I Like This Photo

This is me leaving the University of Idaho graduation ceremony. I think it shows two of the best things to come out of this little adventure.

I'm Good for Something!

85%

I like my chances...

70%

Unfortunately, they can't quiz me on my existing zombie apocalypse survival plan but I'll take 70%.

Done...

I remember the last day of 7th grade. I could barely contain my excitement as I waited for the second hand to round the corner at 9 and make its way up to the top of the clock. I was seconds away from summer. At the sound of the bell I would burst out of the classroom, into the hall, and off into a long vacation.

I don't know that I have ever felt that excited about anything in my life since then. I thought for sure I would feel something similar Friday as I heard my professor begin to wind down his lecture with the familiar "Well, it looks like we're out of time" but I didn't. Upon completing my last class of law school I simply closed my computer, walked to my carrel, and sat down.

I'm still wondering why...

As excited as I was to leave Mueller Park Jr. High School and the 7th grade behind, I had to know that several years of public education were still on the horizon. I couldn't have known that I would still be in school 20 years later but I MUST have known that there was still a long way to go.

So now I sit here at the end of the line. There is no more school. I have no desire for an LLM or some other interdisciplinary academic capstone. I'm done. Twelve grades of public school, four years of undergraduate work, and three years of law school (obviously there were some off years thrown in too).

I think I've screwed myself. All these book smarts have forced me to recognize that there are no concrete subdivisions of our lives, only milestones. Although I have reached a significant one, it is just another milestone. I wonder if I was happier then... Back when I didn't know enough to poo-poo a milestone by pointing out the inevitable return to the same uphill path...

Then again, I look back at everything that has happened since the 7th grade and I know there is NO WAY I would do it over again.

Maybe that's what I've learned. Not to be so excited for what is to come but to be grateful for what has passed.

Boxing: Not a cure for the common cold.

I've been sick for a week now and I was a little pissy about not being able to go to my fight class tonight. So... I threw on the headgear just to see if getting hit would hurt worse with a head cold.

It does...

I must wait a whole week before I get to punch and kick people.

Countdowns

Last Class Ever



Graduation

Visit My New Family Blog

All of this cute family photo stuff is ruining my blog. Amicus Briefly was supposed to be my place to vent and go off on political rants. Fortunately, there is no limit to the amount of crap I can post to the internet...

So... If you'd like to see more about Erin, Evan, Andy and Lucy, go here:
http://mecoppin.blogspot.com/

Update:

I moved all the cute stuff to the other blog.

I Like Hitting People... Is that wrong?

Just in case having a newborn around wasn't sufficient to keep me from sleeping and getting school work done, now I'm pretty sure I'm getting the cruddy cold/virus thing that has been going around.

The first (and most important) reason this sucks is because I'm going to have to limit my contact with Evan. I'm going to feel like crap if I get him sick. Every time I hold him I get this terrible feeling I'm going to infect him and send him to the hospital to sleep in an oxygen tent. But that wasn't the point of this post...

The 2nd most important (but also very important) reason why this pisses me off is because I'm afraid I'll be too sick to go to my fight class on Friday. Sure, I could be worried about things like upper division writing projects, research pathfinders, or the clerkship interview I have coming up, but apparently the thing I am most eager to do this week is punch people in the face.

Fortunately, I recognize that my priorities are out of order and I have spent some time thinking about this.

One or both of the following statements could be true.

1- Mark is distracting himself with krav maga and full contact sparring because he doesn't want to face the fact that he has some serious, life changing stuff coming up.

2- Mark actually loves punching, hitting, and kicking people.

Thoughts?

The Berkley City Council hates Marines?

I thought this was funny. Why do councils and legislatures pass resolutions to let people know how they feel? What a waste of time.

I thought the quote from Berkley Resident Bill Newton was even better...
"Frankly I think the City Council is pretty stupid. But the war is pretty stupid too."

Death Should Be Hard to Watch

This blog got shoveled to the back of IA for this week so I had to post it here to satisfy the needs of my ego.

