On the value of junk

Becca and I have spent much of the week at her parents house because all of her siblings are home at the moment. With everyone together, they decided it was a good opportunity to clean out the garage. It had a lot of boxes full of stuff that was potentially valuable or memorable to someone, so they all had to be there before they could throw anything out.

I have helped a little bit, but I had just a support role; I was mostly on Lindsay duty. I got to thinking about all the junk that everyone has in their house. I'm not really the sentimental sort, so I tend to espouse a "Less is more" philosophy when it comes to junk. But I think there is some real value in having memories and mementos of old times and friends. Of course, I would rather that they be smaller rather than larger. And some things are best recorded in a photograph. Becca took pictures of some things before she thew them out or gave them away. But some things really should be saved.

I also got to thinking about miscellaneous stuff that people keep because it might be useful one day. If you've ever seen those shows on cable like Clean House or Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, you know that some people take this philosphy to the extreme. But it is handy to have a place for miscelaneous stuff. I've known some extreme neat freaks that still had a junk bin or junk drawer for all the undefined odds and ends that you collect up. I have a couple small drawers full of miscellaneous things, and every once in a while I need something random (like a clothes pin or a SD card reader) and I can just pull it out of the drawer. The goal, of course, is to make sure that the drawer doesn't expand and take over the whole desk, and the desk the whole room, and the room the whole house. Right now my junk drawer has taken over my desk, but it will have to stay that way until after the bar exam. I guess finding the balance between order and entropy is the key.

Photo credit: striatic.

Fast mapping

Since we’ve seen a lot of new people and done a lot of new things in the past few weeks, Lindsay’s vocabulary has virtually exploded. She says a couple new words a day, and I can’t keep up with all the new words that she knows. Her recall is good too. She learned the word “boat” last night in the bathtub while playing with her toy boats, and this morning she saw a picture of Noah’s Ark and correctly identified it as a boat. The little tub toys really didn’t look much like the illustrated ark, but she understood what a boat did — it floats, and sometimes people or things go in the boat. I thought that was actually pretty perceptive.

I’m also interested to see what names she uses for things or animals she doesn’t already know. This morning she was watching an animal video, and she thought for a moment and then made a guess at some of the exotic animals. She called the otters “kitties,” which makes some sense because of their whiskers. She called a water buffalo a cow. More interestingly, she called a lizard a turtle. I thought this was interesting because the shape of the lizard is really quite different from a turtle, but she already identifies that the lizard and the turtle are related. I’m not sure she quite understands the concept of reptile, but she’s on her way.

Language is such a fluid thing, so I’m continually entertained and impressed with how fast she picks up the words. Her retention is really improving. Speech and language are part of what sets humans apart from the rest of the animal world. The ability to learn and immediately retain words is sometimes known as “fast mapping,” and it’s fun to see it in action with Lindsay. I recently learned of and read an article in Science Magazine about a few dogs who have been found to have this same fast mapping ability. Of the hundreds of dogs they have examined, scientists have only found two dogs with this ability. Both are border collies, a breed which has been bred over hundreds of years to understand and obey a variety of words and signals as part of their animal herding duties. So while only the most intelligent and carefully bred dogs have this ability, any old two-year-old can fast map thousands of words. People are very clever animals, and our little animal is fun to watch. If anyone else likes nerdy stuff like this, the Science article is here and the radio article where I first heard about it is here.

Away message

*BEEP*

I'm sorry, I can't come to the blog right now. I'm busy at a family reunion. Once I'm done hiking, climbing, and offending my in-laws, I'll post another blog post.

*BEEP*

Daddy day

This year was the first year I head a real Father's Day. Last year I was technically a father, but Lindsay was basically just a noisy little lump. She couldn't talk, play, or laugh. This year I felt much more like a real dad, and we did some great real dad things. Becca got me some grilling utensils, which I have wanted ever since I got my grill. I got a grilling spatula, tongs, fork, and grill scrubber. Of course, we had to try them out, so we had shish kebabs for dinner. Marinated beef, fresh zucchini, new potatoes, chunk pinapple, and marinated artichoke hearts--delicious!

