| Judges do have a sense of humor |
[Jun. 5th, 2009|09:01 am] |
You'd be surprised at how many of the opinions I read in my casebooks make me laugh. A lot of judges don't mind sprucing up their opinions with a little humor when the occasion demands. There was, for example, a case about whether a fish bone in a stew made it not meet a warranty of merchantability in which the judge went into great depth about the history of fish stew. Another one that every law student reads, usually a couple of times, starts out, "W thought that we would never see / A suit to compensate a tree."
Here's a one-liner that made me laugh this morning ". . .we doubt that even so eminent a composer as plaintiff Irving Berlin should be permitted to claim a property interest in iambic pentameter." Irving Berlin v. E.C. Publications, Inc., 329 F.2d 541 (2d Cir. 1964)(Berlin sued Mad Magazine, claiming parody was not fair use). |
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| Just a quick thought about the Gunther book |
[May. 14th, 2009|09:13 pm] |
I don't get the whole thing about LVX no longer opening the vault of the adepts, but now only opening the palace at the foot of Mount Abeignus or whatever. And now NOX is the formula that opens the Vault and the Mountain is in the City of the Pyramids or more whatever. I guess maybe more exalted initiation will show me the error of my ways, but. . .
It seems to me much more simple than all this:
The Mount of Abeignus still contains the Vault of the Adepts in Tiphareth, and LVX is the formula that opens it and is the formula that crowns the Outer College. In order to be admitted to the mysteries of NOX, on must pass through the Vault, in other words, be an adept. NOX is, then, the formula that admits to the the City of Pyramids and is the formula that crowns the Inner College.
No need to move mountains or disturb the layout of the system or anything. I know, I'm old fashioned. |
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| Update! |
[May. 14th, 2009|04:49 pm] |
I am just now home from my very last test of my first year of law school.
Break? Don't be ridiculous. I start summer classes on Monday. |
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| Thanks! |
[Apr. 2nd, 2009|08:02 pm] |
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Just wanted to say thanks for all my birthday well-wishers. Enheduanna made sure I had a good day. |
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| An Open Letter to the Dallas Sports Media |
[Mar. 18th, 2009|11:23 am] |
You know, I hate the Dallas sports media. I’ve never seen such a bunch of muck-racking gossip mavens. First you drove my boy Terrell Owens out of town. TO, of course, had a checkered history with other teams, so you local yentas were already sharpening your pencils before TO even had his helmet on. He never got a break. It didn’t matter what he said or did, he was consistently portrayed as a malcontent. If TO expressed the slightest breath of an opinion, you twisted what he said, and blew it out of proportion. Then you had the nerve to call for his being fired as a divisive influence and a “distraction” when it was YOUR hype, not TO’s comment, that created the distraction.
Now that you’ve managed to drive one of the league’s legendary receivers off to the Bills, you can turn your full attention to Tony Romo. The burning question was phrased on a local sports talk station this way: Should Tony Romo be dating a celebrity, or is she a “distraction?”
What is this, The View?
First of all, the guy is an NFL quarterback -- he is a celebrity, too, dummies. It makes no sense to tell a celebrity that he should not date another celebrity. So is the guy supposed to date Ugly Betty, so he’s not distracted by having a good looking girl? Really? Or should he just take a vow of celibacy until he retires from football? Would that make you yentas happy? How come nobody’s crying about Tom Brady marrying Giselle Bundchen?
Oh, yeah, because he’s winning. That, of course, is the real key. It’s not about Jessica Simpson, or TO saying he wanted more passes, or any of the other drama – some real, but mostly manufactured – that you guys insist on focusing on. It’s about a porous offensive line with a penchant for taking damaging late-game penalties, and a group of receivers who don't seem to know what routs they're supposed to be running. It’s about Jason Garrett, once lionized by you clowns as the greatest offensive coordinator in the game, being absolutely bankrupt of ideas and getting outmaneuvered game after game. It’s about a quarterback who was out for nearly six weeks with a broken hand having to play late season catch-up and simply never finding his rhythm. It’s about a defense tough in the red zone, but often weak at mid-field, and an anemic special teams disappointingly focused on an under-achieving and incorrigible PacMan Jones.
Clearly, the Cowboys have trouble with sustained effort into December, and Romo has been not been a good leader for team that is clearly looking for a uniting force. All of these are real problems. But who Romo is dating is not a real problem, and I sure wish you pansies would either go work for US magazine, or shake yourselves and talk about football. |
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| Yoga Update |
[Mar. 17th, 2009|12:48 pm] |
I have continued to go to Kundalini Yoga classes. I've even started getting up to make it through a practice before work. The last couple of classes have been more enjoyable than some of the previous ones. This seems to be a consequence of the absence of newbies in the class. (I mean I'm still a newbie, I guess, but I at least have previous experience with hatha. Some of the people showing up had literally never been to a yoga class before).
