Instant Replay and Baseball

(Warning: Curse words are used in a personal address to Commissioner Bud Selig. Please know that I do not condone such language in any but the most dire of situations.)

Baseball is the greatest sport on the face of the earth for many reasons... There aren't any clocks to worry about like football, basketball, and soccer. The playoff system actually makes sense. The defense is in control of the ball. A baseball player is forced to perform as an individual (offense), and as a team player (defense). It is a game of rythm. It is our Nation's history.

Now with Football in particular, the basic rules of the game change CONSTANTLY. I hear new rules every time I watch a game. Does he need to have two feet inbounds or just one? Did he hit the guy too low, or too high, or during the wrong time, or with too much aggression? Baseball doesn't have these problems. It is nearly perfect as it is... and yet Bud Selig (MLB Commissioner) thinks it necessary to change the game!

Why in God's name did you institute instant replay in baseball? The umpires are as much a part of the game as the Green Monster is at Fenway. If they blow a call, then they blow a call. There is no reason to have people in a booth somewhere across the country review the play! If the Umpire can't make the right call, FIRE HIM. Baseball is not a mechanized game, and never should be a mechanized game. Are you going to have a machine start calling pitches Mr. Selig? Adjusting to an umpire's strikezone is a part of the game. Are you going to have machines call a bang-bang play at first because you don't trust the umpire. It's a part of the game! Do not take away the heart and soul of our National Pasttime. Instant replay should never have been instituted, and you have now set a precedent for changes to come.

Now concerning the horrible job that the Umpires have been doing during this post season, this should reflect negatively on them as professionals. They should have to face review from Major League Baseball. However some idiot's inability to call a ball that clearly hit in fair territory a FAIR ball doesn't have any impact on the perfection of the game of baseball. This game is my love and my passion Mr. Selig. DO NOT FUCK IT UP!

The nuances of choosing your seat...

When I get onto the wonderful metro bus here in Seattle, I flash my UPASS at the driver and begin the epic search for a seat. I don't want to sit in the very front of the bus because they are reserved for the elderly and disabled, so I move right past them to the middle of the bus. Now these seats are arranged facing the front of the bus with two seats on each side... Enter my dilemma.



Why do you uppity mofo's sit in the aisle seat when there is no one sitting in the window seat! You know that this makes it extraordinarily difficult to sit next to you. No need to answer me, because I already know the answer... You think you are too good to sit next to someone else. You don't want to have to rub shoulders with the greater Seattle public. Do you not realize that you are riding the metro with every other person in Seattle? You are NOT better than the rest of us, and your high class ass certainly doesn't need two seats. Get over yourself and move on over!





Here are some more nuances to make your bus ride more pleasant. Earphones are meant to allow an individual to listen to music without forcing those around you to listen as well. Why then do you turn your music up SO LOUD that we all can hear it? Let me bump some explicit Kenny G the next time I sit next to you and see how you like it.



Why are you yelling into your cellphone in a confined public space!?! I don't want to hear about your ex-girlfriend, or how horrible your english is. Please do not speak loudly into your cell on the bus, especially if you find it necessary to say n*$$*r every other word.



PAY YOUR FARE! Don't get onto the bus if you know that you will have to beg the bus driver to let you off without paying. You are screwing over the rest of us by making us wait and listen to your pleas, as well as raising our fare to cover their lost income from riders like you!



In other words, please have some respect for your fellow riders. It makes all of our lives a lot less stressful.



Cheers!

Grocery Shopping makes me happy...

This afternoon I was feeling a little blah, so I decided to do some grocery shopping. I don't know if it is just me, but grocery shopping makes me so happy! There is nothing more gratifying than planning the ways that I can nurish my body for the days (or weeks) to come. I started off with a grocery list and good intentions, but the impulse buyer inside me broke free. It was as if the budget conscious angel on my shoulder was silenced by the little devil who wanted nothing more than to satisfy my belly and psyche.



As I was wandering through the baked goods section of Costco, I set my eyes upon the double chocolate muffins (more a dessert than a breakfast item). The problem with the muffins is that you are forced to buy twelve of the little devils! Of course I convinced myself that I could just freeze the muffins that I'm not going to consume right away, and off they went into my shopping cart. I haven't eaten twelve muffins in my entire life, and here I go buying a dozen HUGE muffins in one trip. At least they were cheap...