Speaking of grilling, here's a picture of the grill I got last month. It was the last thing I ordered with my points from Westlaw. It's the perfect size for a small family like ours. I can't really leave a grill outside, so I can just take this one inside when I'm done grilling. It's also portable, so we're planning on taking advantage of that later on. Little charcoal grills are really cheap, but it's so handy to have a gas grill. I know charcoal makes it taste better, but it's hard to be the convenience of a gas grill. Instant, even heat, with very little mess to clean up. Now that I have all the equipment for grilling, we'll definitely be doing it more often. It was a good Father's Day for me.

Excuses, excuses

Whenever someone says something happened or didn't happen "due to unforeseen circumstances," it is almost invariably a lie. The circumstances surrounding the error or omission were almost always foreseeable, usually long before the deadline. The "unforeseen circumstances" is just a cover, a verbal shield to obscure the fact that someone (often the speaker) screwed up.

Case in point: the grades for my last semester of law school are past due, but we still haven't received them. By my memory, this is the third time grades have been late in the last two years. I got an email today from the registrar telling everyone that grades would be late. We all knew this, of course, because they were due to be released two days ago. The registrar cited "unforeseen circumstances" for the delay. This is, of course, utter nonsense. Not only were the circumstances foreseeable, they were almost probable. Certain professors are notorious in their failure to comply with a deadline. In fact, if you asked the students, they would probably give you a list of the professors who were most likely to deliver grades late, and that list would probably be fairly accurate.

Additionally, the registrar's office has never been known for its superb organization or punctuality. There was a spat a year ago when the then-registrar failed to end a exam on time. This can be a big deal, since most law school essay exams are structured so that you have less time than you want to write. An extra ten minutes can make a significant difference. The registrar's office also has a long history of schedule conflicts, registration errors, and various other administrative goofs. Given the serial tardiness of some professors and the track record of the registrar, it was almost inevitable that the grades would be released late. That whole "unforeseen circumstances" bit is bollocks.

What I'd really like to see is an up-front admission of responsibility, followed by specific identification of the offending parties. Something like, "We didn't really get around to telling you this until after the deadline because we're disorganized, but we though you should know that Professors Doe,Wossname, and Fulano turned in grades late. For your convenience, their email addresses, office numbers, and home addresses have been attached below."

Eye doctor

I got my yearly eye exam yesterday. I've needed corrective lenses since I was about 10 years old, so this has been an annual ritual for most of my life. Eye exams have changed a lot since I first got glasses. They seem to be faster now. That may be attributable to my perceptions of how long they took when I was 10 (I have never been a particularly patient person), but more likely, I think this is an actual change that results from better equipment. The machines get pretty close to my prescription, and then the doctor and I get to play the "which is better" game. That's always a fun part of the exam. My eyes may be in between prescriptions, because I'm never sure which lens works better. As a consequence, over the last ten years or so, I've bounced back and forth between prescription levels. Last time I went to the eye doctor he said that I was a good candidate for laser surgery because my eyes aren't changing. I like the idea of not having to wear corrective lenses, but until I get good insurance, it's not gonna happen.

Even though I've been to the eye doctor many dozens of times, I had a new experience yesterday. Since I'm nearsighted, he wanted to dilate my eyes so he could check to make sure there was no strain or tearing of the retina. He said I wouldn't be able to focus on something close up without taking off my glasses, and that I would be very sensitive to light, but that those effects would fade in an hour or two. I didn't need to do any reading that day, so I had him do it. He put a drop of solution in each eye. I assume that it contained some sort of muscle relaxant, because after 15 minutes my pupils were HUGE. Seriously, you could hardly see the iris at all. It was kinda creepy-looking. It reminded me of the pot-head kid that sat next to me in middle school. His pupils were almost always dilated, among other symptoms. :-)

