The Corner In The Middle

Friday is the MPRE.  I’m supposed to take it.  I’m skipping it.  I decided to take my kids camping.  Between school and my crappy hardware store job, this summer has been fairly light stress wise, but actual time with the kids has been inconsistent, fun, but inconsistent.  I’ve promised them all summer to go, but since the wife doesn’t work and I have to work friday through sunday, and she has classes tues and thurs mornings, we’ve just not had time to go.  So, making a partnership decision, I’ve decided to take the coming weekend, skip the mpre, and call in on my saturday so I can go have us time with my children.

They are way too awesome to not do this.  We’ve gone on a million miles of trails and had billions of outside hours this summer, but they’ve not been camping yet.  And, they are happy to inform me that we need to go.  So, I decided to simply give away my $65 ticket to the data hole that is the internet and spend the weekend with my kids.  They’ll be there for me when the law isn’t.

Happy summer, this is the last one before the bar, so it better count for something more than a shitty hardware store job and another ten thousand dollars on my loan bill…

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Here are a bunch of pictures of the updated container garden:

As you can see, the eggplants are no longer hampered by insect damage.  There is still a little insect damage here and there, but nothing dangerous any longer.  As I mentioned a few posts ago, every night I bring them in at dusk, and every morning I put them out, all five plants.  Of course, there are only four eggplants, but I also bring in the cilantro/oregeno because it’s there and what’s one more trip? 

And, of course, these stay out because I could never manage to put it back together: 

One last eggplant, I’m so proud of these, as my previous post indicated, we have eaten one eggplant, and now there are probably five growing now, and about twelve more flowers amongst the crew:

So, let’s find a moral for this story…  Ok, here you go:

You can’t call yourself independent if you rely on others for your well being.  Although I can only plant so many containers, at least I’m doing something.  You don’t get to call yourself successful if the only thing separating you from unemployed hobos is your job.  If you lose your job, you can’t provide for yourself.  If you lose your job, you lose your car, house, credit cards, so, yeah, that makes you a couple of steps away from being a hobo.  Of course, being in school is a little different because at this point, I can’t buy a house.  But, we are looking, we have found what seems to be a land for use to rent to own in the fall, and, yes, we will be planting and becoming self sustaining as soon as possible.  That’s what makes people successful:  Doing for yourself what other’s can’t or simply refuse to.  So, become a little independent, it doesn’t take much, and the gratification from knowing at least you’re trying is very rewarding.  Don’t be a hobo with a job; use your education to separate yourself from cows.  Nice cars and homes aren’t a personality trait, of course, maybe you figured that out by now, or maybe you didn’t…

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I have a final tomorrow, and I started studying yesterday.  I sometimes wonder what I am thinking?  I never seem to have a good answer… 

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If you have a really, really nice house, and you don’t have friends or family around to see it, it’s worthless.

If you build a house around a manure lagoon, I guess the lawyer side of me says, well, call it a “lake house”…

Sometimes, you have that friend who constantly says “you just constantly misinterpret what I say, it’s never mean, you just take it that way…”  But my argument is, well, maybe if you’re constantly saying things that people take as offensive and mean, maybe you are actually saying mean and offensive things.

On that same note, when you bash people, and then tell them, “well, I just want to work this out but you have to be the one to make amends because even though I was mean to you, you are the one who got angry and left the conversation.  Now you have to apologize for leaving before we can fix this…”  I guess some people are just so “amazing” that they never see how jacked up their way of life is.

Sometimes, when people are “judging you,” maybe they are just tired of being stood over.  If you are not a god, maybe you shouldn’t act like one.

If you have to constantly explain to people that you are “not being mean, just honest,” well, maybe you should ask yourself if your “honesty” is just you being a jerk cloaked in an assholes costume.

