Global warming is kicking our ass, obviously.

This past week has been white.

Today, though, there's been a constant dumping all day. There's like 4 inches of snow, maybe 5, and every time I scoop some snow off a car or something there's a new quarter inch on it within 10 minutes.

We've had snowball fights, made snow forts, gone for walks, and played with the dog. It's been a ton of fun. I have to say, I really do love snow, and this is the most we've gotten in a long while.

I've hung out with my brother a lot more than I normally get to, and it's been awesome. The only thing that could make it better is if Erin could make it over here.

~ Nick
Walkin' in a winter wonderland

I haven't forgotten!

I promise. I've just been distracted by finals.

There's something about finals in law school that makes me completely apathetic about anything else. I honestly could care less about politics, the economy, etfc right now. I don't want to write anything else, reflect on life, or anything like that.

I'll tell you what's weird, though. Every finals week, at the peak of my studying, I get some spark of inspiration to write something fictional. Last winter, it was an idea for a trilogy of novels, and idea I really still like and would love to write some day. Last night, I got the inspiration for a short story. I'm going to take a break from studying and jot some stuff down now, maybe even write a bit.

~ Nick
His words entrance & madmen kiss the ground

Poker, Crazies, and Thanks

This blog post comes to you in three parts!

Part I (Poker):

It's been quite a long time since I played a serious game of poker, and this past week I played in two tournaments. I have to say, I am an extremely lucky player.

In the first tournament, I won two hands out of sheer luck, the first when my 9s in the hole beat out aces in the hole thanks to a lucky river card. A similar second hand gained me second place in the tournament.

Last night, however, I was my father's son. My father is the biggest bully I've ever encountered at the poker table, and I'm not ashamed to say that I bullied my way through the first two hours of play. The thing is, almost every hand I had the nuts. At one point, one of the girls at the table accused me of bullying and called my bluff. Only, I wasn't bluffing.

I ended up getting 10th in the tourney, out of 56 players, I believe. Not a bad showing, in my humble opinion.

The thing is, all this poker has made me miss Vegas. I want another trip there. Roulette, poker, blackjack, I want to play it all. I want to be there with Erin and my closest friends. The last trip I took there was awesome. I think that the next one could be truly amazing.

Part Two (Parties):

So last night I went to a party full of med students.

Holy. Crap.

One person in particular made the night for everyone. I'm not sure what this guy was on (he claims he was not high), but he was in rare form. All this guy wanted to do was dance... I'm just not exactly sure what dance school this guy went to. It was like some horrible mix of line dancing, disco, raving, and anything else you can think of.

What's more, he wasn't interested in dancing with anyone else. At one point, some girl displaying what I believe to be poor judgment decided to dance with him. At almost no point did he dance with the girl. He was more interested in doing his fucked up line dancing stuff. KAmi and I were trying to decide if he was gay, high, or just stupid.

Part Three (Old classmates):

I saw one of he kids from my high school graduating class today. He was pumping my gas. I could tell he recognized me, but was embarrassed because he immediately disappeared around the back of the building.

It makes me wonder how many of the kids I went to school with ended up going to college (and completing it). How many went to some sort of graduate school.

It also makes me feel so grateful to my parents for raising me to be intelligent and sending me to OSU, and for encouraging me through law school. For pushing me all through elementary, middle, and high school to get good grades, and for never accepting anything but my best.

I couldn't have made it as far as I have without them.

~ Nick

And it’s coming closer

Disappointment

It's finally over.

For months, the election has invaded the news such that I stopped checking it in the mornings recently. I'm am so sick of the election that I hardly cared anymore who won. I resigned myself to the fact that Obama would take the day handily, but I can't say that I'm honestly happy about.

There are so many things that happened in this election that I don't agree with I hardly know where to start. Yet start I will.

Keep in mind that through this diatribe, I'm not devastated at Obama being in office. I don't necessarily agree with his views, but if he can get America excited about politics and involved, that would be awesome. Unfortunately, I fear that 90% of Americans will go back to their holes after tonight, not giving a flying fuck about what happens to the country now that "their man" is in office. "Change" will come!

[rant]

The Media

Wow. Just... wow. Bravo. The news outlets, who for decades have been bastions of unbiased news reporting, have completely alienated me in the last 3 months. Never before have I seen such biased reporting.

I had to actively search out news sites that weren't spewing about how awesome Obama was. Any chance to slam McCain was taken, yet the media deliberately ignored questionable facets of Obama's past, going so far as to forget whole years of his life ever existed.