My eyes checked out fine -- no tearing or worry signs -- so the doc sent me home with a prescription and a pair of "solar shield" sunglasses. (Think old man sunglasses and you'll know what they looked like.) Becca was outside playing with Lindsay when I came home, and she burst into laughter as soon as she saw me in my slick shades. They weren't exactly what you would call fashionable. In fact, I kinda felt like an old man, because I had to peer over my glasses to see anything up close. I felt like I needed bifocals. I closed all the blinds in the house because everything was so bright to me. I couldn't really do anything like write, cook, or type, so I ended up just watching TV for part of the afternoon. I have this week off, so it worked out okay. But the doc apparently underestimated how long the drops would last; it was almost 4 hours before I stopped needing sunglasses. I'll keep that in mind next time the eye doctor wants to dilate my eyes; it wouldn't do for me to walk into a job interview or conference later that day, looking like I just dropped acid.
Photo credit: deqalb.

Darwin Award nominees

We've had family unexpectedly come into town, and have been extremely busy dealing with them. So no blogging lately. Here's a quick update, and a little humor.

Last Friday I turned in my seminar paper. It wasn't good, but it was done, and it's enough to graduate. Let's hope that the professor doesn't read it. (I don't think he will. I think he'll scan it, so I made sure that the headings looked good.) Yesterday I cleared out my locker and study carrell, the latter of which had over 20 pounds of paper in it. Most of it I threw out, although some of it is for ongoing research for a pro bono project, so I had to hold onto it. More junk on my computer desk at home.

Yesterday I also finished up a some paperwork and miscellaneous tasks for a few clubs. So I'm officially done with all of my student duties. Not that I won't be back -- I'm actually hoping to come back to school and help out with an career exploration program we started last year. But I'm basically done being a student.

Even though it's sort of lame and uncool, I still host this blog through Blogger. I still hate some things about it, but it works nicely with some of the other Google-owned services. They just updated Google Docs to allow embedding of presentations, so I thought I'd try it out and post a funny little presentation I found a few years ago. This is what you would call lazy blogging, but hey, at least I'm posting.

I have a brief story to accompany that little slide show. As most of you know, I used to live in Venezuela. One evening I was walking from a bus stop to a friend's house, and I saw some guys on the side of the road doing some repair work on a bus.¹ They had removed the gas tank, and were carrying it over to a work bench. The tank was open on the top and I could hear that there was still some gasoline in it sloshing around. That's when I realized that one of the guys was smoking.

I was still shaking my head at their stupidity when I heard a voice above me call out for some more wire. I looked up to see a guy who had climbed an electrical pole and was hooking up his house to the electric wires himself.² He was barefoot, wearing nothing but jean shorts, and he was trying to be careful not to cross wires or touch the big cables, which weren't insulated at all. I decided to walk a little faster; I didn't want to be near the bus or the electrical pole if something went drastically wrong. Things like that are part of why women in Venezuela live more than 6 years more than men, on average.
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¹ This was actually a pretty common sight. Most public transportation in Venezuela at the time was privately owned and only loosely regulated, if it was regulated at all. Most buses always needed some work, so the bus drivers or owners would work on them in the evenings when the temperatures dropped. The cigarette/gas tank combo was not a frequent sight, thankfully, although stuff like that happened all the time.
² The vast majority of people in Venezuela steal electricity. They just run wires up to the electric poles and tap in. It's especially common in slums, where nothing is regulated, but you see it more organized parts of the city too. I would hope that most people wear rubber gloves when the do it, however. Or at least shoes.

After finals

I don't know how most couples split the domestic tasks, but we're pretty even about doing things. We both sweep, vaccuum, mop, etc. The single exception to this rule, however, is dishes. Neither of us like to do them, but Becca hates them more than I do. So the dishes are basically my job.

This last week has been a rough one. I had caught up with the dishes on Sunday, but I had a final on Monday morning and I had to turn in my seminar paper by midnight on Friday. I was at the law school library almost every waking moment from Monday afternoon until Friday evening, usually from 7 am to midnight. In the meantime, we had company over for dinner and the Babe continued to make her usual messes. So this is what I woke up to this morning:

It actually got a little worse after that. We actually used every single plate, bowl, spoon, and fork that we own. We had to have finger food for lunch. :-) I've done my duty now -- we still have some dirty dishes in the sink, but we at least have things to eat on.