On a completely different thought, a friend of mine, who is a 3L at another law school not so far away, has an awesome disc out, you should check out his webpagepage:       www.formerlyforest.com      He records and does everything himself, and during the school year on top of that, he made an album, and I hear he’s finishing up a second as we speak.  Anyway, give it a listen, you can download the album on itunes and amazon, search formerly forest, but if you buy it through his site, it’s only seven bucks.    check it out:  www.formerlyforest.com   Support local music…

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There are very few things more curious than waking up trying to figure out why out of all the awesome snack food we keep around here, such as ice cream, cookies, peanut butter, ect… why, exactly, our daughter who is about to turn five, finds nothing more satisfying than to have a large nibble off the old stick of butter?  It’s not abnormal for her, it’s real butter so it’s good, but seriously, can’t she just ask me for cinnamon toast or something?  Seriously…

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So, we’re in class, family law actually.  We are discussing alimony, specifically regarding long term marriages, in one case, they’ve been married 26 years, he is 45, she is 46.  She wants serious alimony because when they were dating, she had an amazing job and a good career ahead of her, and when they got married she gave it up to raise a family.  The part that struck me, is when the prof mentioned, she’s 46 now, she hasn’t worked for twenty five years.  It’s not the same world she was in prior to the marriage.  Then, he says, much to my dismay:  Of course, she could get a job checking people out at the local “crappy hardware store…”   and named my employer.  He’s right, I can’t even get a job checking people out, I just load soil and dirt.

BTW, I recently got my “annual review” at my crappy hardware store job.  My assistant store manager and department supervisor said if I keep on doing what I’m doing, that after I graduate law school, next year, they may try to promote me and make me a department supervisor.  but, I have to work another six to twelve months, and open up my hours to full time availability during the school year.  So, in sum, here’s what my promotion would entail:  me moving up fifty cents to 9.75 an hour, insurance (at my cost), forty hours, and I’d get to tell four people what to do.  BTW, of my department supervisor, the other store department supervisors,  the three assistant store managers, and the store manager, not ONE of them has a B.A.. 

Because that’s why I went to law school, so I could make $9.75 an hour.  FML. 

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I’ve now cooked on my “son of hibachi” grill twice, and I love it.  The other day, we cooked kabobs.  Nothing special, just eggplant, onion, pineapple, and mushrooms.  They turned out awesome.  I did make the skewers a little big as they hung off the sides of the grill, but that’s not terrible, I am used to having a giant grill so it’s an easy fix.  Yesterday, we fired it up and cooked sliced eggplant and sliced pineapple. 

As you can see, it held an entire eggplant, the black beauty type you find at the grocery store, and a tiny pickling eggplant from my container garden.  The eggplant was cut into half inch pieces.  After I cooked it for roughly three minutes on this side, I flipped it and it sat another two minutes and then I pulled it off.  The pineapple went on, as well as my two hotdogs.  I really like this grill because it gets so hot, it cooks very fast.  It’s not really for cooking a giant meal, it’s a hibachi grill.  It’s made for smaller cuts, that’s why I bought it.  We eat such a variety of stuff that I can make skewers, and small cuts of meat (because the wife and daughter are vegetarians) and I don’t have to fire up the propane grill.  I am not a grill fanatic of one type or another, I have used several grills, mostly I have a preference depending on what I’m cooking. 

For example, I like the propane for chicken and veg, but I prefer hardwood charcoal for veg, steak, ham, and pork.  Burgers can go either way.  I simply prefer the convenience of propane for quick things, but again, it depends on what we’re cooking, how many are over, ect…  But this hibachi is awesome.  I can cook anything on it, and it cooks fast, and tastes good because I don’t use petroleum based charcoal, I only use hardwood or competition briquettes, and I never, never use lighter fluid.  This grill accommodates both those needs because it lights like a chimney starter, and gets friggin hot man!

I’m going to order a solid grate, they have a few different ones, but I want a whole solid one because I could cook eggs and bacon on it without worrying about them falling into the coals.  And it’s small.  It folds up and has a carrying case.  When I’m done cooking, I can just fold it up, and stick it right into the case, it doesn’t need cooling time.  The manufacturer says to wait at least 30 minutes from packing up before you actually put it in your car or wherever you store it, and I agree.  But It’s nice that I can pack it up and be done with it and grab the bag later after it cools. 