There is one moment that sticks out in my mind, though, as the moment I lost all faith in the media. ABC news had a top story on their main page that was an opinion piece lambasting the news world for their bias, going so far as to tell stories about how he is embarrassed to tell people he's a reporter.

Not an hour after I see the story, I check ABC news again. The op-ed is moved down several slots, and the new top story, highlighted in bold letters with an amazing picture to accompany it, was an incredible Obama-biased article. I closed my laptop in disgust.

Campaigning and Financing

Fuck. Where do I begin? Obama's expenditures on this election were outrageous. I cannot believe that no one stood up and said something while, in the middle of the largest economic crisis of our time, the man spent ludicrous amounts of money to fuel his campaign. What the hell? Seriously, does no one else see a problem with this? And where was the money coming from? More than once, he got caught for accepting money from foreigns in the Middle East, breaking the law. People cheated to give over the limited amount, again breaking the law. I do not understand how this gets overlooked.

Race and Gender

The most upsetting thing to me this election is the fact that the policies didn't count for shit this year. Qualifications didn't matter. This whole election was based on who the candidates were, not what they stood for. Tonight, every person of color that was interviewed on a news site was asked something along the lines of "How does this historic night make you feel?"

The response was always the same: "I'm just so glad to have a black man in office."

How many people voted for Barack just because he is black (sort of)? We'll never know, but I suspect that it's a much higher number than most people are willing to admit.

And McCain was forced to play against the race card in a drastic fashion, choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate. Never once has there been a worse decision. Palin alienated so many moderate voters that it very well may have been the move that cost McCain the election. She is not very intelligent, doesn't have a great record, is too conservative for most of the country, and was just a bad choice. I understand choosing a woman, he needed to fight the race card, but I think it was a bad decision that made him look a bit desperate. However, she was far, far too conservative.

Many say he was appeasing the far right, but I ask why? The far right is not going to vote democrat. Never. Did he think they'd swing to Obama out of spite? Hardly. It's frustrating.

[/rant]

There's more I could say, but my third beer beckons.

Hey, I'm mourning the fall of capitalism at the hands of affirmative action, give me a break. =P

As one of my friends said, so aptly, " Nah dude, I like never being able to ascend in society."

~ Nick
Watching in disregard, You live a nice life

Long time, no see

I've been absent from my blog for a while now. I fully intended to write something last night, but... I was tired. I had a long, long night Sunday, and didn't get any sleep. I have to say, watching someone spiral in front of your eyes is a scary, scary thing. The worst part is not knowing how to help.

I'm extremely grateful to Brendan, though. I texted him at like 5AM in the morning (his time) and unexpectedly, he called me. Helped me to at least get my bearings. I'm as always grateful for his friendship.

As crazy as Sunday was, Saturday was a really amazing day. I got to meet my good friend James' girlfriend for the first time, and Erin was down for the weekend. We started the day at my friend's and carved pumpkins, then spent the rest of the day at wineries. Finishing the night with steaks was perfect. It was honestly an amazing day.

I'm not really sure what's happening the rest of this week. I'm expecting after the pretty hectic weekend, I'm going to be low key.

~ Nick
I never wanted to erase your story, Even with the tragedy it brings

Random Happenstance

I'll be frank.

I'm drunk. But honestly, tonight has be one of the most uplifting nights I've had in a while.

Let me start at the beginning:

My friends James and Katy decided that tonight was the night to take me out for my birthday. Things started at an awesome bar called Starlight, where we had several drinks. It was there that Katy gave me my present, which is that she was taking me to the Dave Attell stand-up show this Sunday. What's more, she got us in the balcony seating, which is where the drinks are served. I'm pretty stoked, to say the least.

After drinks, we went to Thai food, which is without a doubt always enjoyable.

After dinner, however, James and I went to Villards's, the bar which is like a block from where I live. I'm so, so happy we went. It is there that I met the lovely Melissa Beyer.

As it turns out, Melissa is a 3L who is focusing in IP, and is a Bioengineering background. This is so simlar to my circumstances that it is uncanny. She clued me in to opportunities, ideas, and realities of what i need to look forward to. We talked for about 45 minutes, and as discouraging as it was to hear her opinion of our options in Oregon, it was totally encouraging to finally know someone in my situation. As a BioE, her options are seemingly as limited as mine are as a ChemE. She let me know everything she would have done differently as a 2L, and what she thinks I should do as a 3L.

I'm looking forward to chatting more with her.

~ Nick
I believe that this game is far from over

I'm baaaaaack.

I got back home today, and it felt really nice. I mean, I had a ton of fun in Florida, but after an 8 hour plane ride and a 3 hour drive home, it was just satisfying to open the door, drop my bags, and crash on the couch.