I also began eyeing the 32 pack of coca cola for $9.99. You must understand that the strongest relationship that I have with a brand is with Coke. Everytime I pop open an ice cold coca cola it's as if angels have descended from heaven to relax me and assure me the world is indeed a great place. Of course I don't need coca cola, and on my budget should really only be drinking water, but I wanted it! Do I not deserve one guilty pleasure after leading the tedious lifestyle of a college student. I actually passed on the Costco coca cola, and drove straight to Safeway where I could get 36 cokes for the same price.



For all the mental anguish that I put myself through while grocery shopping, it gives me an hour or so to forget about all of the other stuff I should be worrying about. Sadly, I now have enough food to feed an army for a month... but in a month I will be back for another therepeutic moment at my local Safeway.

Does the green make it better?

I love ice cream, and I have to assume that the rest of America is right there along with me. Personally, ice cream and I seem to have an on-and-off relationship. The ice cream lures me in with its claims of being 'rich' and 'creamy', offering flavorful concoctions that can be nothing other than divine. Yet over time I grow weary with the nightly routine... I don't always want a bowl of ice cream after dinner. Sometimes I want a cupcake, or even Starburst jellybeans! Invariably I say the sad goodbye to ice cream, only to be lured in again at some later point in life.

You could say that I have just been reintroduced to ice cream, and more specifically Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream. I was blissfully unaware of the baggage that MCC ice cream carries concerning one pivotal question... Does the green make it better? Who would know the chaos such a question can cause!

Now my millions of readers just burst out into fits, screaming their support or disdain for the light green color of most MCC ice cream. (I'm pretty sure that the question is what really started the Civil War.) Fear not, for I have yet to make up my mind. However, I will say that I am creating fond memories eating my green MCC ice cream and it will be hard to carry the burden of a boring bowl of white glop. I have also yet to meet someone who doesn't support their MCC ice cream being green... For the sake of science I will try to remain neutral as I conduct further research.

Cheers!

Legalize it!

While I was walking on the Ave today, the heart of the University District, a man offered to sell me some weed. Now I have heard numerous stories about the drug dealers of our eclectic little community, but in over four years I had yet to come across one. I'm a little self conscious about that fact for it certainly means that in the past I have not looked worthy of the drug dealer's goods, but I will save my insecurities for another post... :)

Now I have to ask why our Government has willingly placed the job of importing, regulating, and distributing a cash crop like marijuana into the hands of the uneducated 'gangstas' of our communities? The economic opportunity for our country in marijuana is profound! Think of the enormous amount of money we spend every year arresting and encarcerating pot smokers and dealers. Not only would that expense be eliminated, but an entire new economy would be created that our Government could tax the crap out of! Police officers rarely enforce marijuana laws anymore as it is.

For purely economic reasons, the United States of America should legalize marijuana. The people who smoke weed are going to smoke it whether it is legal or not, and those who aren't interested will remain uninterested. LEGALIZE IT!

It's not a girl's car!

Today in my advertising class my teacher asked the class to name 'Girl's Cars', and my Jetta was named second only to a VW Beetle. Now I will admit that the new Jettas look very feminine. In fact, every Jetta since 2000 looks quite feminine... but not my car!

1. Being a 1998, it isn't the rounded smooth feminine look of new Jettas. It doesn't have the smooth elegant lines that women want in their cars. No, it has the rugged rigid look that women want in their man's car!

2. It has a manual transmission. Not that a woman can't drive a manual transmission, but it truly is a feature of a man's car. I take pride in my skills driving a manual!

3. My Jetta is a diesel. It is loud! It billows black smoke (sort of). It gets amazing gas mileage. A diesel engine is a man's engine! There is an entire forum devoted to TDI engines (www.tdiclub.com).

Now that I have puffed out my chest and declared my car 'manworthy', I must admit that I have fallen in love with my car. Oh, the adventures we have shared together! May we be so lucky as to have many more manworthy adventures to come...

LSAT Score Revealed to the World!

Ok, not really... However I did get my LSAT scores this past Friday, and have since experienced quite the flux of emotion. I had dreams of Harvard knocking down my door with full ride scholarships and a Ferrari that no one would have to know about. On the flip side, I had dreams of receiving a score that was so horrible my Undergraduate Institution kicked me out. Now I would classify my score as acceptable. I certainly did not do as well as I had expected, however I did not do so poorly as to rethink my decision to attend law school. In retrospect, my score made attending law school much more of a reality...