Thanks to Becca for coping this week. It's been just as hard on her as it was on me. But it's over now. We'll still have a very busy week next week, with company and graduation and all, but at least I'll see my family for more than half an hour each day.

Bicycle

I may have mentioned it once or twice before, but I haven't yet written much about my experience riding a bicycle to school over the past six months. When we moved to our current apartment last summer, I was looking forward to being so close to school. It's only a few miles, so I decided to buy a bicycle and bike to school as often as possible.

The last several months have been an interesting two-wheeled odyssey for me, so I thought I'd share a few thoughts and comments about bike commuting in a city.

• Work. I immediately discovered that I don't have strong bicycling legs. I have one major hill I must go up and down every day on my way to school, and I almost didn't make it up the hill on my first day of biking. Thankfully, it's a more gradual ascent on the way home, but it can still be brutal in the mornings. Especially if I've already gone running or worked out that morning. You don't have to think about the physical side of transportation when you just jump in the car and drive. I've gotten much stronger over the past few months so now it isn't as big of a deal, but it still leaves me huffing and puffing some mornings.
  
• Pain. After the second day of biking to and from school, I was actually quite uncomfortable. To put it delicately, I didn't want to sit down. Some bike seats are better than others, but mine was fairly solid and I ended up with a bruised backside. Fortunately, just like my legs, my bum toughened up after a few weeks. Now I don't really have a problem. But it goes away quickly. My first time biking to school after a long Christmas break resulted in another few days of bruising.
• Dogs. When they see a person bicycling down the road, something goes off in a dog's brain. It's like the canis lupis part of the dog takes control, and the dog can't resist chasing you down. And compared to the other vehicles on the road, a bicyclist is the slower, aged member of the herd that will be easy prey.
  
• Route. The route I take is carefully planned out to avoid traffic, busy streets, and narrow roads. I'm fortunate in that I have a bike lane that goes through much of my neighborhood. When I get to the larger roads, I sometimes switch to the sidewalk. I know bikes really are supposed to be on the road, but it beats the alternative.
• Uncoolness. Motorcycles are cool. Bicycles are not. People in America like their cars. They always seem confused when they have to share the road with a bicycle. They may like Lance Armstrong, but they secretly think bike helmets look foolish. And the reflective bands I wear when it's dark take uncoolness to a whole new level. There is a certain appeal of riding a long under my own power, but in general, I am nerdiness on wheels.
  
• Maintenance. I have spent a lot of time trying to keep my bike in working condition. It's not an expensive bike, but it has had a lot of mechanical problems in its short ownership period. I've had my brakes fail, I have had two flat tires, and I've had parts of the bike fall off while I was riding it. When I first got the bike I bought a set of fenders to put on it so I could ride it on wet days without getting a skunk stripe of mud and water up my back. The fenders proved to be extremely problematic. They required constant adjusting and I was never able to install them properly on my bike. I eventually removed them when I went over a curb one day and several of the nuts holding the fenders in place flew off simultaneously and were lost in a busy intersection.
  
• Storage. I don't have a good place to lock up my bike. The only place I can lock it up is right on a busy street corner, which is just asking for it to be stolen. So I have to store it inside our apartment, which isn't exactly spacious. My daughter thinks it's a great toy and she likes to play with the gears, getting her fingers grubby in the process.
• Cost. I'm not sure how much I'm saving by bicycling to school. I still have to pay car insurance because I still use it occasionally. My commute isn't that long, so I'm not saving a ton on gas. It does make a difference, but I don't know if it makes up for the cost of buying and maintaining the bike. If I used it over a longer period of time, it would definitely pay off in the long run. But for the past 7 months, I don't know how much I've saved, if any at all.
• Weather. I have to pay attention to the weather report in the morning when I got to school. If it's going to thunderstorm, it's not a good day to take the bike. It's also pretty chilly riding to school on some mornings. I had to bundle up in the winter, although I ended up unzipping my coat by the time I got to the top of the hill because I was overheating at that point. The most important part of my biking gear in the winter were my gloves -- we picked up a cheap pair of leather gloves that were perfect for biking, since they are windproof. Biking without gloves in the winter can be painfully cold.
  
