Volunteer This

What is the number one job you can get while your in law school? A volunteer job!!! As much as I am a fan of pro bono work, the biggest issue to remember about anyone in grad school is we are living on nothing every day. Seriously. In law school, we live on one loan check per semester and are expected to get great jobs after school so we can give back to the school. Yea, really. Every day, there are literally dozens of volunteer jobs available to anyone in law school. The common rationale given to us is: "its great for your resume." Gimme a break. What is the number one thing law students and anyone in grad school wants: a paying job. Volunteering is great, but when you have monster loans and killer bills, what you want is a paying gig. I want to help people, really I do, however if I can't live and pay my damn loans off then whats the point? Jeez. I'm just venting right now, take it or leave it. Who cares.

Twilight Zone at Krogers

It got so cold tonight that I had to listen to Lena Horn's rendition of "Summertime" just to get a mental picture of what warmth is. Naturally, I also had to look up "Summertime" on Wiki just to fill up the empty parts of my brain. That song has been covered over 2600 times. Jesus! I have to say I truly enjoy the song, so its no big surprise. When its stupid hot outside, its a good song to listen to and when its insanely cold its also refreshing.

This will be my 19th post since I started blogging on here and I'm sad to say that this is becoming a real addiction. I panicked earlier when I realized I might run out of topics if I stay on this pace. Then I thought, "Nah, then I'll just start making shit up, like I'm a movie star or a race car driver." That would be so money.

I have an early class tomorrow, but I just can't sleep. I went to Kroger a few hours ago and did some shopping and it got pretty weird. Now I love to shop at Kroger at night because hopefully, there will be fewer people. Well I'm not sure if the planets aligned in a weird way or there was a full moon I didn't know about but it got freaky. First of all, I saw this guy in a black coat who was just starring at me in the fruit section. He was looking at me like he knew me, then when I looked back at him, you know to like acknowledge him, he looked down quickly then left the store. Ok, weird, but not too weird. Then when I made it over to the drink aisle, this guy was looking at a gallon jug of water, bit the top off, and let the jug drop. He looked at me and walked off. Ok, very weird. I got my groceries and bolted for the check-out line. As I made my way back to my car, this extremely old man, wearing a red sweater vest like Mr. Rodgers used to wear, was walking around and around this red Corvette and smiling at me. He wasn't getting in the car or looking at it, just walking in circles around it and smiling at me. Ok, I was totally freaked and shoved my groceries and got the hell out of there. Something was amiss at the Kroger and I didn't want to find out. I wasn't about to wait around there and let the situation go from an episode of X-Files to an episode of the Twilight Zone.

Wikipedia, The Future, and I'm a Nerd

I'm a die-hard Wikipedia fan. For those of you who have been living in a cave, under a rock and with your head in the ground, Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia on the web. It has just about any topic you can think of and is edited, and contributed to, by anyone and everyone. Obviously, this poses a problem to the validity of what is written, but its a great starting place if your looking for information on just about anything. Tonight, on the Discovery channel, there was a show on called "2057." Great show, its all about the future and different technologies and sciences and how mankind is proceeding with advancements. This got me thinking about the future, so I looked up "future" on Wikipedia. There is a ton of shit on Wiki about anything and everything you can imagine about what the future might hold. Its worth a look.

This all got me thinking about my vision of the future. What will the world look like 50 years from now? The funny thing is most likely very similar to what it looks like today with most of the same problems around. Picture yourself 50 years ago, in 1957. The world then, is pretty similar to the world today, but to find the differences you have to look in the corners. They had lots of problems then: terrible race relations in the United States, political instability throughout the world, high mortality rate, no treatments for dozens of diseases, etc... Well today, many of those problems have been either greatly reduced, or almost stamped out. But what is the major difference between today and 1957? Get in the corners and look closely. Our entire world economy is now based on the Internet. Sounds funny, but its true. How is money transferred? The net. How are directions given to oil tankers? Satellites and the net. And who would have conceived of that in 1957? That is one startling difference, but its something you just can't see. When you put the fact that our world now depends on the Internet to function economically, it does make our world almost unrecognizable to that of 1957.

My main point comes back to the article about the future on Wikipedia. All of these people have posted articles about scenarios and ideas regarding what the future will look like. What is funny is that no matter how strange the future might be presented by these different writers and contributors, the real vision of the future will most likely be something we have never considered and be unrecognizable to the world of 2007.

Ray Bradbury, eat your heart out. LOL.

