I'm really bad at this

I am really terrible at remembering to update. Here are some recent highlights, for posterity's sake:

- There has been much watching of Music Choice in Drew's room at nights

- Lonely Island!

- I'm currently working to finish my thesis. A lot of work has gone into my conclusion, mainly because I keep pumping out subpar work

- Only two exams to come: one tuesday, which I care about some, and one friday which I would have to bomb in order to not pass the pass/fail class

- We did our project on first-generation college students for my Peer Advising class. We probably had the best idea of all the groups, but our posterboard that we did wasn't as cool as some other groups. Our paper was really long, though

- I ended my job at the congressman's office. That was a good way to spend a few hours each week.

- I still haven't heard back from 11/12 law schools. Most of my applications have gone complete, but there are still two holdouts. I'll either call them this week (if I remember), or after I get back to Charlotte.

- Not looking forward to moving out. It'll be sad. Also, I need to vacuum my rug. That thing is probably disgusting.

Cute picture time!


Not much to report here. I am trying to get a good bit of homework done, as I have spent this semester in a blissful state of relative non-work (1L is going to suuuuuck) and it is beginning to catch up with me. Kind of. I'm working on a paper that's due in 10 days. What can I say; I'm an overachiever now. Kind of.

Thanksgiving was great, as usual. Delicious food abounded, although we did not fry a turkey to my (minor) dismay. It's probably for the best, as that may have caused stomach bursting for many consumers. The whole family was there this year, so hooray for that. No major highlights to speak of though; perfect as usual.

I'm less than 3 weeks from being done with school. Yikes.

I haven't posted recently. Not much exciting to speak about. The football team nearly lost to Navy after beating them badly for most of the game, and then today we lost to Syracuse, who was arguably one of the 10 worst teams in the country. Fantastic. I hope we fire the coach. The last game of my student career didn't really seem too emotional. I wasn't even that mad we lost.

We did have an epic class-wide marshmallow fight, and it was kind of fun going to a game today when it was fricking freezing (mid 20s). I dressed up... kind of. I wore a bow tie. And my jacket. And pjs. And my warm shoes, but I wore no socks so my toes felt frozen at the end of the game. Good times.

As far as real life goes, it keeps chugging along. I got a full ride to Texas Law school, so yay for free money. Thanksgiving, my favorite day of the year, is this week, and I'm pumped to go to the hall for the yearly gorging. Rumor has it that we're frying turkeys. That will be a first. Yay for clogging arteries!

So I guess it was a pretty big week

Oh, yeah: I finished the first full draft of my thesis and I got into Texas Law School. Hook 'em horns.

The big news this week, obviously, is that Barack Obama got elected. My political positions are such that I probably will never get too excited about any national politician ever again in my lifetime. It would pretty much require a 1980-like election where a Democratic president making no apologies for clearly failing big government economic policies was running against a president who reads Reason magazine. As it was, this election was a Democratic president with soon to-be-failing big government economic policies against a geriatric Republican who appears to be more interested in military intervention than George W. Bush. Needless to say, I voted for neither candidate (I wrote in the name of the libertarian candidate for governor in North Carolina. I'm not terribly fond of the libertarian who ran for president).

There are a variety of reasons for people like me to be happy about this election. First and foremost, the Republican Party needs a massive makeover. Make no mistake about it, the last eight years have been a big government era. From the expansion of power in the executive (signing statements, domestic/international spying and wiretapping, new "interrogation" tactics) to the biggest expansion of government spending by percentage of GDP since Lyndon Johnson, there are a variety of really good reasons to be angry at the Republican Party. They deserved to lose, and got what they deserved. If the party wants to become the party of George W. Bush and Sarah Palin, fine. Just don't expect people like me to ever vote for them.

Secondly, it's pretty cool a black guy got elected president. I'd be hard to deny that. Unless you're a racist, it's undeniably touching to see Ebenezer Baptist Church erupting in joy after the results were in. It's great to hear Martin Luther King's speech and to think: Holy hell, this majority white nation just elected a minority. It's hard for people outside this country to say we're an oppressive nation when a guy named Barack Hussein Obama is in charge. Still, I couldn't vote for the guy because of the racial component. I'm opposed to affirmative action for public sphere employment, and voting for a dude for president in part because he is black would be hypocritical, to say the least.