• Satisfaction. Despite the problems with maintenance, storage, dogs, and crazy drivers, I like riding a bike. Even though it's nerdy, I think there's something attractive about moving yourself around on your own. You can really move quickly on a bicycle; my commute is only 5 minutes slower on a bicycle than in the car. (Those extra 5 minutes are probably due to the hill.) I like getting some exercise in my day, and I like that I'm avoiding road congestion and pollution.

My bike-riding days may be over for a while. Yesterday I got my second flat tire on the way home from school. I only have a few more days left at school, after which I will be taking bar classes and working downtown. I probably won't be able to bike to those places. Still, it's been an interesting experience, and given the opportunity, I might try to ride a bicycle to work.
Photo credit: Salim Virji

Writing a paper

My exams are over, but I still have 35 pages to write in my seminar paper. And it hasn't gone very well so far, although I've already done a lot this morning. Still, it's slow going. I'll probably be working on it up until the deadline for electronic submission on Friday at midnight.

Everyone around the law school (myself included) is getting a little more haggard and more stressed out. Today I was eating breakfast and listening to some other students as they got ready to go into a morning exam. One of them said she still had to finish a seminar paper. The other one asked what the topic was, and she grimaced and said it was boring stuff. He asked what her thesis was, and she said something about venture capitalism and Sarbanes-Oxley and regulation. At then end of that recitation, the other student (who didn't seem like he understood a word of what she said) smiled and cheerfully added ". . . And World Peace!"

I think that's the best use of a Miss Congeniality quote I've ever heard.

Lazy bloggin

Tomorrow represents the first day of a two-week period in which I will be working my brains out. Having met my research deadline, I must now turn my signs on my final finals, for which I have done almost no preparing. So blogging will be brief around here. Expect more lazy posts, like links to articles or funny stuff. I actually have a few pre-written posts I'll be publishing too. (You know you're a blogging nerd when you anticipate busy periods. Pathetic, really.) But you won't see too many lengthy, expository essays in the next two weeks. Not that you would read anything like that anyway.

Last class. Ever.

At the moment this post is published, I will be walking out of my last class in law school. And since I'd have to be crazy or want an LLM (is there a difference?) to go back to school after finishing law school, that makes this my last class ever. Oh, sure, I'll have to do CLE's (continuing legal education) for my entire career, since it's required to keep your law license. And I'll do some classes to study for the bar this summer. But this marks the end of my being a student.

I have mixed emotions about ending my class-going days. For starters, I think it's a shame that my last class had to be federal taxation. What an awful note to end on! I also generally like classes, because I like learning. If I become inexplicably and inexcusably wealthy during my career, I might like to finish my career teaching. So maybe I'll end up in the class room again, if under different circumstances.

I'll be a lot happier when I've finished my last final. Now there's something I won't miss about being a student.

Unpredictable Spring

In the last week the weather report has predicted gloom and rain almost every day. I don't like it when it rains because it means that I have to take my car to school instead of riding my bike. Perhaps, if I was a hard-core bicyclist, I would ride my bike in the rain. But in reality, it would be wet, muddy, and dangerous. There are even a few spots along my route that flood in heavy rain. I don't know if I could successfully navigate those low spots in a bicycle. So I ended up driving to school almost every day. But despite the meteorologists' dire predictions, this week has been beautiful. We spent quite a bit of time outside, playing in the yard and going to parks with the Babe. We've enjoyed it quite a bit, but I still feel foolish carrying an umbrella to school every day when the weather turns out sunny and warm. It's kind of perverse to complain about nice weather, but it would be nice if I had an idea of what to expect.

Well, this morning the weatherman made up for his previous errors. They predicted rain, and rain is what we got. Lots of rain. And thunderstorms. And hail in some areas. In fact, they broke into the last half of The Office last night to warn about a potential funnel cloud, so we never got to see the last part of the episode. This morning when I left for school it was raining so hard that there was standing water in the yard, and I was soaked before I even got to the car. But by golly, at least I knew I was going to get wet.