For the last few weeks, it has just been students who already have an idea of the flow of the class and familiarity with the basic warm-ups, and the teacher has picked up the pace of the classes. He's also started adding some short "higher chakra" kriyas to the end of the regular sets. I've also noticed that the song doesn't really seem weird to me anymore. That is the most persuasive evidence I have that I'm settling into the class. |
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| Ong Namo, Guru Dev Namo |
[Feb. 6th, 2009|11:53 pm] |
So, in an effort to obtain temporary relief from the stress of my first memo assignment of the semester, I've started taking Kundalini Yoga classes. There's only one class a week, but it's all I have time for anyway. I have some mixed feelings about the system.
On the one hand, in some ways, it seems much more "authentic" than the sort of health club hatha that you get in most places. The attention to the subtle body, the practice of mantra and mudra, and the application of pranayama and bhanda has been pretty impressive. I've picked up a ton of techniques just in a few weeks.
On the down-side is the constant litany of dubious medical benefits of the various postures and practices. It really sorta breaks my concentration when I hear "This posture circulates oxygen in the cerebro-spinal fluid, and where there is oxygen, a virus can't survive," or, "Taking a cold shower in the morning closes the pores which keeps illness from penetrating the skin." Trying to reduce the various practices to simple glandular stimulation and grasping for "scientific" rationalizations for esoteric doctrine is really kind of embarrassing to anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of biology. It also has a tendency to get a little hippy-dippy for my taste. I could really do without the Long-time Sunshine sing-a-long at the end of every class, for example.
I do like the instructor, though. He has a real passion for the teachings of Yogi Bhajan. The meditation he led us in tonight, he proudly informed us, he learned from the very lips of Yogi Bhajan, himself. I guess I resonate with that because I know what it is to care that deeply about a spiritual figure. That guy just loves Yogi Bhajan in the way that I just love Aleister Crowley. I know how gratified I feel whenever anyone expresses an interest in Crowley, and I have an opportunity to share something he said that has mattered to me. And I suppose I enjoy seeing others have an opportunity to share what is valuable to them.
I also find that I've already gotten to really look forward to the class. It really helps set me straight at the end of the week and allow me to get refreshed for a "once more into the breach." |
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| My Grades |
[Jan. 14th, 2009|01:12 pm] |
They're all in:
Torts A
Civil Procedure A-
Legal Writing B+
Property B+
Contracts B+
GPA is a 3.5 and some change. |
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| Time & Money |
[Jan. 7th, 2009|11:56 pm] |
Dammit, I found a kung fu school I feel really good about, but I just flat out can't afford the $100 per month fee. Compared with other schools in the area, that's pretty steep, but it's the only school teaching Choy Li Fut. The other schools I found that are convenient to me (and that includes other disciplines, such as Aikido, Wushu style kung fu, Northern Shaolin Long Fist, Tae Kwon Do, Krav Maga, etc., only charge between $60 and $80, but, well, none of that is what I want to study.
There is a teacher at a local rec center that teaches 7 Star Praying Mantis (which is cool), but I think that's just an add on to a Wing Chun course of instruction, which also doesn't interest me.
I've also been reflecting on my involvement in Freemasonry. The simple fact is that I am getting pretty much nothing out of it. It is really just another source of stress and aggravation in my life. I knew when I joined up I was going to be hanging out with a bunch of old white guys, which I was okay with because I'll be one mesself someday, but well, I'm pretty over it. All they talk about is how Obama's a communist and argue over whether Grand Lodge has a rule about this-that-or-the-other-thing or over who invested the Lodge's money where or whether the hot dogs we grilled are sufficiently done and how we need to raise money but nobody knows how. I don't believe in Jesus and the RNC, and since we can't seem to hold a conversation on Masonry if it doesn't involve a rule book, a scandal, or a committee meeting, my lack of interest has become over-whelming. I plan on serving out my year at my present officer position so as not to leave the Worshipful Master in the lurch, but only in spirit, I think tomorrow's stated meeting might be my last.
I start my second semester of law school on Monday, and I still don't have all my grades from my first semester. In fact, I only have my Legal Writing grade -- which was a B+. Not great. It would have been at least an A-, based on my papers, but I didn't perform very well on the final, only getting an 81%, that fucked me. That's ok, I'll get an A this semester.
I just try to keep my priorities in mind:
1) Law school
2) OTO
3) AA
4) Other stuff including food, exercise, sleep, peace of mind, music, etc.