On Monday the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Blaze v. Rees. Just in case you haven’t been one of those uber geek law students who follows the SC like a 14 year old girl watching American Idol, the case is about lethal injection, and whether or not it is cruel and unusual punishment. In executions by lethal injection three drugs are administered to the condemned. The first is basically a pain killer, and it is supposed to drop the blood pressure, kill pain, and cause sleep. The second drug is a paralytic which, as its name suggests, causes paralysis in all the muscles except the heart. The third drug stops the heart. The potential problem arises when the first drug is administered incorrectly. Without the first drug, the second leaves the condemned paralyzed, awake, and completely capable of feeling the third drug rush in and stop the heart (which is apparently very painful).
The argument is about what standard should be applied to potential risks of future harm, who should supervise administration of the first drug, and the availability of alternative methods. It was all very interesting
The part that I found the MOST interesting was an exchange between Justice Stevens and Mr. Englert. Justice Stevens seemed to believe that the problem was not the first drug but the second (this is mentioned several times but this time caught my attention). If it weren’t for the second drug, there would be very little risk of an incorrect administration of the first drug going unnoticed. Without the paralytic it should be pretty easy to tell if the condemned has been effectively knocked out by the first drug because I am pretty sure you could test for feeling, and if the condemned isn’t paralyzed, then the reaction should be pretty apparent. Like fish on a stream bank apparent. Mr. Englert made the argument that the risk was justified because the second drug was necessary to maintain “the dignity of the process.” Not that the second drug was necessary to complete the execution, but only that, “You don’t want to have unpleasant appearance of death at the time.”
Which brings me to my point. The unpleasant appearance of death? Do juries think the person is going to “live on a farm” when the verdict is rendered? It’s not like death row is a tank in a dentist’s office and inmates gets to go back out to sea when they get flushed, kids. Who cares if the death has an unpleasant appearance? I’m not making an argument for or against the death penalty here, but I generally believe death = unpleasant. The idea that executions need to be “dignified” for the watcher is absurd.
Do you think the condemned really cares? Obviously they care if it is painful, but do they honestly care how uncomfortable the witnesses and the warden are? If it were up to me I’d want to go in the most messy and disgusting way possible. If you’re going to kill me you should have to get your hands and your psyche dirty. If you’re going to execute me, I want it to be painless for me, and Tarantino directing it on pay per view. Just saying.

Funeral Protests? Seriously?

The ink has barely dried on Heath Ledger's death certificate and already there are people getting ready to protest his funeral.

Seriously? Why do you protest a funeral? The dude is DEAD. What exactly is it you hope to achieve? Keep him from making any more movies about gay cowboys? Check. Keep him from making more money from his gay movie? Check.

Where did this crap come from? Protesting at the funerals of dead soldiers, actors, or anyone else for that matter is just plain stupid. Worse still, it is about the least Christian thing I can think of.

If I recall correctly the scriptures say we should "...weep with them that weep."

I could be wrong but I think there are also some things in there about "curse not" and leaving wrath to God.

Or is it just me?

A New Year

Oh goodie... January is here and the time has come for resolutions, goals, and plans. I truly enjoy hearing people talk about all the things they plan to do in the upcoming year. I honestly hope they achieve their goals. I just don't think they will. The gym will be packed in January and empty in February, nicotine patch sales will spike and then drop, and houses will be cleaned and quickly return to their state of disorder.

On the other hand, because I don't use January as my arbitrary life goal reset date I tend to feel a little left out. So... This year I've found a way to be a part of the group without having to lie to myself about what I will do in the upcoming year. I have come up with my list of things I would like to do in 2008 but resolve not to do.

Wear a bluetooth ear piece. I just don't need that kind of communication access and I'd rather spend the money on something else.

Run a marathon. It would be cool to tell people I did it but in all honesty, I'd prefer to spend my time giving a half ass effort to a variety of hobbies rather than focus all that attention on one.

Read a specified number of books. Once I resolved to finish a list of books before the year's end. I ended up reading 2 or 3 books that really sucked because I felt guilty for putting them down.