The most dangerous thing

Americans, on a whole, are a rather paranoid bunch. At least, that is the case if the television is to be believed.* Marketing campaigns and advertisements warn of the dangers of a multiplicity of ills, dangers, diseases, syndromes, and phenomenons. But if you think about it, the most dangerous thing you do is get in your car and drive somewhere. Sharing the road with your fellow drivers is by far more dangerous than terrorist attacks, serial murderers, global warming, or any other thing people usually afraid of. When you are on the road, you are only as safe as the skill level of the drivers around you. And I think you'll agree with me that it isn't a very comforting thought.

Case in point: last Saturday I was giving some friends a ride somewhere, and we took the I-440 beltloop. We came up over a rise, and had to hit our breaks hard because traffic was stopped. The left-hand lane was closed ahead for construction, and traffic was backed up in the right-hand lane. To make matters worse, the left-hand lane was blocked by an accident. It was clear that someone had come over the rise in the road and not stopped in time. No one seemed to be hurt, but it had just happened and the drivers were just getting out of their cars to look at the damage. The accident happened right by an exit, and most of the traffic was getting off the exit in the far-right exit lane.

As I sat there in the line of traffic, looking to see if the people in the accident were okay, I noticed that the red car in my rear view mirror was approaching very fast in the left-hand. In fact, the driver apparently hadn't even seen the stopped traffic or the accident, because the car wasn't even slowing down yet. Then I saw it hit the breaks, but it was too late. With the accident in the left-hand lane and steady traffic in the exit lane, I realized that the car had no where to turn. My lane was moving forward, but very slowly. I didn't like the idea of getting hit from behind, so I hit the gas and pulled off almost onto the grass by the exit. The car came to a skidding halt right where my car had been, narrowly missing both me and the accident. A somewhat shell-shocked looking girl in her 20's sat in the driver's seat with her hands tightly gripping the steering wheel.

Since I was practically off the road at that point, I cut across and took the exit. I didn't feel like sitting a place where one accident had already happened and a second had nearly occurred. We took back roads the rest of the way.

Photo credit: Ben McLeod
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* I used to watch the Garfield and Friends cartoon show on Saturday mornings when I was growing up. The TV show was usually funnier than the actual comic strip in the newspapers, and featured some very salient social satire. One of my favorite segments was a mock television show Garfield hosted called If They Say It on Television, It Must Be True. Garfield would then give a few fun facts and explanations. Some of the facts I remember are, "There is no state of Wyoming; the word means 'no state here'," and "All fire hydrants are prefabricated and filled with water in Walla Walla, Washington, and then bolted to the city streets."

Jog for Justice

A couple weeks ago I happened to notice one of the hundreds of flyers posted around the law school. It advertised a 5K run/walk event on an upcoming Saturday morning. I checked my schedule and found that we would be in town that weekend. I immediately emailed the race organizers and signed up for the "Jog for Justice." It seemed like an apt name for a running event jointly sponsored by law school organizations. It even had a cutsey little logo with Lady Justice running along blindly, carrying aloft the scales of justice like the Olympic torch. I actually like the logo, but I don't think a blindfolded woman should be jogging anywhere other than a treadmill. That's just asking for trouble.

Race day was gloomy and chilly, but I wore warm-ups and gloves before the race, so I was pretty comfortable. The race brought out a wide variety of participants -- some walked, some jogged, and some ran. The race proceeds went to training for Guatemalan medical professionals on how to deal with victims of sexual abuse, so some of the participants were dressed up in costumes or carried banners with anti-sex abuse slogans. But for the most part, people were just dressed up to go on a little run.

I was a little nervous about this race, because it is my first race in 9 years. I've had some reoccurring hamstring problems that have prevented me from running competitively, so I usually take it pretty easy when I run. But I wanted to actually treat this like a race. I wanted to find an in-between pace that wouldn't aggravate my injuries, but would still let me feel like I was racing.