I caught up a bit on my reading, and tested my new driver. I failed at the range, and it made me sad. I couldn't hit a ball to save my life. I think I wiffed more today than all my times golfing combined. I'd like to think it was a combination of the cold (it was foggy as hell too) and the fact that I haven't touched a club in about a month.

I watched Crusoe the other day, a new series about Robinson Crusoe. He had the coolest tree house ever. I always dreamed of having one of those super awesome tree houses with like multiple rooms and bridges across them and stuff. I bet it'd make an excellent zombie-proof shelter, as well, since zombies can't climb.

Alright, apparently three paragraphs is my limit tonight. I'm exhausted.

~Nick
They're Pinky and The Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain.

Flor-ee-da!

I'm finally here! Thank you Erin, so much for sending me.

We drank a few beers, played some COD, and just chatted.

B sucks at COD. "Look how good I am!" *dies*

It's always amazing to me how things haven't changed. We've seen each other twice now in the span of a year, and even though he's had some major changes in his life, it's still the same between us. We fall into old habits, share the same jokes, etfc.

I guess that's what it's like between best friends, no?

~ Nick
Life's a happy game

Know your laws.

Fuck.

I'm so sick of Roe v. Wade being an issue in this election. It even got me to break out my Constitutional Law book. Let me tell anyone who reads this blog the truth:

Roe v. Wade is no longer good law.

There. I've said it.

Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey is the controlling case law, now. In this case, Pennsylvania had a law that required a woman's informed consent before the procedure, requires that she receive the neccessary information 24 hours prior to the abortion, and requires that minors have their parents' permission or aquire a judicial bypass to receive the procedure. Also, married women had to sign a statement saying they had notified their husband of their intent to have an abortion. There were exceptions to the law for emergency situations.

The Supreme Court reaffirmed the right of a pregnant woman to choose to have an abortion, as they ruled in Roe v. Wade, however, it tossed out the trimester timeline for abortion laws established in that famous case. Instead, they said the individual states have the right to restrict abortions after fetal viability. The Court said that the State has the "legitimate interests from the outset of the pregnancy in protecting the health of the woman and the life of the fetus that may become a child." The court introduced the undue burden test, and declared that the law was OK in that regard except in the case of spousal notification. States may pass laws so long as not undue burden on individual’s rights.

tl;dr: Abortions are still legal, but viability is now the timeframe, and states can make it more difficult to acquire them so long as their reasoning is sound and the hoops one must jump through are not too ridiculous.

~ Nick
Sell me, I'm a skeptical boy

Short but sweet.

I've been pretty busy this weekend and week. Trying to get stuff done before my birthday extravaganza.

Slowly but surely, I've been working on my second book. A paragraph here, a paragraph there. I'm actually liking how it's going right now. I think that once I get through this particular chapter, things will flow better.

I did 27 pushups last night. That puts me in tier 3. I am NOT pleased. Not pleased at all. I thought very, very hard about quitting at 25. But I didn't. I don't know why, but I didn't. And now for two weeks all you'll hear is the tender sound of tears falling down my face as my arms explode in agony.

THREE DAYS.

~ Nick
Take me down to the paradise city

Chill(y/i)

It's cold. I actually had to put on socks today, that's how cold it was. What the hell? I want shorts weather to come back! Luckily, I'll have it in less than a week! Woot!

Because it's cold, I decided to make some chili, and I have to say, I'm excited. From what I've tasted, it's going to be pretty good. It's my first time making chili for myself, and I was kinda like that Muppet cook, just throwing things in. I think there's a little too much tomato paste, but oh well.

Last night I had dinner with James. I have to say, I really enjoy having a friend that is a chef. He made Lamb and roasted potatoes. Holy crap, it was good, and he even followed up with dessert! We mostly talked about how we got together with our respective girlfriends, and how our relationships are at the moment. Mostly, we wished that we could see our girlfriends more, and just held each other in consolation... er, wait. Not that very last part. We also played chess. I hadn't played in about 10 years, and he killed me the first game. The second game I won, but he told me I'd had like 3 opportunities to checkmate him prior to when i actually did... oh well.

I have a lot of stuff to do this weekend, but so much more I want to do, like break through the block on my second novel. I've been reading fantasy stuff again, and it always gets me itching to write. We'll see what I can work out.

~ Nick
And in this way wish away each day

The democratic process at work

So, I realized today that my vote literally does not count in this election. Oregon is already going to be a landslide blue state, and either way I vote won't matter. This depresses me greatly.