The grates are adjustable, so you can heat it and they even make a grate that sits about 8 inches above the fire for buns or what not.  I’ll be getting that too.  All in all, I’m extremely satisfied with this, and if you are looking for a small charcoal grill, suck it up and get this one.  I’m not against other table top grills, I had a weber smokey joe for several years and it is an awesome grill too.  But this one has it’s own starter, is an easy clean up, has a bag so it’s more portable, besides, if you’re a sports fan, son of hibachi even has covers for many teams.  Well, there’s some free advertisement for this grill, but I must say, it is an awesome purchase, and I’m very glad I ran across it.  Happy summer!  I’ll put some more pics up as we keep cooking on this, we grill almost every day so I’ll keep you updated. 

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AS I foresaw, the crappy hardware store job is starting to sink.  Due to the economy, our store is in the tank, and it’s not looking good.  Also, i might have mentioned that the new “team” is horrible, uneducated, not respectful to the employees, and aren’t interested in anyone’s opinion outside the three of them. 

The “team” picked and pointed all day yesterday in my direction, and frankly, I am just thankful I don’t have to pay a mortgage because if I had to actually rely on that job for my livelihood, I would be scared.  Fortunately, I’ve been on the hunt pretty heavily and I think my outlook is good.  It would be nice to find a paying law job since that’s what I’m going to school for, but a nice part-time management position is just fine with me. 

It sucks though as I like most of my co-workers.  Many are students, and those that aren’t are really nice people who just want to work and go home at the end of the day.  The thing that strikes me the oddest is the amazing extremes of people managing retail.  You either get very laid back folk who just want you to show up on time and do what you’re supposed to do and if you do that, they are happy you are there and they don’t mess with you.  The other type, the new manager, well, she’s not happy when you’re there, is happy to remind you she can replace you instantly, always picking and pointing out how awesome she is, nothing is good enough, and interestingly, doesn’t read the employee manual so really doesn’t have any idea what corporate policy says.

I certainly would feel differently if I was making any real money, at least I might, but having been there a year and promised that I was in line for advancement in the company because of my degree and where I am, well, I’m thinking the only advancement coming my way is advanced unemployment. 

It’s days like today I’m reminded how amazing hobos have it. 

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I am really trying to be patient because the nature of growing container gardens is that it is inherently difficult sometimes.  Unfortunately, I don’t have much patience, especially on Friday when I have to go to my crappy hardware store job and be ordered around by morons with no education. 

I have endured crazy spring storms, the onslaught of devastating beetles, kids touching and thumbing my plants because they are “neat,” and finally rid my area of slugs, all of which were not being friendly to my plants.  Alas, All seemed to be well as of yesterday, such as no more signs of insect damage at least not completely ravagin my stuff.  Anyway, this morning, while waking and staring at my eggplant, oh the poor eggplant… Damn it, rabbits…

If it’s not one thing it’s another.  So, now I have to get rid of another thing.  My eggplants are all but destroyed, they are sprouting new foliage from the onslaught of the past three weeks, but damn it, what a way to wake up. 

There’s nothing like going into a job I hate, trying to convince people that gardening and all its trials and tribulations are worth the end, while being pissed off about frigging rabbits.  Of course, if I really want to teach them a lesson, I could make rabbit kababobs on my new “son of hibachi” grill that I will be trying today for the first time, but I won’t.  I’ll just make a pork chop and try to figure this thing out. 

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Here’s an interesting story, an owner sees his dog choke on food, puts the dog in the car and speeds to the nearest pet hospital.  A cop pulls the driver over, tells him he can get another one if it dies, and takes twenty minutes to write a ticket.  The dog dies while the officer is writing the ticket. 

Here’s my shtick.  I don’t know which I agree with.  I can of course, see the officers view that it’s an animal, and as much as pet owners love their pets, they are still not people regardless of the bond, and the owner should not have driven 100 mph, that endangered numerous lives regardless of the issue.  On the other hand, the officer as according to the story, knew the situation after having it explained, and drug a five minute stop into twenty minutes to keep his “command presence” and ultimately killed the dog by insuring medical treatment would not be provided. 