Tell some people how I feel about them. I'd like to let a certain snob know what a cow I think she is, a certain jerk know how much I'd like to beat him senseless, and a virtual army of kids with their pants half way down their butts know how stupid they look, but I probably wont. They would probably ignore me and honestly I'd like to think I don't care enough to waste the effort.

Go on a fad diet. I'd like to reduce the waist to inseam ratio but I resolve not to do it in 21 days, 6 weeks, or with just 1 meeting per week. I resolve not to say to anyone that I am on a plan, diet, or program which can be found at Barnes and Noble in the best seller section.

Organize/re-organize my life. It's not that my life runs with the precision of a swiss watch, I just refuse to spend more time planning, organizing, sharpening the saw, or maximizing than living. I'll work on doing some things better but I will not buy, program, or subscribe to anything to force myself to do so.

Limit television time to a specified number of hours. I'll try to avoid television. I think having a new baby should give me some distraction. But I refuse to hold a stop watch every time I sit down to a new episode of "The Office."

Be depressed if I fail on any of these. Particularly the one about telling people how I feel. I am not a perfect person. I might become obsessed with weight, enamored with running, or pissed off enough to actually abandon self control and speak my mind.

Continue writing lists that don't really matter... If I feel like blogging something I will but I don't think I should spend my time trying to brainstorm so I'll have something to post on the internet.

Home Improvement

When they talk about the whole dream of home ownership, they usually leave out the part about never having another Saturday off for the rest of your life. Maybe the overwhelming success of Home Depot and shows like "This Old House" should have been a clue but somehow I missed all the warnings.

A few weeks ago we tore out some trees so we could plant new trees.

Last week we ripped out the floor so we can put in a new floor.

So today is another one of those Saturdays. We just finished scraping all of the texture off of the ceiling so we can... you guessed it... texture the ceiling.

I remember when Saturdays were for sleeping in, watching college football, long rides, and taking naps.

American dream my butt...

I Hate Television

What is the deal with programs starting and stopping and going on long breaks? All summer I get into a show called "Burn Notice" on USA. The other day I watch the season finale and they say "Next summer on Burn Notice." NEXT SUMMER!?!? They have clips of upcoming episodes but they're going to hold off until NEXT SUMMER!?

Then there's "The Dresden Files" from Sci-Fi. I was really getting into that show and then all of the sudden it disappeared. I look at the web page and they say "Coming back next season." Can't they just run a show on the same night for a while? What's with the stop/start crap?

And now there's LOST. I'm not as invested in LOST as my wife but she was SOOO pumped to see the new season. All the season premiers are this week and she rushed home to watch LOST. Imagine her disappointment when she found out it's not coming back until January.

I seriously don't get this... I want Cheers and Cosby back... The same program, the same night, until the thing drops dead.

Speechless

We went to see the OB today. The details are fuzzy but apparently I saw this...



And this...


It moved... I watched it... I can't begin to describe the feeling I had at that moment. It was a combination of glee and terror (it doesn't help that one of the images seriously looks like a pirate flag).

There is a very small person inside my wife's belly.

Ahmadinejad: 'We don't have homosexuals'

This kills me...

Asked about executions of homosexuals in Iran, Ahmadinejad said the judiciary system executed violent criminals and high-level drug dealers, comparing them to microbes eliminated through medical treatment. Pressed specifically about punishment of homosexuals, he said: “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country."

I can just see it now...

(Knock at the door)

Citizen: "Who is it?"

Official: "Iranian Census Bureau." (asks standard questions...) "Oh... One more thing. Are there any homosexuals here?"

Citizen in the back: "I am."

****BANG****

Official: "Anyone else?"

Self Defense

So I've been taking a self defense class. It's some martial art designed to combat Nazis and terrorists so I like to think it is much cooler than any of those wussy, ballet dancing-esque, things where they wear funny robes and bow a lot but that's another story.

Anyway... I find it funny when the instructor continually talks about how "on the street" things are "real." Was I to assume that things on the street were unreal? And what exactly is real? Is it real to assume some guy is going to just sneak up on me, grab me from behind, and attempt to break my neck with a commando style choke move? Seriously? When was the last time that happened to anybody who wasn't looking for it?