Luckily, Microsoft finally gave their long-delayed announcement regarding the new Bungie game. It's a stand-alone expansion to Halo 3, and takes place between Halos 2 and 3, and puts you in control of a special ops marine. The trailer makes it look like you'll be sneaking a lot, which makes sense because you're not the Master Chief, i.e. invincible. This makes greatly excited. Good that I have to wait a year for it.! Oh wait...

I'm reading a really strange book right now by Greg Bear. It deals with the end of the universe, but the way he envisions it is that time and space breaks down and becomes Chaos. The past gets deleted, the future stops becoming a possibility, and when the alpha hits the omega... well I don't know. I haven't exactly gotten there yet. But it's still interesting. There's also certain people called "fate shifters." They are people that can feel the future of all possible choices they make, and literally just shift fates to the most optimal one. All the futures are called fate-lines, and are like threads that can merge, be snipped, anything. Interesting way to describe multiple universes.

~ Nick
Faster than light, we're traveling time through the wormhole

Burnanating

Did you know that flag burning isn't against the law? I sure didn't, until I did my conlaw reading for today. I'm not sure if it was growing up for a short time in the South, or what, but I always thought flag burning was illegal. Turns out, it's actually protected speech under the 1st Amendment. Not that I'd ever burn the flag... it's just something that kinda shocked me.

We're covering speech in class right now, and there's really very little the Supreme Court has been willing to allow speech restriction. Like, yelling at my neighbors right now for being incredibly loud and annoying would be perfectly okay as long as I didn't use any words that would incite violence.

No promises.

These girls are ALWAYS loud. They play awful music all the time and yell and cackle like witches. One Wed night they were blasting their music at like 11:30. Now, there's kids in this complex that go to elementry school, and they need their sleep. I think the people above me finally yelled at them. I almost called the cops with a noise complaint, but I was lazy.

Not that I could do that now. I left my phone charger in Wilsonville, which BLOWS. I haven't actually talked to Erin in like, 36 hours? Maybe less than that, but still, sucks. I do like to hear my woman's voice! She says she did okay on her test, and I hope she did. Someone's going to have to provide for me once I quit being a lawlyer and start writing full time.

The presidential debates pissed me off tonight. You don't learn much of anything new at all, and after the first ten seconds of a canidate answering a question, you hear the same canned response as he gave to the last question. I want answers, damnit! I have a feeling McCain's "that one" reference to Obama is going to blow up in his face. Oh well.

I looked for summer jobs in Fl. There aren't really any IP firms in WPB that I could find, which makes me sad. 10 glorious weeks in Fl with B would be pretty epic. Although, speaking of burnanating, it would be summer in Fl. Ugh. At least I get to spend a few days with him soon!!! I can't wait. We'll laugh, we'll cry, we'll cuddle post-coitally in bed... wait, not that last part. Maybe.

Not quite tired, yet, but I'm bored. Perhaps I'll read. Or perhaps I'll do the same thing I do every night. Try to take over the world.

~ Nick
Children waiting for the day they feel good, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday

Little people with giant pumpkins

My sister was hanging out with a bunch of friends last night, and for some reason the others decided to watch LOTR: Return of the King. Only, they skipped to the last like 30-45 minutes of the movie. Alex has never read the books or seen any of the movies, so she was confused as hell. She told me of her experience when she got home:

"They kept trying to explain stuff, but it only made it worse. There was this really old skinny guy who talked in a weird voice. He scared me. And then he bit someone's finger off! It was sooooo gross!"

"At the end, the little hobbits had a huge pumpkin in a cart, and I asked everyone if it was really a big pumpkin, or if it was just a normal pumpkin carried by little people. They all laughed at me."

I think it was a valid question.
_____________________________________

My brother went to the Homecoming dance last night. He was talking about what happened: "Yeah, like a circle formed for people to show off, but like, only a few people actually got in there and showed off. There was one guy who did a really good moonwalk, then everyone was too embarrassed to go in there."

"Finally, one Mexican kid got in there and danced really good, like break dancing and stuff."

"I bet he doesn't have good grades."

... wow.
_____________________________________

My dad got an EeeeeeeeeePeeCee, and it only reaffirmed my dislike of the things. It's just too small for me. Typing on the keyboard is awkward, because I have big hands. If I traveled like he does and was constantly on an airplane, I might enjoy it, but even then the short battery life is a turn off for me. I bet you couldn't even get through one movie. That said, he had me put season 1 of The Wire onto his 54GB flash drive. I expect a request for season 2 shortly.
_____________________________________

It's wierd for me when I watch TV shows and see actors from one show suddenly appear on another. Even if a show is over and done with, sometimes it's just odd to see them in a different role. The Wire is the show that has most recently done this for me, because I just watched all 5 seasons within a span of maybe a month. Now, I'm seeing characters from it on different shows, and it's just strange. Marlo Stanfield is like punching through people's bodies, and Frank Sabatka (sp?) is now a detective is some hillbilly town investigating some murders (last I saw, the Greek dumped him in the bay).