Everyone knows I hate police officers.  I don’t want to hear any crap about there’s good ones too, when the only people who are signing up for the job are ex high school jocks, army folk who refuse to get educations to get better jobs upon leaving the service, and those who simply want to be police, well, you have to take who comes to apply.  I get that.  But, when you hang a banner on the side of your car that says “to serve and to protect,” it would be nice if officers were required to have a test like in T.L.O., that they use “reason and common sense” when dealing with situations. 

Obviously both parties were in error, the driver should have slowed down, his car could have malfunctioned and careened off the road into a house ect… and the officer could have sped things up, escorted or simply driven the pair to the vet. 

My biggest problem with this story is trying to be empathetic to the person who has a serious bond with a non-human and sympathetic with an officer who had a duty to ensure folks weren’t driving a hundred miles an hour.  If this gentleman had been a hobo he’d probably have been better off.  Trains go right through urban centers and don’t often get pulled over for speeding. 

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Some friends of mine are getting a divorce.  It’s a little weird.  They’ve been together for about ten years now, they have a little house, a dog, and three kids.  It’s weird for me because I’m new to this situation.  I’ve never had friends split before, dating friends yes, but married friends no.  There are the practical considerations such as they had better not get pissed off when I talk to the other one, I really enjoy both of their company.  I’m also not planning on picking sides, I think they are both good people.  Frankly I was surprised to actually hear about it.  I knew they had their days, but that’s how it works. 

On top of that, how scary it must be for the kids, and how unfortunate.  They’ve lived in that house their whole life, now who knows.  I know that she isn’t working, she was going to school and working a little here and there, but mostly he supported them.  I also know his family is close to here, but hers is about two hours away.  I really feel for the kids.  We weren’t close per se, but we did talk to them a lot, and we were around enough that it surprised me.  I’m glad I’m not an attorney yet, because I’ve been asked a hundred questions about the law from my non-law school friends, and this is another situation where I can certainly see if I was an attorney, I’m sure by now one of them would have asked for advise.

Not only can’t I give advise to people because well, it’s forbidden (not to mention I know nothing about state specific stuff because law school is general policy and the rest is worthless) but most of the time, it’s just plain uncomfortable because every time someone asks something, I realize that my friends are regular people with problems, and it makes things cloudy and awkward for me because I don’t want to be an answer to their problems, I want to them to be friends because I’m cool and odd, not because I can save them some cash. 

Maybe my friends will get back together to keep my life a little less turbulent.  I could really use a little more stability. 

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Today I ordered my new hibachi- the son of hibachi – and I am impatiently awaiting it to arrive.  They claim same day shipping, so I hope that’s the case.  I will sit on my front porch until it arrives.  I’m obsessive like that, although I don’t see it as a problem because I accept that part of myself.

I also ordered a couple of cook books.  However, I don’t really need them as I have the definitive collection of cookbooks, and I think, seriously, you’d be hard pressed to find a small collection as broad and complete as the one I have amassed.  But, since I ordered a new grill, I thought I should get a couple of books to accompany it.  They are hibachi cook books, because I don’t have any of those, and they are out of print/old school books.  Cookbooks from the last few years tend to be good, but they are often just old recipes with a new twist.  I can do that myself.  I just want some ideas, I can tweak them myself.

I will be doing a review with pictures and stuff.  Of course, the website never responded to my request for a discount so I didn’t get the awesome kit I wanted, but oh well.  I did ask again when I made the order so maybe they’ll include something.

I’m off to do some writing, there’s a paper looming and if there’s one thing I can do, it’s write an awesome paper.  Happy summer!

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Remember yesterday how I mentioned that there was probably a really oily-fishy explanation behind the ruling against the six month drilling ban, well, if you paid any attention to the news today, I told ya so.  If not, here’s the story:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100623/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill 

The judge has a little investment in the oil business.  Well, at least this didn’t come from a crystal ball.  Even I, a lowly law student smelled the rotten odor behind this ruling.  So, maybe something will come on the appeal, but it’s hard to tell. 

I have to be careful how far I criticize judges lest it prove fatal later on, but I’m not saying anything not pointed out on any major network news at this point.  I’m not saying he’s being paid off or anything, but when you give the “illusion of impropriety,” you are asking for trouble regardless of from whenst it arose.