Am I going to be able to afford such a huge investment? I am 100% not interested in working for large firms that eat up young lawyers and spit them out like it's nothing. I am also not interested in helping you get divorced, or helping you sue your sister for stealing your '84 Honda Accord. Rather, my interests lie in helping people who are living with an injustice that they are not in the position to fight. I basically want to help the people who don't have the money to pay me back... To be fair, I am also interested in business law but have not given it much thought. Now helping the less fortunate among us sounds quite romantic, but the reality is that few people do it because they can't. With over $100,000 in debt from law school, young lawyers are forced to choose between their passion (and poverty) and selling out to big firms (with no life but an Audi in the driveway). I have been contemplating whether this is a good investment for myself, and the best I can come up with right now is, "Follow you dreams and the rest will work itself out."

Seems a bit vague to me, but we shall see...

Now I am pretty sure that I will get accepted to a law school. The question now is which one? Without diving into the guessing game, the early contender is Seattle University. It is a good school (tier 2) in the northwest, and has programs that I am interested in. Again I say, we shall see.

Here is my public thanks to my friends and family for your support through my up's and down's. It would have been much tougher without you.

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you too can become great." --Mark Twain

Am I actually subsidizing rape?

My two main points: I want to see where my tax money goes, and I can't believe how absurd the bipartisanship has gotten in the other Washington.

I would like to begin this little rant with a few caveats... I understand that we have a system in the USA that is currently 'working' on a foundation of our taxpayer dollars. I love my country, and I realize that it takes taxpayer dollars to keep it running. Alright, now that I have declared myself a patriot...

I have never in my life spent so much money without any idea where it goes! Mr. President, (who I voted for), I want a receipt that tells me exactly where my money goes. Am I helping to pay for a bridge down in Georgia? Fine! Am I paying the salary of the towel boy in the Senate Locker Rooms? Fine! I am perfectly fine paying my taxes. In fact, I believe that it is my patriotic duty to give back to this system that has provided so much for me. I just want to know where it goes... is that too much to ask?

Now the entire reason that I came upon this subject was a little discussion that Jon Stewart had the other night considering "No Rape" clauses that employees of Government Contractors have signed. Apparently a woman working for a Government Contractor overseas was gang raped by her coworkers, but upon returning to the states she wasn't allowed to sue for rape. Why you might ask? Well in the fine print of a contract she signed to commence her employment, she agreed not to sue for rape.

Now a Democrat introduced legislation that would force all Government Contractors to forgo the 'No Rape' clause. Seems like a no brainer to me... Yet, 30 Republicans voted against the bill!

I wanted to put a little space after that sentence to allow you to contemplate what that means. There must be some rational explanation. One Republican claimed that it is not the Government's place to dictate what can and cannot be written into private contracts. However, it is absolutely the place of the Government to ensure that the companies that they hire are not trampling on the rights of their employees. I simply don't want my money going to support such Government contracts!

My Conclusion: Again Republicans and Democrats are at each others throats over who will hold future office, while forgetting that they are in our capitol to represent us! A republican certainly cannot support a democrat's bill because it may be seen as a democratic victory... and it goes both ways. If we have learned anything over the last eight years, it is that we should be seeking AMERICAN victories rather than party victories. I frankly don't care what party you're in. Look at our Constitution and the Law of our country and do what's right for OUR future, or GET OUT OF OFFICE!

For hat lovers

What is a hat to you? Perhaps it is a floppy golf hat, or a formal derby, or even a 360-bill fishing cap... Well for me there is nothing more than the New Era 59-50 On Field Performance hat. I know, it sounds more like the next greatest technological innovation than a man accessory. However there is great history behind my loyalty...

As a young child my Dad took me to a store and bought me a fitted Mariners cap. Now, I became the biggest hat snob of my school. 'Oh, your hat isn't fitted? Well mine is!' Yet the hats at that time were made of cotton and would shrink so you had to buy a hat that was either too big, or you had to commit yourself to not sweating or wearing it in the rain. Outside of the $30 price tag, this was the only drawback. Leave such a problem to the great minds of New Era and by God they fixed it...

I was unsure of making the change at first, but I figured that if the Pro's are wearing the new polyester mix hat then I could too. I fell in love all over again. You can buy a hat that actually fits your head and expect it to stay that way forever! Sweat still leaves sweat stains, but true hat fanatics will not allow their hat to be doused in sweat. I love my hats as I loved my blanket when I was a young child. They are perhaps the greatest man accessory ever made!