It's that time of the year, where good TV comes back on. There's a new show I've been watching kinda on a whim, called True Blood. It's... only okay, but I like it more for the premise than anything. It's set in a world where vampires have made themselves known to the world. It started when a Japenese company started mass producing synthesized blood, which allowed vamps to stop feeding on people. There was a whole thing similar to the Civil Rights movement, except applied to vamps. But, similarly to the civil rights movement, even after vamps got full citizen's rights, they are still discriminated against.

Just an interesting senario, imo.

~ Nick
You know that I am called the Count, Because I really love to count

Training required

I'm home for the weekend, dog sitting and making sure my brother doesn't burn the house down. My mother STILL hasn't gotten the dog formally trained, and it's driving me insane. Holly obeys most of the time, but there's a bunch of stuff some simple training would fix. My mom refuses to take her, though.

I'm really excited for this new IP group I'm helping to start at school. I think it could do some really great things for the IP program, and if we meet all our goals for it, could turn the IP program into something to gloat about. We wouldn't just be the fucking environmental hippies from Eugene. I don't know why, but that really appeals to me. Not the not being seen as a hippie part, that's self-explanatory, but the part about being one of the people that could bring the IP program to the forefront.

Thing is, it's a really important job at the moment. Our school doesn't have any IP faculty at the moment. We have one "visiting" professor, which means he's here for a year applying to become full time. I have a class with him, and I'm also working for him. He's great. I really like him, and we're going to try to push to get him hired on tenure track. The other two "professors" are actually full time attorneys that teach one class a week.

If we can show a strong IP group, that may attact other academic professors to join us. We'll need great speakers, a lot of participation from students, and ideally we'd like to get a full day seminar that has a large panel of speakers. It would take a ton of fundraising and planning, but if we could do it, it would be huge. We'd be able to make it a "continuing legal education" conference to attract firms from the NW, and also invite the other Oregon law schools to come participate (and so that we can gloat to them).

Ugh, so much to do, so little time.

With all that, and looking for a job, and having a research job, I've been busy as hell. It's been hard, especially the frustration when it comes to looking for a job. I still have no idea where I'll end up, and it's especially frustrating because I might not be able to be with erin this summer. It's really hard, because it feel like we've been apart forever, and I love her so much.

Also, since I know Ron reads this, I fully expect him to bring his g/f and a game over tomorrow night. And his roomy, if he's not working. Sorry, B, you'll just have to wait a few more weeks for your uber ga- er, totally mascualine man time.

~ Nick
Two thousand years of chasing, taking it's toll.

And the knee goes "pop" - Part III???

Apparently, my brother screwed up his knee yesterday in football practice. Just a strain of the (MCL?), the docs think, but he's out for the week. This after both my sisters each tore an ACL this year.

What the hell?

My mom suggested I just buy a couple knee braces and wear them all the time, as a precautionary measure. I think she was only half joking.

Seriously, though, how does that happen? Three family members, all knee injuries. I didn't think bad knees was a genetic thing? Maybe I was wrong... Or maybe my family just has shitty luck.

-----------------------------------
RANDOM THOUGHT TIME! (theme music plays)

In other news, I've begun eating healthier, at least until today when I saw 99 cent boxes of Crunch 'n Munch (read: Crackerjacks) at the market today. 99 cent family size boxes. Awesome. I've maintained a modicum of control, mostly by putting the damn box out of sight.

We're starting an IP law organization at school, mostly because there's a large void in that area. I think I'm going to try for a leadership position there. I've already started to figure out what needs to be done to run the group, and which officer would handle what task. Also going to my IP professor to try to get him as a faculty sponser for the group. We're going to work closely with the entrepenurial group in the school, I think, as they have some IP stuff in there too. My friend Adam is an officer in that group, and I think that if we really got together and organized, next year we could have a fairly big IP seminar day, maybe big enough to invite the other 3 law schools in Oregon to participate. It would be a big thing for the program, and do a lot to attract IP professors to our school, something we're lacking. We had a few really great ones, but they all left the year before I came to school. This year, tho, we just need to get established and recruit some 1Ls into the program.