I will not deny, however, that I am ageist. All other things being equal, it's way better that a 47-year-old is running the country than a 72-year-old.

Thirdly, I think Barack Obama's election is the death of public financing of federal elections. Yes, the dude was a huge liar for changing his position on it and privately funding his general campaign. So what? He came to the right side in the end. Baby steps, baby steps. Hooray for free speech.

Fourthly, and perhaps importantly, maybe Barack Obama is the right guy to improve the biggest injustice in America today, schooling in the inner city. This might be the Nixon to China moment for domestic policy: a Democratic president standing up to the teachers union and saying "you are a the biggest part of one of the greatest problems in America. I will not follow your agenda. It is time to install competition among schools and institute a progressive system of school vouchers." Well, this probably won't happen, as the teacher's union is the most powerful lobby in the country, in my opinion. But a boy can dream.

Well, there are a few other issues where I'm sure I'll be happy Barack won this election. But those are my initial thoughts. I'll just grin and bear it when they pass a cap-and-trade program (read: tax) without offsetting the revenues through a payroll tax cut and give handouts to preferred businesses. Ugh, I'm getting sick thinking about policies that Democratic members of Congress support. Also, Rahm Emmanuel, Barack's chief of staff, supports a mandatory service program for all Americans under 25. Like a commenter on Reason online said: it'd be pretty ironic if the first black president instituted a 21st century version of slavery.

Stand up to them, Barack. You're our only hope (well, that and the Republican filibuster).

So I'm sitting in the library after the football team lost to Pittsburg in quadruple overtime (field goals all around in overtime. Except we missed one at a really inopportune time). I am quite disappointed. Losing isn't fun, but the worst part is that there is a solid chance that the team will go 7-5, which means we do not go to the bowl game in Jacksonville, FL, which means I am not driving to the game. The other options are the Cotton Bowl in Dallas (really unlikely) or the Sun Bowl in El Paso (7-5 nearly guarantees that one). ARGARGARG ANRGY. This means we have to beat both BC and Navy on the road. Something tells me that is unlikely. ARG ARG ARG

So yesterday was fun, though, as it was halloween. I dressed up as three hole punch Jim from the Office, and it went over okay. I have no pictures, unfortunately. Drew dressed up as a character from Doug, and everyone loved that. We went to a party at an apartment in the Fisher graduate residences (the host is a masters of accounting that I didn't/don't really know, but he seems like a good guy). We had a pretty good time. Immediately after walking in the door the host, dressed as Michael Phelps (compression shorts and 8 fake gold medals around his neck) says HEY GUYS. WANNA FORTY? and proceeds to give me, charles, drew, and ilse 40 ounce Coors Lights. I've never seen these things. They're quite massive and hilarious. Charles actually drank two, plus played some beer pong. It's rather incredible what the human liver can take.

Anyways, at the party there was a funny and then not so funny situation involving Drew and a member of the "class of 2009." When Drew asked her what her major was, she goes "Ummm, I'm in high school." That's right, Drew was hitting on a seventeen year old high school senior. Hilarious, right? So we go and make fun of Drew and poke fun at the girl, but for some reason half an hour later she goes to Ilse and tells her that she made out with Charles. This is bad for two reasons: one, Old Testament God said not to lie on the Ten Commandments, and Old Testament God can get mighty angry at sinners. And two: Ilse is Charles's girlfriend (we don't know if the potential statutory rape victim was aware of this). Major drama. That pretty much ended the otherwise quite enjoyable party for us.

Today was good, until the fourth overtime of the football game. Lots of sitting around watching football, then the game was fun. I did pushups on our last touchdown, which is pretty impressive for the people lifting me up. Also, Bon Jovi and Jeff Samardzija were on the sidelines, so that's cool. But losing and ruining my potential trip to Jacksonville: not cool.

Wedding

Fall break has come and gone, meaning it's the last half of the last semester of college. Weird.

As far as things going, here's the story. Three times last week I went to Ritter's, a frozen custard place in Mishawaka that is half off for Notre Dame students. What a bargain. I got large, delicious treats because it is so damn cheap. I guess the law of demand holds.

