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.
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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.
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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.
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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.