The Transformers II movie is going to have ""key scenes" (read: MEGA ACTION ROBOT PWNING EXPLOSIVENESS) shot in IMAX. This means that in an IMAX theater, most of the movie will be in letterbox (like Dark Knight was) and then it will shift to use the full IMAX screen.

Now, don't get me wrong. Robots that are five stories tall are fucking cool, but I think it would be distracting as hell for my movie to keep shifting screen size. I cannot imagine a way to smothly do this. It's going to be silly. Normal movie.... Normal movie... Norma-GIANT FUCKING ROBOTS!!!!!!1111oneoenoneunounouno Just seems silly to me.

~ Nick
Cyber warlords are activating abominations

Seeing red

So, the big bailout plan failed to pass through the House today.

It makes me wonder, why the fuck is no one really being held accountable? I understand that the laws prohibiting predatory lending were repealed some time ago, so technically no one broke the law, but, really? I mean, no one is getting in trouble here. Sure, some banking bigwigs are losing 95% of their fortune, yet at the end of the day they are still 20 times richer than the average American. How is no one going to jail for this? Honestly, fining people probably isn't the greatest idea, since banks paying more isn't the smartest thing to make them do at the moment. But jail? Sure.

I talked with a friend today, and I we came to a conclusion: a $700 billion bailout plan where the government merely purchases the bad loans is stupid. Yes, it saves the private banks that fucked up, but in the end, who cares? What about the millions of people who are - and I really hate to use this term - "victims" of predatory lending? The thing is, as much as it true that these people were buying things there's no way they could afford... there's so many of them that had no idea what they were getting into. America's education system is not the best out there. Most Americans have no concept of economics, accounting, banking, etc. They were offered the deal of a lifetime, and took it.

Who is helping them?

What if the bailout plan did something like pay the banks to reduce interest rates on all their bad loans? We wouldn't need to pay as much, because the government wouldn't be outright buying all the loans, just helping the banks get through their shitty loans. It would help the people in trouble, give them money to spend (i.e. put money into the economy). It just seems like a better idea. I understand that it's basically giving houses to people that are way too expensive for their means, but i think it's the only answer. Someone has to pay, and it'll be the banks.

/my2cents

~ Nick
We never saw this coming, pride comes before a fall

Role models

My sister has a certain teacher in her high school American History class. He is the one teacher I purposely avoided ever taking a class from my entire high school career, simply because I didn't like the man. I had him for a football coach in 8th grade, and those 3 short months were enough to show me he's an arrogant, narcissistic asshole.

Here are some of my sister's stories:

My sister goes by Alex, which is her middle name. Her first name is Stephanie. This teacher calls her "Sam." Sam is my other sister, the one who has long since graduated high school and is now in college. No matter how much Alex corrects the teacher, he openly refuses to call her by her proper name, and insists that calling her "Sam" is easier.

He consistently calls on her expecting to know the answer to really obscure questions, and when she doesn't, he berates her and explains why he knows the answer (he's so awesome, he has like a photographic memory and knows like everything!).

The teacher once asked the students to investigate theories on the JFK assassination (he calls himself an expert on the assassination, and knows what really happened). He then asked students to write on the board the names of theories they found. While many students were doing as told, he suddenly yells for everyone to sit down, then points at one of the names on the board. "Who wrote this?" he demanded. When no one answered he got angrier, until finally someone admitted to putting the theory on the board. The teacher then demanded to know how he could be so ignorant, because that theory is clearly the stupidest bullshit anyone had ever thought of.

The teacher also once asked the class what they would die for. No answer was sufficient. Every single person that raised their hand and suggested something they would die for, he replied with "No you wouldn't." He did this over and over, the only correct answer in the bunch apparently "religion." Finally, he decided to pick on my sister (he does this frequently, apparently). "Sam, what would you die for?" After the beating the last several students had received, she took her time, then answered "I think I'd give my life for my family." The asshole responded by laughing, and told her she absolutely would not. After this whole ordeal, he proceeded to explain to the class that most people would never willingly give up their lives for anything, yet he had risked his life to safe a complete stranger.

Take that, you high school brats.

It was this last event that made my sister almost walk out of the class. The only reason she didn't is she was scared of the consequences. We talked about this, and together we came to some conclusions:

1) My oldest sister and I did quite well in high school both academically and athletically, because of this we left a sort of legacy attached to our last name. It gives both my youngest sister and my brother a leg up: the teachers automatically love them.

2) My sister doesn't need the benefit of this legacy, in fact she only adds to it, more so than her predecessors ever did. She's got straight A's and is being pursued by Div I women's soccer teams. (My brother, on the other hand, needs all the help he can get). The teachers and administration love her.