Thursday/Friday I worked on my thesis (a little). Friday at 3PM I loaded up the car (almost) and took off from South Bend. About an hour and fifteen minutes (~75 miles) later, I realized I forgot my suit. This was a crucial element of the voyage, for I was going to a wedding. Whoops. I promptly turned around the car and headed back to Notre Dame. I was a little annoyed, but oh well.

The drive was crappy, as the weather has been crappy around here for about a week. Yesterday, for example, it snowed. I forgot to take pictures.

Anyhow, the wedding was great, and we didn't really take too many pictures. The pictures we did take did not turn out. Including the pictures that we took for Christmas cards. Doubt me? Click here.

It was great seeing the Suchaneks and all. It was in the northern suburbs of Detroit (our hotel was a minute's drive from the Silverdome, and I saw the Palace of Auburn Hills for the first time). The reception was fantastic. Our family was really awkward out on the dance floor. Hooray for white people. I did miss the Notre Dame-Washington game, which I hope is the last time in my life I miss an entire ND game. Probably not, considering I aspire to be a lawyer, but you never know. Note to self: definitely NOT getting married on a Saturday in the fall.

Sunday morning Tim and I took off to come back to ND. We stopped at Angelo's in Ann Arbor, which is a great place to get deep fried French toast (that's right... yummy). We came back to ND, hung out in Dillon, went to Subway dinner (a Sunday tradition unlike any other) with Packy, and came back and I did some homework while tim did too. Poor kid, working over fall break. Monday morning we went to the American Pancake House, that amazing diner north of campus. Tim had the apple pancake, and I had the corned beef hash skillet. I barely even felt full. You know why? I'm getting fat fat fat. I've put on 10 pounds since I got back to school, and I broke 150 in weight for the first time in three years at some point in the last few weeks (I weighed 152 today). At this point, I'm just living it up this semester. For example, I had two pieces of pecan pie tonight. After weighing myself and feeling like a fatass. I plan on becoming bulimic after Christmas; I gotta enjoy the holidays too.

The rest of yesterday was class and a gym trip with the tim tim. The people at the Rockne gym were cool and let him in. This morning I worked and then took tim to the airport. This afternoon was spent at the gym and then blowing off my thesis. I'm supposed to have a first draft completed by this time next week. Maybe, but maybe not.

Anyhow, here are some pictures if you missed the link the first time around.

Fall break

So it's Fall Break. I have been working on my thesis a lot over the break, watching soccer and football, and enjoying life. Weather's been okay, but it rained yesterday. Nothing terribly exciting. I'm back on campus, and nobody is here. Quiet, quiet, quiet.

What inspired me to post is that I wrote a really long email and I figured I ought to keep it, as it explains why I couldn't vote for Obama (or McCain). Since many people in my generation probably find it inconceivable that somebody my age couldn't vote for Barack (heh - the google spell checker doesn't recognize Barack), I can direct them to this little ditty. It began with an email that my mom sent that illustrated who pays the federal income tax and people whining about how "unfair" tax cuts are there.

This is slightly disingenuous... this is only the federal income tax, not all taxes.

They've tried to do studies on taxes paid as a percentage of income earned, and almost across the board people pay a little more than 25 percent of their income in taxes w/ sales taxes, local income tax, property taxes, corporate income, payroll, etc.

For example, if one makes $90000 all of your income is subject to the ~6% payroll tax (plus there's the hidden payroll tax "your employer" pays - actually, the vast majority of the payroll tax the employer pays ultimately comes out of the paycheck of the employee, but that's another subject), so about 6% of that person's income is paid in payroll taxes.

Compare that with somebody who makes $900000. only the first ~$90000 is subject to the payroll tax, so less than 1% of his/her income is taxed under the payroll tax. The rich guy also will pay a smaller percentage of income in sales taxes, cigarette taxes, gas taxes, etc. because, while that person may spend more and may pay more taxes in an absolute sense, that person will not pay a proportionate amount of taxes than an average/poor earner.

Sooo, having said all that, Obama saying that 95% of Americans will get a "tax cut" under his plan is even more disingenuous. Considering that 40+% of Americans do not pay any federal income taxes, it's hard to see where the "cut" for them comes from. Ultimately that plan is tricked up welfare, a new New Deal which provides only an income effect (which will lead people who get these "cuts" to work less) while raising marginal tax rates on everybody (which provides a substitution effect away from work as well).