Of course my cat and my girlfriend are also a priority, but they move higher and lower in this basic, fixed structure. Sometimes, they dethrone #1, sometimes, they get shunted for #'s 3 or 4. In a perfect world, AA should be above OTO, but a Body Master has got to put his Body before himself. I've been a miserable disappointment in AA, but I think I've had a few moments of brilliance. I can at least advise Probationers competently. My introducing Neophyte had me reassigned last year -- I don't know whether he quit or was just annoyed with me or what, but I've probably done better work under his replacement anyway. Still, that one hurt.
All I can do is keep re-inventorying my life, trying cut out the extraneous and nurture the fundamental. Sometimes I do it well, sometimes I do it poorly, but I do keep trying. |
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| Tai Chi |
[Nov. 18th, 2008|09:01 pm] |
When I was at Ad Astra Oasis, Fr. Vovin taught me a five minute tai chi form. I wish I had video of my doing it because the comparison of my lumbering awkwardness to the liquid beauty of this practitioner would make it all the more impressive:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFZUIgaxlsI
The power in that woman's legs is unbelievable. |
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| Massah's got me workin' |
[Oct. 17th, 2008|12:28 am] |
Sometimes I forget that those not in Dallas might wonder what the hell I'm up to. If you're not reading my law school blog. . . well, that's your good karma.
The short version is that law school is really just trade school. It's no different than going to automotive repair at the junior college, except I'm working on my brain instead of a small block (and of course, I get to call myself a "Doctor of Jurisprudence" when I'm done). There are already people in my class who have imploded and dropped out, and we're only halfway through the first semester.
My only concern is whether or not they get included in the class ranking -- I hope so. But word starts to spread. On the train today, one person gossiped that the person who had sat next to her had confided that, "I don't know if I'm really ready for all this," and that person never came back to class. One of the 15 people in my legal writing class didn't turn in his first memo, and we haven't seen him since. A girl who flunked out a year ago and got a second chance is "relying on the notes" she took the last time she failed, according to another report that ended with the observation, "Yeah, but aren't those the notes you took when you failed?"
I fucked up big time on my first writing assignment, but I also know that other people probably fucked up just as badly, but maybe on other issues, so we'll see how the grade distribution goes. I'm stressed, and my brain is pushed to the breaking point, but I love it. This, to me, is Thelema. The weak will fall and fail, the strong will carry on and grow stronger. I'm part of a system that doesn't give a shit about me, but if I perservere, the rewards are great. It's frightening and it's beautiful and it's just the way life is.
I passed by UTD this morning on my drive to the train station and reflected upon the fact that several professors there had pulled me aside to urge me to apply for the graduate program in literature. I was glad to find that I know that I made the right choice in choosing law school, instead. I have simply never been challenged in the way that I am challenged now. |
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| HGA Day |
[Oct. 2nd, 2008|10:56 pm] |
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I noted that today was the Feast Day for the Holy Guardian Angel in the Roman Communion. |
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| I'm still alive |
[Aug. 21st, 2008|06:06 am] |
Today is the last day of my first week of law school. The concepts are not really so complicated, but then, it's one thing to understand the American Capture Rule in August, it's another thing to remember it in December.
This early on, the real challenge is just time management. Almost every waking moment is filled. It doesn't help that I have to take four hours of public transportation every day. I can read on the train, but writing's pretty difficult, and once I get to the light rail and bus portions of the trip, forget it.
I know just one thing. Falling behind would be really, really bad. So, if you're wondering where I am, I'm hunched over Civil Procedure. |
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| O Happy Days |
[Jul. 17th, 2008|01:17 pm] |
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Not only did I get my copy of the new edition of Outside the Circles of Time in the mail this week, but one of the doctors I work for gave me a copy of the latest Death in June cd today! |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 25th, 2008|03:01 pm] |
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I've been too busy to post lately, but I'm looking back over a good month of work. Within the last 30 days, I've presided over Minerval, First, and Second Degree initiations, mailed off all reports for the same, celebrated Mass as Priest and again as Deacon, was raised as a Master Mason, appointed as Junior Steward of my Lodge, served as Master of Ceremonies for an Entered Apprentice degree, completed financial aid for Law School (while simultaneously helping a Brother with his Entered Apprentice memorization work over the phone), memorized Liber Israfel and my Master Mason memory work, had several out of body experiences and lucid dreams, & saw Thrill Kill Kult and the new Indiana Jones flick. |
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| Howard Stern |
[Jun. 24th, 2008|11:07 am] |
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Dude, Joan Rivers was on Howard this morning and said that she called Sallie Glassman, "a friend of mine in New Orleans" when she thought she was being haunted. |
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