3) Because she has most of the school's staff on her side and she's never been any trouble at all, if she chose to stand up to this teacher, nothing bad would happen to her at all. The administration would work with her so that everything works out in her favor.

Because of these things, the next time the teacher starts being a complete ass, she's either going to walk out of class and walk straight to the office to complain, or walk right up to him after class and say, in these exact words, "You need to stop being an ass. I don't care if you ask me questions harder than the rest of the students, that's fine. But if you continue to call me 'Sam' and disrespect me, I'll report you to the administration. You need to stop being a dick."

We decided she needed to use words like "ass" and "dick" because he's the type of pompous asshole that needs to be talked to forcefully. If the administration gets involved, then all she needs to do is tell her stories.

The thing that gets me about this is that he's supposed to be a teacher. He's supposed to be a mentor to these kids. All he's teaching them is how to be an asshole. Alex says a lot of kids like him. They are the younger sophomore kids, because she took some AP classes that screwed up her schedule. These younger kids love him because he's different.

Thing is, that's not an excuse. For every ten of these kids that think he's cool, there's one high school kid with poor self esteem that can't afford to have an adult talking down to him or her, calling him or her an idiot. It's just not responsible.

~ Nick
Standing up tall from the top of that hill

Friends

I'm here at the coast with most of my good friends from undergrad, and I have to say I'm loving it. I've missed these guys something fierce, and it's good to be back with them.

We're nerding it up pretty hard, playing the Magics and talking Wow and such. Woooo-oooo-Wooooo-ooooo! Chuga chuga chuga chuga, wooo- woooo!

/train.

Anyhow, I really miss B. I wish he were here. It feels so incomplete without him.

I swear, it's not the vodka talking.

Or the gin.

/drink.

~ Nick
you know that i could use somebody

And the knee goes "pop" - Part II - Fear

I feel like tonight needed two separate posts, because really I was thinking along two different trains of thought. So, here's part two of tonight's posts, on what perhaps I would have written about if I had my sister's assignment and chose to write about "fear":

I look nervously at the stack of unopened letters sitting on my coffee table, trying to decide whether or not to open them. All of them are responses from potential employers, notifying me whether or not I will be working with them over the summer. Each letter has, at most, a 5% chance of being a positive response. I reach out for the first one, noting the name of the firm, and then open the envelope.

Rejection.

No surprise there, though, I really didn't fit with that firm anyway. Still, it stings a little. An impatient sigh escapes my lips as I reach for the next letter.

Suddenly, my phone rings. Expecting to see that it's Erin calling, I note that it is instead Brendan.

"Hello?"

He doesn't even stop to say "hi" back. "Have you checked Drudge lately?"

"Um... no."

"Dude, there's some sort of fucking quarantine going on in China. Fucking China! Just like the book!"

My heart skips a beat as I find the article he was referring to. There's been a secret quarantine for two weeks now. People are fleeing the country.

Shit.

Deep down, I know how bad this is. I know what this is. Still, I don't want to believe it. "No way man, it's not that. Probably some new strain of the fucking bird flu." I can hear the elevated pitch in my own voice, my nervousness creeping through.

"Fuck that," Brendan says. "Go get a gun. Now, while there's still time. People don't know what's going on, we have time. I'm going to Washington with Ashley. Can you go home?"

At least he's getting away from the ocean. "I could, but there's no way my parents are going to believe me." God, if only that weren't the truth. But how in the hell do you tell your parents straight-faced that this is actually happening and not expect them to laugh at you and tell you to turn your crazy ass around and go back to school?

"Tell them it's the bird flu then, I don't give a shit, just start stockpiling. You may not be able to get to the Costco when the time comes." I can hear the worry in his voice, but I don't want him thinking of me. He needs to take care of himself.

"We've got a Costco five minutes from our house, we'll be fine. But this won't hit us for months. We can't just drop everything now."

"The fuck we can't," Brendan replies.

"Dude, no one is going to let you just quit life for two months while nothing is going on in the US. Wait until the first case appears in the US, and then go to Washington." But is it really going to take two months? It could be two days, he might be right. Fuck.

"We'll see. Just be ready."

"I will. You too."

The call ends, and I wonder if I'll ever see him again.

~ Nick
Stranded in a spooky town, the stoplight is swaying and the phone lines are down.