Essentially, it will shrink the tax base to pay for a growing number of people on the dole to some degree or another. As a trend, it's entirely unsustainable over the long term, which is a significant part of why I couldn't bring myself to vote for a pretty cool dude whose foreign policy I entirely agree with and who is on the right (or right-er) side of many social issues (gay rights, drug decriminalization/legalization, removing the embargo of Cuba). He has been pretty even keel, but his party's demogogary on economic issues (Two Americas, opposing free trade, THEY TOOK OUR JERBS- google that if you don't get it, etc) is pretty unforgivable. I will never vote Democratic as long as they continue that crap. Even when a 40something smooth guy with a much better temperment to be president is running against a geriatric "American greatness" conservative who the neo-cons liked over Bush in 2000 who picked somebody for vice president who appears to be a dumber, less qualified version of George W. Bush.

So it's a great year to do a write-in! I would have voted for Bob Barr, but the dude was a religious nut who attempted to crucify Clinton and wrote the Defense of Marriage Act. Write-in! Viva la revolucion!

Son #1

By the way, I wrote in Mike Munger, a Duke political science and economics professor who is running for governor of NC on the libertarian ticket. I honestly believe that he would do a better job governing than just about anyone in the country, so I don't feel I threw away my vote at all, despite my occasional crack that I threw away my very valuable vote (NC is a swing state this year). And, in my own little way, I did protest- I want to be a Republican, but the party has lost it's way since 1995 after the government shutdown. Goddamn Bill Clinton and his inexplicable desire to have sex with ugly interns. He riled up too many religious nutjobs.

I don't really need a blog. I need a twitter feed. Here are today's twitters:

Owned Tax Policy Test

rain rain rain I got wet

yelled @ Obama + McCain

Lost to UNC

The past week flew by without too many highlights. Then yesterday happened.

I got up at about 7:45, watched an episode of the daily show and an episode of colbert, then hung out some for a little while until me, Drew, Packy, and Charles went to the American pancake house. I went there 2x with my parents when they were here over the Michigan weekend, and the place is delicious. I got the apple pancake again, which is massive and sugary and delicious. It was the only real food I had all day (we'll get to that later).

We came back and the Texas-Oklahoma game was on. It was pretty exciting, but in the second half Drew and I were just cheering for the game to go fast so the ND-UNC game wouldn't get preempted. We missed only one drive, which was good, and we saw the first ND drive where they went right down and scored a touchdown.

And things kind of went downhill from there. Jimmy Clausen looked pretty good, but he also made 3 killer turnovers, and we lost by five. It was sad. I'm not going to hear the last of that one.

So after the game we drank beer and listened to emo for a couple hours. We then smoked a un-victory cigar outside of Dillon. And then we realized it was only about 10PM and there was still plenty of time for something to happen, so we went out to the Backer, which totally sucks. It was full of creepy, old townies. Some cougars tried to hit on me and Drew, but we weren't really having any of that. We left after about an hour and a half of people watching, because it was starting to get dull.

This morning the loss still hurt a little.

On War test #1

I got a B+ on a test I barely studied for. I'm taking the class pass/fail. I almost feel bad for not helping the curve on that. The best news of all this is the "barely studied for" part on the next test will shift to "didn't study for."

John Jenkins, ND's president, spoke in Dillon for more than an hour tonight. The dude is smart, and he really cares about Notre Dame. He didn't really say anything terribly interesting, except that he essentially said that he wants to be a religious Princeton. He actually did name Princeton, which was neato with Tim Tim there and all.

He is a lot more interesting when he's not talking to a group of parents with their kids. He cracked some jokes, was thoughtful, and didn't speak in platitudes, which was great and somewhat surprising.

Some highlights with my opinion:
-ND isn't going to be adding students any time soon (we'll see)
-There are enough smart Catholic people that we can hire more Catholics and still keep up the academics (yeah maybe. we're going to have to pay new profs more if that's the idea. It'd probably be worth it)
-Picking a political candidate isn't a one-issue deal (duh. Except some people do vote that way.)
-He believes strongly in the b-school, because business runs the world. He wants principled businesspeople who act according to conscience, and thinks ND produces those types (absolutely)
-We need better engineering and social sciences (yeah, probably)
-Not for dropping the drinking age to 21, because of the statistics of more 18-21 auto accidents (well, there are trade offs to everything. GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH)
-Although he didn't explicitly say it, he is going to crack down on a-hole NDSP cops who are giving kids a lot of crap at football games. There has been a lot on the internets about these cops recently, and there have already been results. The number of arrests last weekend at the game dropped to 9 from 31 at the previous game (good for him)

