed is being without them. Now I have to find another day where I can be without it all day next week. Okay well enough complaining about that. I also have a fairly major complaint to make about a pizza place here in Vancouver called Martini's but I'll save that til next time. For now, just know that they suck badly.

It's all about procrastination...

Why can't I get anything done? Why is it that I come to school, head straight for the library, sit down, fully intend to start researching and writing, but then (a) do meaningless internet stuff, (b) stare into space thinking about irrelevant crap, or (c) sleep? I need to get moving but it's like I... just... can't. I'm in the computer lab right now because my laptop is getting serviced. They said they'd have it back to me today and I hope they do, because nothing is more irritating than not having my laptop when I need it. And I always need it.

Okay, enough procrastination. Seriously I mean it this time. I'm going to hit the 'post' button and find some articles/cases for my sports law paper. After I find them I can read them, take notes on them, figure out what else I need, and finally start writing. It's just a matter of getting moving. So here I go...

Miscellaneous crap...

Okay so I'm in my taxation classroom waiting for class to start and I've got half an hour. Yeah I know getting to class half an hour before it starts sounds dorky but I have to get here early so I have an outlet for my laptop. When they built the law building in 1975 I guess they didn't think eveyone would one day need a power outlet for their computer. They've since installed them in other classrooms but unfortunately not in this one, or in any of the others I'm in this term. And it doesn't help that my laptop battery sucks. I can get... maybe... an hour twenty if my wireless card is turned off and I don't have anything open except for microsoft word. So yeah, I hope my classrooms next term have been updated for this century.

In other law school news, Candida's finally reopened on Monday after the renovations that have kept it closed since school started. Candida's is the law school cafeteria that, for some reason, they decided to start renovating in September instead of during the summer when nobody was here. In the two and a half months it was closed, they built a wall and painted and basically changed things around. Notwithstanding the fact that it took a long time to do not very much at all, the basic problem remains: Candida's sucks. That's right, Candida's sucks. They deliver about three sandwiches by noon which sell out in about ten seconds. Okay that might be a slight exaggeration but you get my point. And when the sandwiches are gone? You can buy lemon bread, donuts, candy, soda, and other crap that will rot out your intestines and clog up your arteries faster than you can grope for the panic button on your medic alert unit. Even when they do have sandwiches they're loaded with fat. So I'm still stuck with going over to the SUB to get food and I'm almost at the breaking point where I'm going to start packing a lunch. Things have to be pretty serious for me to pack a lunch.

Because I spent a lot of time talking to people, I only have about three more mintues to write this post. So I'll just share a funny funny thing I saw on Yahoo today. Two news headlines, one under the other:

Texas Voters Approve Ban on Gay Marriage
San Francisco Voters Approve Ban on Handguns

This was so funny I thought maybe Yahoo did it on purpose. One group is concerned with getting rid of violence and the other group is concerned with banning unions. The truly ironic thing here is that the Texas voters probably think they hold the higher moral ground. Go figure...

Nine weeks down... four to go

It seems, as the end of the term gets closer, the weeks go faster and faster. I mean, how is the time between last Friday and this Friday a week? It feels like two days. This doesn't bode well for my papers getting finished on time. Whatever. Here's the list:

1. Sports law term paper
2. Negotiation term paper
3. Charter term paper
4. IP final
5. Taxation final

Notice there's one thing missing this week: the sports law presentation. Strictly speaking it wasn't a presentation; we were leading class discussion. For three hours. But it went pretty well... there were three of us in the group and we were talking about drug use in sports. I'm thinking maybe I'll change my paper topic to whether or not leagues should test for street drugs, but I'm not sure yet. I'll know by Tuesday.

I'm trying to decide how much time I should spend on this blog between now and December 21st. I'm thinking two posts a week is good considering the other stuff I have to do. And I'll try to post some pictures. But the problem there is that if I'm posting pictures I'll have to be taking pictures, and who has time to take pictures in November and December!? Okay so I'll post old pictures... maybe one or two each week.

This is my last weekend of relative freedom, and really I shouldn't be having any freedom this weekend at all. But... I've made some plans that I've been looking forward to so I probably won't get a lot of studying done before Monday. After that though... it's all about papers. First I have to nail down a Charter concept and then I'm moving on to negotiation. So on my next post... say Tuesday.... I'll have some serious progress to report. Stay tuned.

Amazing Race sucks amazingly bad... is that good English?

Feeling a little nostalgic tonight. How nostalgic? Elvis nostalgic. Yeah, that's right, Elvis nostalgic. But I'm not talking any old Elvis music. Two songs: Suspicious minds and Moody Blues. I don't know why these songs make me nostalgic... maybe because Moody Blues came out in 1977 and I was three years old.... just old enough to have it etched onto my psyche, triggering distant feelings of recognition and familiarity whenever I hear it coming out of the speakers in Wal Mart or whatever department store I happen to be in. My mom... big Elvis fan... probably played it a million times. And Suspicious Minds.... I don't know what year it came out but it has the same effect. Hmm... this gives me an idea.... a list of songs that make me nostalgic. It can't be 75 or 76 songs though... that would be bedlam. Let's say top 20... yeah... let's say that. Stay tuned.

So I watched the Amazing Race tonight. And I'm not gonna lie to ya... this season sucks. It sucks bad. The family edition was a bad idea of colossal proportions and I think it's time for everyone to admit that. I mean, what were they thinking? They shouldn't have messed with it. The one and only good thing that can come from this will be if they learn that lesson. Don't screw with something that works. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, etc. etc. Anyway the award.... no.... the two awards for most annoying teams go to the Paolo and Weaver families. The Weaver family prays too much. I just don't want to hear them asking Jesus for a bucketload of cash every time some kind of obstacle gets in their way. But the real evil out there are those devil spawn Paolo kids. Seriously, the way they talk to their mother is pure black hearted maggoty filth. Last week one of the other players turned around and told them to respect their mother and that may have been the best moment of the show this whole season. But enough about that...

It's November already and I have a crazy amount of work to do. But I have to admit, I'm feeling good. In three weeks I'll have two of my papers done. Yep, that's a mighty bold little claim to be making here in a somewhat public forum (um... it is somewhat public right? I think I have one confirmed reader now), but you watch, it's gonna happen. Three weeks. Okay well actually three weeks and a couple days. Let's say the 23rd.

And since I told Darren about the list of things I like and don't like he's been coming up with things he likes and doesn't like. He keeps telling me to post them and I keep telling him to get his own blog. But tonight I broke down and said I'd post two things that he likes. So here they are:

1. Student teachers. Apparently they are making his life easier...
2. Grade 9 "take your kid to work" day. This means he doesn't have to teach his grade 9 class tomorrow because they've all gone to work with their parents. Interesting concept... too bad they didn't have that when I was in high school. Actually... my dad was a school principal so it would have been kinda lame getting out of one school only to end up in another school. I guess I could have gone to work with my mom though.

Alright it's late and I have to get to bed... later y'all....