Sometimes I think these people live in a fantasy world where cowboys still draw on each other, knights still joust, and gentlemen still duel. I think the greatest self defense system is one I have already mastered. It involves several simple techniques for avoiding situations where self defense is needed. These techniques are taught by memorization of folksy sayings passed on from grandfather to grandson.

1- Don't get into a wrestling match with a pig. You'll both end up dirty and only the pig will enjoy it.
2- If you feel like you shouldn't be there, you're probably right.
3- Don't piss into the wind.
4- There is always a bigger dog.
5- Most arguments are like events in the special olympics. Even if you win, you're still a retard. (I don't personally love the word "retard" but the folksy saying just doesn't work without it).

So far this system has kept me out of any real fights for the last 15+ years of my life. Hopefully that streak will continue.

However, if someone should give me a hug while holding a yellow rubber gun to my head... I'll know what to do...

Things On My Mind

A friend reminded me that I haven't blogged for a while. I figured today was as good as any to rectify that situation.

I've had quite a bit on my mind. For starters, there's this...
No, that isn't an ultrasound of my wife's stomach after she swallowed a gummi bear whole, it's my unborn child.

I'm 32 years old and on the way to being a father for the first time. You might think I would be prepared for something like this after all I have experienced in life, but I'm not. This scares the hell out of me.

First, I get a knot in my stomach every time I start to get excited about the baby. What if something goes wrong with the pregnancy..? I don't even want to think about it.

Then, I get a knot in my stomach when I think about the baby being born. What if something goes wrong..? Now I'm even sicker.

Finally, I think about what will happen when my child grows up. Now it's not a matter of if something goes wrong, but when and how will he/she deal with it.

When I was a child I believed the world was a simple place. People grew up, got married, got jobs, and lived just like their parents. Everyone was happy and everybody mowed their lawn on Saturdays.

But that's just not the case. Setting aside everything that is going on in Iraq, all the disasters predicted by Al Gore, and all the depressing suffering going on elsewhere in the world, just being here at home isn't what it used to be.

Healthcare sucks... Before I quit my job to come to school I was making a pretty decent living and I couldn't get health insurance. What will happen when it gets worse?

Our Government sucks... I can barely stand to read the news these days. Scandal, corruption, abuse of power. How long can this last before it all falls apart?

Getting a job sucks...Despite the fact that my wife and I will soon have the 2 bachelors, 2 masters, and a doctorate level education between us, we're still predicted to have a lower standard of living than our parents (adjusted for inflation). What will my baby have to look forward to?

School sucks... Kids shooting kids, kids hanging nooses in trees, companies selling bullet proof backpacks. When I was a kid we didn't even have car seats. Now these kids are thinking about wearing body armor to school.

The environment sucks... When I was young I played in the dirt. I lived just a few miles from forested areas where I could run and play, drink out of streams, and see places I felt like I was the only person to ever see. If there aren't houses where those forests used to be, there will likely be the charred remains of a forest fire, or a road giving access to some development where bulldozers have no business.

And love sucks... Nobody loves anybody anymore. Marriage isn't about love, it's about benefits. Sex isn't about love it's about fulfillment and personal satisfaction. Loving your neighbor is just an excuse for a charitable donation deduction.

I am so happy to have a child on the way. I pray the pregnancy goes well, I pray the child is born whole and healthy. I worry about what kind of world I'll bring my child in to. I've had 32 years to try to make it a better place... I've done a piss poor job.

I am speechless...

I don't even know what I can say about this...

Apparently no legal/constitutional argument too absurd or far fetched for Dick Cheney.

Wow... All I can say is Wow...

Scalia wont convict Jack Bauer.

Man... I have no words for this right now. I thought a bunch of law students sitting around arguing about comic books was geeky but this is SOOO much better.

I would love to sit in on a pissing contest between the brightest minds in law disputing the morality of Jack Bauer.

Priceless....