Ode to Testicles!

I would like to tell you all a story about a little Boxer (dog) named Harry. My folk's left for Missouri about four months ago with the goal of riding their bikes across the state (which they did). However they came back with much more than sore butts... Enter Harry Potter Truman! He wasn't even ten pounds at the time and fit comfortably cradled in one arm. The little dot on his upper lip was so cute...

Well inevitably he began to grow. 10 lbs, 20 lbs, 30 lbs, 40 lbs, 50 lbs, 60 lbs, and all in just four months. Now Harry is the first male dog that I have seen grow through adolescence, and he didn't just gain weight. Why he gained some testicles... (balls, gonads, family jewels), and boy was he anxious to take them for a test drive. The dog across the street went into heat a few weeks ago and Harry happily ventured across the street (getting shocked by a shock collar the entire time) to have a smell. It spelled doom for my little dog...

Today marks the very destruction of his little manhoods (nuts, cojones, stones). This morning he was the happiest dog alive, but now he sits down in his crate on drugs that surely can't overcome the emotional trama of having his man tonsils cut off! It is no wonder that there are so many animals out there, but only dogs qualify as man's best friend. No one has ever claimed Dogs were the smartest animals in the world. Would you want to become friends with someone who will eventually cut your love spuds off! I didn't think so...

So I now raise my Coca Cola to Harry Potter Truman, who today sits in a drugged out stupor that is only delaying his knowledge of the trauma that has befallen him. I love you Harry, and I hope that you can one day forgive us...

Cheers!

Inspiration!

Well, for the last few months I have been stressing myself to the max about the LSAT, and law school, and graduating from UW, and anything else I possibly could stress about. I let stress break me down to a fraction of the happy person that I was before deciding upon law school, but I am declaring it time to rebuild! Perhaps it was my first blog posts yesterday, but I feel that 'structure' will be my Moses (who lead the israelites through the red sea for those who don't know). I have taken steps to introduce a formal structure and plan into my life!

For starters, I have a short paper due next Monday that I begun yesterday. Now you must know that I can usually be found writing papers at 11:30 the night before it is due, so this is quite the ideological change for me. I even emailed my Teaching Assistant regarding the structure of the paper. I am emailing my TA about a 3-4 page paper in the very basic introductory history course as a senior about to graduate with honors. Absurd you say! Well I say focused!

I have also committed myself as of late last night to taking the one hundred push up challenge (http://www.hundredpushups.com/)! Basically it is a guided six week work out program where at its completion you should be able to do one hundred pushups straight! There is also the two hundred situps challenge and the two hundred squats challenge which I figure I will do as well. We will see how long my motivation holds out, but I have already completed day 1! Rocky, here I come!!!

I am also supposed to be learning Spanish through self study so that I can test into an upper level Spanish course and graduate on time. Now, you would think that graduation would be my biggest motivating factor at the present, but this damned Rosetta Stone is not all that it's cracked up to be. It is the same screen over and over again, but with new words. I must hold strong though! I must resist the dark side of the force!

Now that I have referenced the Old Testament, Rocky (the original of course), and Star Wars, I feel it is time to study for that Finance quiz tomorrow. Let this be my public declaration that I am back and ready for life!

Cheers!

LSAT Experience (For those who took or are about to take the LSAT)

In my first blog post I promise to write about my LSAT test day experience, and while I was studying for the LSAT I would have loved to hear a first hand account... so here it goes.

When I first began contemplating the idea of law school I didn't have the faintest idea what the LSAT (Law School Admission Test) was. I had to learn all about LSAC (Law School Admission Council http://www.lsac.org/) and the CRS (Credential Referral Service), but enough with the acronyms. I learned that the LSAT is a hellacious test that forces your mind to process huge amounts of data in a very short period of time. I found that I could easily get all of the answers correct if I had an hour for each of the five sections, but you only get 35 minutes a piece. I bought the Powerscore bibles (http://www.powerscore.com/) and the the three published LSAC books of Preptests and went to work.

I started in June by reading through and taking notes on the bibles. About mid July I began going through timed individual sections of the preptests, and by the end of August I began taking tests. Now campus is basically deserted during the summer, so I would go on campus at 8:00 in the morning (to simulate the actual testing time) and connect my laptop to a projector in the business school. Using the LSAT Proctor dvd, I would take the tests. This was a godsend for me because it allowed me to actually focus on the test rather than my wrist watch. I kept this up throughout September and was actually relieved come test day that the grind was over. I did almost thirty complete timed tests...