Public Broadcasting Agent

Since I decided to do this blog, I have enjoyed blogging much more than my previous place. I guess Blogger is a pretty good place. In fact, despite my belief that none of my friends are reading this, I find that I post a few times a day. Its almost a relief to unload my random, sometimes, crazy thoughts for anyone to peruse. I was actually considering blasting K-Fed again, but I just can't. He is just too terrible and only deserves my pity now. I'm now anxiously waiting on Mississippi Roads, its that show with Walt Grayson that comes on the news and Mississippi Public Broadcasting. Its kinda grainy and not very well shot, but I do enjoy the different places he travels. I've learned alot about Mississippi I've never known. Yes, I am a voluntary PR agent for Mississippi Roads. LOL. Also, I think "This American Life" is fixing to come on public radio, so I'm waiting on that too. Oh my God. I just realized how much of an intellectual elitist I am. Well I don't really care. Those are both good shows.

Mockingbird

I just got through listening to a report on NPR about a stage play in Alabama. The play was "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. Traditionally, Harper Lee attends the play every year and meets with the students. I am a hardcore "Mockingbird" fan and idolize Gregory Peck's portrayal of Atticus in the movie adaptation. The report on NPR was part of a larger report about different race based issues in the south including a report about the reunion of the Freedom Riders. I started thinking to myself, what exactly was it about "Mockingbird" that I liked so much? Why does it make me so emotional to watch the scene where Tom is convicted and as Atticus walks out of the court room all the black people stand up and the old black reverend says "Ms. Jean Louise, stand up. Your daddy is passing." Is it the tragedy of the verdict or maybe the respect that an entire community of second class citizens show to the only man who would stand up for their rights? Why does the book persist as a classic tale? What is the intrinsic quality about this story? Dignity. In the face of all the adversity that the characters face, the one quality that I find standing out is dignity. Race is only the backdrop, but dignity is only colorless quality that permeates all the protagonists.

Freedom From Idiots

Ok, I admit it. I'm a youtube junkie. Thats right, I get my fix everyday, like heroin, by looking at either 1) gratuitous violence on youtube, 2) personal video diaries or 3) downright weird videos like that one with the mentos in the diet coke. I need an intervention desperately. Youtube is pure crack. On that note, one of the most popular and one of the most discussed topics on youtube is religion, or the lack thereof. I have noticed that there are these huge battles between people either advocating christianity and God or advocating atheism. I am amazed at how vehement these people get. One guy was so mad he was just screaming and ranting about how he hates all religions. Now I consider myself a spiritual person, but I have lots of friends with a myriad of views ranging from judaism and christianity to pure atheism, but the common thread between these people is they don't get into shouting matches. I guess watching youtube for these people is more or less the exceptions to the rule but something struck me the other day when I was indulging in viewing these trainwrecks: people today are becoming a little less tolerant. Even atheists who advocated back in the day for "freedom from religion" are now advocating for "freedom from anything that resembles religion" and pushing a disrespectful view of other people's beliefs. One of the videos I watched was this atheist talking about how he doesn't feel any need to respect a christian's point of view because he as an atheist doesn't believe in it. What the hell kind of view is that? By this guy's rationale, if you disagree with any single point of any other person's ideas about life or spirituality, then you don't have to respect them as a human being. Its a disgusting point of view. This debate about respecting other views is spilling into every area of the American body politic and I don't like it. Tolerance is now seen as acquiescence. "Live and let live" is replaced with "live, push your views, and screw anyone who doesn't see eye to eye with you." Once again my point is proven; most people in the world are crazy.

K-Fed, playa extreme

So today I wikied Kevin Federline. Yes, my life is that boring that I actually wikied K-Fed. Not a very good article, but I was mainly interested in finding out how much money he was getting from Brittany Spears from their divorce settlement. 300k. Yes, 300,000 is all his is getting. Now for me, you and the rest of the world, that is a good chunk of change, but for a Hollywood playa, that just won't cut it. Albeit, he is also getting half the cash from the sale of their Malibu home, a playa like K-Fed is going to need some more cash. If your a washed up dork like K-Fed, whose only accomplishments are being the ex-Mr. Brittany Spears and winning the Teen Choice award for Male Red Carpet Fashion Icon, where do you look for money? Where else? Pro-wrestling and a Nationwide Insurance ad during the Super Bowl. Yes, thats right. When your settled down to watch the Super Bowl, get ready for some dumbass ad featuring K-Fed. I can just see it now: K-Fed is like partying or something and sipping Cognac (like all playas do) and he gets a text message from Brittany in which she tells him she is divorcing him. Then with a dumbass look in his eyes, he looks at the camera and says "Life comes at you fast." Thats their slogan. Hopefully, he'll be holding his Teen Choice award in one hand and his song Popozoa will be playing in the background. As much as I despise him, I really wish he would have come out with a few more albums so he could have eclipsed Vanilla Ice as the worst person ever to be involved in music. Hell, you never know. Maybe he will reconcile with his redneck white trash wife and they can do an album together.