Well, there was more, but I forgot. I feel good about the future of ND

another fast week

I'm not keeping up with this as much as I thought I would. It's amazing how much free time I had in Italy to be able to blog like I did. Anyhow, this was a pretty nondescript week. I'm looking at my calendar/scheduler to go through what I did today

On Monday afternoon I went to a "Pizza, Pop, and Politics" forum about energy in the US. It's put on by NDVotes, which is the nonpartisan ND political group trying to get out the vote of ND students. Notre Dame is an amazing nonpolitical campus (one issue: abortion), but the fora that the group has been putting on for the last few weeks have been pretty well-attended, so that's good.

On Tuesday I worked in the morning, then I had some Peer advising meetings in the afternoon. I also went to a review for my exam for "On War" that I took on Wednesday. The test was easy, and all I have to do is get a D in the class as I am taking it pass/fail.

Wednesday also had some other interesting notes. I met with B. Patrick Bauer, the Speaker of the House for the state of Indiana to talk about Indiana's gambling legalization. He represents the district which has ND in it and he was really involved with the legalization process, so that's interesting. I'm not sure how exactly that interview will work into the paper, but I'll try to make it work. Finally, late that night there was a Reilly Weekend dinner for all the Reilly kids over all classes. It was sad; that's my last Reilly dinner. They talked about all the opportunities at ND, and I got kind of sad. I can't believe that in a month and a half I'll be all done. Weird.

The next day I met with the prelaw Dean. She liked my personal statement, which is great. I also got my last recommendation lined up, so that's good. That night we had a meeting entitled "What I wish I knew about law school before applying." It made me more sure that I'm doing the right thing.

Friday I worked, and Saturday was gameday. That's pretty much that. Michael Floyd scored again. He's ridiculously good.

Today Wachovia got bought out and Charlotte has no gas. Not a good day for my hometown.

On the bright side, I'm taking a test on Wednesday, and the grading scale he showed us stopped at C+. That's rather encouraging when you're taking a class pass/fail.

ND 38 Purdue 21

Today was another great day. I woke up around 7:30, watched an episode of Colbert, then I went down and hung out with Drew and Charles. Packy showed up after 9, and by 9:45 we were heading over to Warrick Street to go to to a big off campus party. It was hosted by some of my friends, so it was great. They had Natty Light on tap, which was surprisingly okay. They also had eggs, so it was a legit kegs and eggs. I came back to my room around 2, passed out for an hour, watched UNC beat Miami, then went to the ND game. They played really well today, which was great and exciting. An actual running game on the team was especially great. Also, we noticed NDSP has their own helicopter. Tuition money at work, apparently.

Now Alabama is beating UGA. Bama is my favorite ESS EEE CEEE team, so that's good.

Here are some pictures from today

Yay pictures!

So we did not beat Sparty after all

Pictures from yesterday will be coming later. Here's the rundown:

I woke up on my own at 5:30 in the morning; I must have been excited. I watched an episode of the daily show, and then at 6:30ish I went down to Drew and Charles's room to make sure they were up. Packy joined us at 6:45, and at 7 we went across to fill up the cooler with ice in Badin. By 7:30 we were on the road.

We took a slightly longer way up to avoid the toll road. After getting off US-31 to get onto I-94, we saw an "American Waffle House" sign and stopped there for breakfast. It was delicious. I had a pecan and banana waffle, everyone else filled up on some good hearty stuff, and we went off.

We arrived in East Lansing at 11. There was no good parking available, and we were totally bummed. For some reason, one of the biggest parking lots for the game is alcohol free, which is pretty unAmerican. This isn't BYU, dammit! Anyways, we parked about 15 minutes from the stadium in the furthest public lot. At least we were allowed to drink. And drink we did. We lounged, threw the football, and drank American beers for a few hours. I broke off and met up with Patrick and Colin at around 2. Patrick was with his girlfriend and Keegan (I think?), a friend from Marshall. We had a pretty good time going into the stadium and whatnot, and surprisingly I didn't take all that much harassment from Sparty fans, which made life a lot better.