The knee goes "pop" - Part I - Writing

I feel like tonight needed two separate posts, because really I was thinking along two different trains of thought. So, here's part one of tonight's posts, a reflection on my writing, at the moment:

Today my sister gave me one of her papers for her high school English class to edit. It was an assignment where they had to thing of a feeling, then write something that evokes that feeling without ever saying the word. She chose "fear," and wrote about tearing her ACL this summer. It was pretty disturbing reading it, because the whole time she was talking about how when it happened she could literally feel her dreams of making the National ODP soccer team slipping away. I helped minimally, re-arranging sentences, adding a bit of imagery, but apparently the changes I made were "awesome."

The same thing happened to me earlier this week, when a friend had me edit her paper. It really makes me reflect on the fact that I love writing, and that (at least some people think) I'm good at it.

I've had an itch to start writing my books again, but it's been really hard for me to pick up, because of the job hunt, job, and school. Plus, I'm at a part of the book I really don't like right now, and have no desire to really write about it. I feel like what's going on in the story is boring, and I know that if I feel that way, a reader certainly would. The problem is, I just haven't figured out how to do it any differently. My characters need information to move on in the story, and I can't think of any better way for them to receive said information than them researching ancient texts and/or having long dialogues between characters.

The thing is, once I get past this part of the story, it should really pick up again. It's just getting though this one particular part that is holding me back. Is this writer's block? I don't know. If it is, I need to find my muse.

~ Nick
2000 years of chasing taking its toll

On golf

In the last 6 months, I've taken up the game of golf, and I have to say, I really enjoy the game. It gets me outside with friends, walking around, carrying a bag of metal. My enjoyment mostly comes from the fact that I've been able to see my development over these few months. Whereas I used to have to aim at a 45 degree angle from the hole to even get remotely close to it, I'm now getting fairly accurate with my shots (so long as I'm not hitting with my driver - I still suck with that).

I've been golfing about once a week with my friend Adam. Golfing with Adam is always fun, because he can get really frustrated, and isn't afraid to show it. Whereas I'm lucky on the golf course (topping the ball, having it roll along the fairway until it hits a bump and sails over the water hazard and settles on the green), he is very unlucky (same hole, Adam tops the ball, and just before it rolls over the bridge onto the fairway it hits a bump and goes into the drink). It was right after this set of circumstances he turned to me and said, "I hate you." I then quoted him a great reflection on golf that I read in none other than Penny Arcade: "Golf is a sport of shared misery. Sure, there's competition, but really, it's superseded by the fact that in this game, you're doing battle with the earth itself."

"I still hate you."

*sigh*

Yesterday, Adam and I tried a new course. We usually play on a par 3 course, just for the sake of time and because neither of us can hit with a driver particularly well. This course had a 9 hole par 3, and it was TINY. Like, I could have walked out there with a ball, a pitching wedge, and a putter. It was silly.

What was even better, however, was the fact that the holes weren't numbered, they were named. Each hole had some corny name like "Sportsmanship" (9th hole and final hole). The problem was, it's like the holes were mocking us. They were so short that it was really difficult. We were both getting like double bogeys on easy holes, and then we get to hole number 5. "Perseverance. 66 yards." It was mocking us. We'd just landed in bunkers, double bogeyed some crap hole, and it wanted us to shoot only 66 yards. With a water hazard right behind the green.

Adam laughed openly at me. You see, I hit way too hard to make it only 66 yards. He hit just over the green into the rough. "Soft touch, Nick, soft touch. Perseverance!" My first shot was a wiff. "Not that soft." My second shot arched high, landing right on the green. Adam turned to me with his patented "I hate you stare."

On the next hole I got on the green in two, should have been a perfect par. Adam on the other hand, shot so horribly it took him 6 stokes to get on the green... the hole was only 70 yards away. I was laughing so hard I 5 putted.

Just as we agreed to put ourselves down for 6 strokes each, I looked at the name of the next hole...

Honesty.

~ Nick
Silent dance with death, Everything is lost.

The Beginning is the End

Well, I finally caved.

I guess the first thing to do is clear up the title of this little blog. This won't be fiction, most of the time. I was simply thinking of the first story I wanted to tell, and while I was going through it in my head, I kept remembering events out of order, which led to me thinking about how often people embellish events that occur to them without ever realizing it. We all do it, all the time, because sub-consciously we feel like whatever it was we experienced really was that epic and we need others to believe us. After reflecting on that, I decided to call it "automated fiction," a phrase from a song I've been listening to recently.

I'll be discussing things that happen in my life, keeping the mood light. I've got too much stuff going on to do a serious blog, it'd be all grumpy-Nick, all the time. So, this will reflect on funny things that happen to me from time to time, or other light-hearted topics.

I suppose it's up to you to decide what's true and what's automated fiction.

~ Nick
their ears are full of cranks, bells, pullys, wheels, and bolts