On another note, the networks are reporting that apparently, home buying statistics are really low.  For some reason, people aren’t buying homes right now.  Maybe it’s because no one has jobs?  Of course, I’m not sure having a job was important before but now that people are checking references on mortgages, maybe it’s having some effect on their ability to get a new home loan.  I could be wrong of course, and maybe it’s just that people figured out they could live in foreclosed houses for free and there’s no longer a need to buy it because there’s enough to move around in once you’re caught. 

Hobo’s may be on to something…

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Dear New Orleans,

In case you didn’t notice, the earth is vomiting oil into your gulf, destroying the middle class who rely on it for fish, tourism, and food, and you just gave them the middle finger because the oil industry wants to drill again?  http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20100622/NEWS06/100622033/Judge-blocks-Gulf-offshore-drilling-moratorium

So, one of two things is happening.  One, the oil drilling industry is comprised of more people than the rest of the folk who depend on the gulf for their livelihood, in which case it would make sense you would want to ignore the dangers that have been allowed the past years; or two, the oil industry and it’s lobby has managed to give you, ie.  the working middle and lower class a giant red finger.  I suggest it’s the second choice.

I am all for oil, well, in the sense that we need it, not as much as most consumers think, but we need it.  However, in light of all the lack of safety and permit waivers, not to mention the fact that the oil is now everywhere south of the mason-dixon line, maybe the agency is following orders from its leader, and he is the president.  You know, the head honco in charge of the executive branch, the one who was given authorization by congress to create and enforce regulations, including regulating those oil sucking corporations in the gulf.  You remember, the President, the one who can do the most to help you after BP says “we’ve cleaned it up so the rest is up to you…”  Just like Bhopal, you remember, that chemical plant in India that is exactly like this situation, but a little different; still harming people and the environment twenty five years later (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster), you know, after Dow said “it’s clean and there are no more problems!!  Problem Solved!!

So, when the oil sucking guys F#@% up and kill eleven people and spill unknown millions of oil into the water, you know, the water that is now unable to be used for anything except a giant tiki torch, well, maybe you should suck it up and figure out how and why this whole F%$^ing thing happened instead of drilling again and pretending that this can’t happen again.

Or, you could just convince a judge that the agency is wrong and you should be able to drill again.  Well, good luck to you.  When you ask for something, and you get it, maybe you should pay the price for your decision.  Oh wait, you can’t afford anything because your state is full of uneducated unemployed lower class who can’t do anything about anything because the few who have the money are in power.  Well, I can tell you where we won’t be going for our vacation.  When it gets worse, maybe I’ll blog about how New Orleans should pay for the disaster since they seem to believe it can’t happen again.

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As I checked the ever fading social networking site this morning, I noticed an add about an ex-CIA super agent who has to prove she is innocent of something, of course it stars a hottie A. Jolie to get people to even attend the theatre at all.  Here’s my question:  who is paying to see this crap?  Every year there is another movie with the exact same premise, don’t you remember the bourne series, a bunch of movies with van damme, segal, a few tom clancy titles, and a bunch I can’t think of at the moment.  WTf is wrong with the general public?  How many times can they repackage the same plot with a different face and the public pays ten bucks a seat to go watch it? 

If it’s not that, the other big movie of the year will be (and has been) a couple of small town or village innocent people who meet up with a person, and they end up teaming up with an oppressed army of thousands of different creatures fighting a super army with millions of oppressors thugs and the entire movie is a two hour build up to a fifteen minute fight sequence of cgi junk that ends with the minority winning and everything is well after that, and don’t forget at least two sequels that the public chases like the greatest ever (see star wars, lord of the rings, avatar, the narnia series).

I don’t tend to watch them, at least not on purpose.  I liked the rings, and I thought it was awesome, but then the second and third one, well, I couldn’t really tell you which one was which because other than the ring gets destroyed, they were the same movie.  And that set off a whole slew of the same film with different creature races, and it’s set off by super secret agent proving he/she didn’t try to destroy something super secret and amazing.  Dear general public:  maybe if you stop going to stupid movies, you would have a little more money to spend having actual family time. 

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