The game? Not so good. We lost 23-7, though there wasn't one aspect of the game where they looked really bad. It was entertaining, and we were having a good time all around. Packy and I were next to each other in the corner of the end zone, and Chad, Durst, Gorsche, and many others were around as well. Good times, good times.

We took off with about 2 minutes left in the game. I had entertained some thoughts of staying in East Lansing for the night earlier this week, but I wasn't really in the mood after the game. We managed to get out and on to the highway really quickly, which was great. The drive home was painless as well. We took a nice detour through Kalamazoo for food, and we ended up getting a little confused and drove all through town. A good life experience was had, I suppose. We got back in time for the end of the LSU-Auburn game and SNL. SNL was lame. A bad day for entertainment, I suppose, but a good day in general. Away games are fun. That made a UNC roadtrip much more likely.

Weekend begins now

This is why I am excited for this weekend. Technically my weekend begun half an hour ago, as I have no more classes until Monday, but my life is kind of weekend-less, as I just have different blobs of work every day. Fridays are a real 9-6 job, but outside of that work is hectic. But this weekend is a real weekend, in that the slate is clear Saturday and Sunday. Why? Away game.

This will be my first ND game off campus. And I can't think of a better place to go, mainly because I suspect that going to MSU as a football opponent is the closest thing (excepting Ohio State. Obviously) to being an SEC away fan. It will be great. Michael Reeve talked about guys throwing piss on the band. I believe that.

Plus, ND has a nice history of beating MSU at MSU (at ND stadium? Not so much). Not that I expect a win. But it should be fun.

The plan as of now is to take off early in the morning, get beer and tailgate for hours, watch the game, and then ???? Maybe head home, maybe stay in East Lansing. If I do that, there will have to be enough room in one car to go back for all the people going with us. We'll see.

As for the rest of the week? Same shit, different week. I tried to contact the Speaker of the House for Indiana to ask him some questions about gambling legalization, but he was out of town. I got one of my teachers to agree to write a law school recommendation, so that's good. She's an Italian teacher and seemed thrilled to write it, so yay for that. I need to ask one more. I also wrote my "Why Duke" and "Why Michigan" application supplemental essays. I have one more supplemental essay, a 250 word essay for Yale Law which is going to be incredibly difficult, and then my main "personal statement," which is going to be about Higgins Lake I think. I'm putting that off a bit, but oh well. I also got a bunch of fee waivers recently, but not to U of M, which is disappointing. I did get one to Columbia which is nice. Free money!

Great week

This has been a very exciting week for me, in many respects. I got a bit of work done, both in school and out, over the course of the week. For my thesis, for example, I met with a resource librarian who gave me some potentially useful advice. I also started meeting my freshmen for peer advising, which is going well.

Then on Friday my parents came in for the big Michigan week. Or, at least, they tried. They were scheduled to arrive at 2 on Friday, but the weather was terrible (it has rained here almost nonstop since Thursday and won't stop until Tuesday), so they kept getting pushed back. Eventually they flew to Chicago, but they chose to rent a car for a day and drive in to South Bend. They arrived around 6:15, and we went back to their hotel. It was the same one that we stayed in three short years ago when little Jamie was moving in to Dillon Hall for the first time. That was a quick three years.

We ate Friday dinner at Ruth's Chris in Mishawaka, and they stayed back at their hotel while I went to bed before Midnight Drummers Circle. I woke up at 7 AM on football Saturday, and we returned the rental to South Bend airport. After that we went to American Pancake house, and discovered the best breakfast place in the area. Delicious apple pancake thingy. So good we went back this morning.

And the game? It was wet, and it was awesome. ND beat Michigan 35-17 in a surprise beatdown, not the anticipated cripple fight. So much excitement among the fans and the team. It was probably the best win I've been to as an ND student (that or UCLA 2006). I'm really excited for next weekend and Michigan State.

And then today the Panthers were on here and they beat the Bears! What a weekend!

We beat San Diego State!

I believe I called that whole Michael Floyd thing. Actually, during the game I correctly called our punt block and the Michael Floyd touchdown pass right before they happened. My friends thought I was insane, because those were the only two play predictions I made all game. I saw the punt block formation and the one on one coverage, so it wasn't so hard, but my seatmates were amazed.