As it turns out, I needn't have worried. I just ran as fast as I felt I could, and slowed down a little bit when I needed to back it off. So my pace wasn't as even as I would have liked, but that doesn't really matter. Since this was just a benefit race, there were no really serious runners that were actually competing. Everyone was there for fun.

I went out with the top three runners, and stuck with them for the first mile. It was pretty clear to me that they were in very good shape, because they were keeping a pace a little beyond what I could do for three miles, but they were talking and laughing the whole time. I, on the other hand, was huffing and puffing. After the first mile I dropped my pace and let them slowly pull ahead. I ran the rest of the race essentially by myself, because the rest of the pack was quite a ways behind me. So I ended up finishing fourth, with a time just under 22 minutes. My time was slower than any 5K race I ever ran in high school, and almost most five minutes slower than my best time. I guess it's a little embarrassing that I ran faster when I was 14, but I was in much better shape then. Besides, I had a good time at the race. I even ended up winning a door prize (a free sundae from Ben & Jerry's).

I don't think I'll wait another 9 years to run in another race. This one was fun. In fact, I'd like to do the Music City Half-Marathon next spring. I'll be going a lot slower in that one, though. I was pretty sore the next day after the Jog for Justice; it would be pure foolishness to try to do that for over 13 miles.

My warranty odyssey

In February I sent my laptop in to be serviced. The hard drive was failing, and the LCD screen backlight was turning off at random. When I bought the laptop in 2005 I got a 3-year warranty to go with it. The warranty was expensive, but I didn't want to have to worry about technical problems during school. The company that does the work under my warranty is called CyberTest, and I had some good experiences with them in the past. This time, however, was different.

I got the laptop back at the end of February, but they hadn't fixed the backlight problem. I wasn't too worried at the time because my spring break was about to start, which would give me time to have it sent in and serviced with minimal interruption to work and school. However, it took CyberTest nearly two weeks to send me the prepaid UPS box, and by that point spring break was long since over. I sent it in nonetheless, and the company sent it back a week later without fixing the problem. They had even called me about and I gave them meticulous instructions as to what was wrong and how to duplicate the problem. Even more puzzling, the online status report of my computer said "Parts on order," and yet no new parts were installed. The result was that within 20 minutes of my starting it up again, the backlight turned off.

I called CyberTest the next morning to politely but emphatically point out their error and see what could be done about it. The first guy I spoke with was pleasant and seemed knowledgeable, but he wanted to troubleshoot the problem and I didn't have the laptop in front of me at the time. So I called back a couple hours later. This time I talked to a different tech service guy who was rude, inattentive, and ended up hanging up on me. I was through playing games, so I called back and immediately requested to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor was much more polite, but that still didn't change the fact that I had lost the use of my laptop for more than a month. After a fairly lengthy discussion, he assured me that they would "put it through the wringer this time" to find and fix the problem. So I sent it off for the third time with the same problem.

They're done with my laptop, and it will be delivered tomorrow. The online status report doesn't give me any more information other than that the repair is complete. I'm more than a little apprehensive - I really need that computer back. After 6 weeks without it, my research and classwork are in a horrible state, and I have about 3 weeks to complete my research project. And yet I don't want to get my hopes up, since this company doesn't seem to be able to do anything more complicated than reinstall Windows and wipe out my data. I feel like the nervous family member pacing the waiting area in the hospital, waiting to hear how the surgery went. "Doc, is he gonna pull through?"

Stay on the sidewalk

On Tuesday evenings Becca has practice with a community band, so I'm home with Lindsay. I actually look forward to some of the time I get to spend with the Babe, since I'm gone all day and I really only see here for a couple hours before bedtime. We read stories and play with blocks and all those fun kid stuff. Now that she's almost 18 months old, she's pretty fun to play with. And playing with her keeps her out of other trouble.