Now the test was on a Saturday, so on Friday my Dad took the day off from work and we went hiking up at Sunrise (Mt. Rainier). We hiked the Burroughs trail, which I highly recommend. Aside from the sheer beauty of the scenery and the pleasure of breathing fresh mountain air, the hike served as a nice getaway from it all to get a little perspective on life. I would highly recommend some sort of getaway the day before the test. DO NOT STUDY! You need as much mental stamina as you can get on test day, and studying the day before can only hurt you. Get your mind right for christ's sake!

The night before I got my one gallon zip lock bag full of testing materials put together. I set two alarms, put in some ear plugs (greek row is noisy during the summer), and struggled through a night of restless sleep. I woke up early the next morning and had my normal breakfast. Do not make yourselves a huge breakfast! Your nerves will get the better of you, and you may end up regretting that four egg ham and cheese omelet. Now, LSAC suggests that you leave a half hour early to make sure you get there on time. For some reason I interpreted this as 'leave a half hour before I am supposed to arrive'. So although I arrived at 8:15 for an 8:30 test, I was one of the last people to get into the check in line.

Now I took my test at Kane Hall at UW, which has huge auditoriums for our notorious 400 person freshman lectures. We had to turn out our pockets and reveal the contents of our zip lock bag before entering the testing room, which I didn't get into until after 9:00. At the check in desk they made me sign my ticket, and then I went up to my seat. After everyone was seated the staff came around and fingerprinted us before reading the testing instructions and handing out the test. We filled out our personal information on our answer sheets and began potentially the most important test of our lives, or so it feels like.

Some interesting notes: At break there was a mad dash of hundreds of test takers for a single bathroom with two stalls. I had to go to another building, which was a bit unexpected...

There weren't really any big disturbances during the test, although people sporadically had to leave for a bathroom break. Train your bladders and hold off on that second cup of coffee!

I hope that helps, and please feel free to contact me with any questions!

Cheers

Introduction and musings of the LSAT

Well hello! This is my first actual non-academic blog post, so I believe an introduction is in order. I am a fifth year senior at the University of Washington, and am so damned close to getting a degree in history and a degree in business administration that I can taste it! I have a wonderful girlfriend who has no idea that I have taken up blogging, although she will know soon enough :) I grew up in the Seattle area, so my views are inherently a little to the left. I spent the last year taking Native American history courses and interning with the Duwamish Tribal Government. This knowledge and the related experiences have led me to consider and ultimately decide upon going to law school.

Now law school is a funny thing. Given the current economic crisis facing our country (which I heard today on KIRO 97.3 FM that we are actually climbing out of) I would assume that a record number of people are applying to law school. I mean, who would want to venture out into this job market when you could hide in law school for another three years? However, my Dad pointed out an article that claims fewer people are applying due to the financial obligations associated with graduate work. I guess there are always two sides to every story. My point is that I feel that there is going to be healthy competition to get into good schools. Now I am in a pretty comfortable academic situation going into applications, but who would have known that there is this monster lurking in the waters that preys upon the hopes and dreams of unsuspecting law school applicants... I am frightened to even speak its name, but for the sake of my new blog I feel I must. Yes, it is the LSAT.

One half day test that means more than four (or in my case five) years of college. I am fortunate enough to have that god forsaken test in my past, having taken it on September 26, but I am still waiting for my score. I will fill a different post with my thoughts on the LSAT, for the entire reason that I have taken to spilling the wanderings of my mind into a blog is to deal with the stress! I have four days until one little score will be branded on me like a tattoo that can never be removed. My mind has been filled since test day with discussions from pompous assholes who have felt the need to post their scores of 176 and 178 (cough, *bullshit*, ahem) all over the internet, and yet I keep searching for more. Somewhere is the one post that will make all of my anxiety go away! Right?

Wrong, I know. There is no comfort outside of 'I know I did my best', and thoughts that 'when one door closes, another always opens.' Perhaps some of you have turned to your God for peace of mind. I have turned to blogging. It seems to have worked for now... Cheers!

P.S. If you haven't listened to the podcast 'Too Beautiful to Live (tbtl.net) you simply aren't living life. You can check it out on itunes as well. I have nothing to do with the show outside of being a fateful Ten.