Yesterday I decided that we should go to the playground together. So after Becca left for rehearsal, Lindsay and I went for a little walk. The playground is just a few blocks away, which is very convenient. I started out walking with Lindsay on the sidewalk, but it soon became almost impossible. It wasn't because she can't walk well -- she ran along almost faster than I could walk. The problem is that, for Lindsay, walking isn't the linear experience it is for you and I. She sees the concrete walkway as more of a suggestion than a requirement. She kept running off into people's yards to investigate dandelions, bushes, and law ornaments. When I tried to tell her to stay on the concrete, she complied by turning up the next driveway and marching halfway to the house before I could catch her and bring her back to the sidewalk.

Eventually I just put her on my shoulders and carried her to the park. Once the playground was in sight, I didn't have any more problems with her wandering off course. Watching the Babe made me wonder what we would be like if you and I had never learned all those little rules and social mores that are part of society. We'd probably chase dandelions through other people's yards a lot more often.

Photo credit: infinite.magic

Nashville in bloom

Yesterday we had a video due at the library, so I biked over to our branch library to return it. I've been trying to avoid driving lately, and it was an absolutely beautiful day, so taking the bike was perfect. What wasn't perfect was the fact that I forgot the key to my bike lock. So I had to walk home from the library -- not a huge deal, since it's not much more than a mile away. But it cut in on my research time and I felt like a fool for having forgotten the key. I got a lot of exercise, though.

The other unexpected benefit of spending so much time biking and walking around outside was seeing all the trees in bloom. The weather finally got warm enough that the trees are taking spring seriously. Just two days ago there were hardly any trees in bloom, and now almost every flowering tree is in glorious array. It's especially nice on Vanderbilt campus, which is a national arboretum and has an especially large quantity and variety of blooming trees. I actually saw a soon-to-be bride taking photos outside near Kirkland Hall. She had really good timing; as you can see from the photo on the right, taken two months ago, it didn't look that great all winter. But for the next several days it looks fabulous.

The blossoms will probably be gone by next week, but they were beautiful yesterday. Which was good, since I was mad at myself for forgetting the key. But it's hard to be grumpy everything around you is so cheerful.

Photo credits: B.D.'s World, joseph a

All by myself

Becca and Lindsay went down to Huntsville because Rachel is in town for Spring Break. I would have loved to have gone with them, but I'm way behind on my research. So while the girls go play, I stay and work. It hasn't been too bad, actually; I've just been at at school most of the day. I did make a trip to the library, however, and I changed the oil on my car. I feel so industrious.

Still, it's weird not to have a two-foot high menace come careening into the room, giggling and tearing up my research materials with reckless abandon. The place seems very quiet. I actually have a song going through my head right now. Can you guess what it is?

On being busy

Where did this week go? It was just Tuesday, and I had lots to blog about, and then I got sucked into a black hole of projects, meetings, and other commitments. I haven't even turned on my computer at home most of the nights this last week. And since I'm really trying to be good and actually get work done at school, I'm trying to keep blogging there to a minimum.

What have I done this week? I hardly know myself.

• I had several meetings with my professors in my on-going quest to actually graduate on time.
  
• I finally was able to send my laptop off to be serviced. (Did I mention that the lazy slobs didn't fix it the first time? And did I mention that I was unhappy about it?)
  
• I spent a harrowing evening babysitting a half-dozen young children while their moms were busy, and I lived to tell the tale.
• I somehow found time to sit down and watch The Prestige with Becca. We had requested it from the library, but we had to wait something like 80 turns before we got it. (It was good; I'll review it later.)
• I had to drive downtown for a meeting located at one of the big firms in town. I hate driving downtown, if only fro the parking. It's fine if you work there and have parking arrangements, but finding parking is always a hassle. And my stingy heart hates paying for parking.
  
• We partially dug ourselves out of the mess that we left when we went on vacation. It feels like we spent almost as much time cleaning up after our vacation as we spent on vacation.
  
• I spent about half the day today at school at a bar preparation seminar. The gist of the session was that the bar exam is a beast, so suck it up and study. A lot. For three months. Sounds like fun to me.
  

Well, shoot. It doesn't look like that much when I write it down. But throw in a couple hundred pages of reading and hours of research, and it was a lot of time.