Anyways, Notre Dame beat San Diego State by eight points yesterday. They were favored by twenty one. I don't know what to think about it, other than THROW MICHAEL FLOYD THE FOOTBALL MORE. Thrown to: one time. Total number of catches: one. Total number of touchdowns: one. When we were losing at the end of the third quarter, the time when we usually do our cheer for our coach, less than ten percent of the seniors were doing it. I symbolically turned my back to the field. I was angry. I feel a little better this morning.



Also, here are some pictures of the weekend, plus some other stuff. Max came up yesterday, and we did the campus tour followed by the game. I think he had a good time.

Football returns

Tomorrow ND plays San Diego State, a makeup game for San Diego State changing its schedule to accommodate ND's moving a BYU game in front of a Michigan game my senior year. It is a boring opponent, but we could use one after an awful season last year (I say we like I'm on the team, of course).

Despite being a 21+ point favorite, I could not be more excited. Actually, I know I can be more excited, because USC freshman year happened, but this is pretty close. Hearing the band beginning to play out on God Quad got me pumped, and I ran down with my camera to get pictures of Reevie and others (I will get some picture links up after the football weekend).

The campus is so alive on football weekends. Proud parents come back, little children run around on South Quad, football players who wear sweatpants and a sweatshirt simultaneously at all hours during the school year wear suits, etc. Excitement doesn't even begin to describe it.

The team is going to be incredibly exciting, but not necessarily in a good way. The defense is going to blitz blitz blitz, which will probably mean we will get two sacks followed by giving up a 55 yard touchdown pass because we're not quite talented enough. But we're young, and the football players at ND (save a few, of course) are really nice guys, so it's easy to get excited. Plus, I've seen Michael Floyd around campus a bunch (#3 on the field, which is a number long in ND lore), and he looks like the man. I have a new Samardzija, and he's only a freshman.

Oh boy am I excited.

Quick school week

Another quick school week. Here's the synopsis:

Monday- First monday of classes. I decided to take my On War class Pass/Fail, which precludes me from making the dean's list this semester because I am only taking 9 graded credit hours, but oh well. Not too much else memorable from Monday.

Tuesday- First peer advising class Tuesday afternoon. Tomorrow I get my list of kids I'm expected to interview. That should be time consuming and awkward, but maybe I'll make a difference in a few kids year, so that can be rewarding. I also had a meeting with the Teach for America ND guy, but I essentially told him thanks but no thanks.

Wednesday- My "busy" day, with two afternoon classes and then an hour honors thesis class with kids presenting their research (or what will be their research). The classes were fine. I actually was the first presenter. I signed up because I figured I was as far ahead as anyone else and I wanted to get it out of the way early. I was surprisingly nervous. Despite being in a ton of plays, I still get flushed during public speaking. I guess my presentation was kind of off the top of my head (maybe I should have made a powerpoint), so that may have had something to do with it. People didn't seem to mind, though. And they asked interesting questions, but that's probably a function of the subject (gambling). Also, I got in a plug for The Wire in there. Success. Also, last night Sarah Palin spoke at the Republican convention, so my friends and I drunkenly poked fun at Rudy Giuliani and then noted Cindy McCain's not-so-excellent plastic surgery or Botox (her facial expression did not change once during Palin's 45 minute speech) and then made fun of how uncomfortable the guy who knocked up Palin's daughter looked (understandably). And then Palin knocked her speech out of the ballpark. This is going to be a really interesting two months. And I'm one of the ever-so-valuable "undecided" voters.

Thursday- Today I woke up, got dressed up in my suit, and went over to interview for an internship position at the office of U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly (IN-02). I decided to apply to work there because I enjoyed my time at Sue Myrick's office and I have free time this semester. After that I made a beer run, then came back and somehow the day slipped away. I did some writing samples for the internship and went to the gym and then ate a few times and somehow the time goes. Then I started to write this post and my computer died, but luckily I saved a draft, so now I'm finishing it at the computer lab.

I have yet to hear from Max about his travel plans, which is worrisome.

I'll either get in or I won't

This is gearing up to be the semester of ultimate free time. I have dropped one class already, taking me to 13 credit hours. I am also going over to the registrar's office tomorrow to ask about taking my On War class Pass/Fail. My reasoning? The only possible negative to doing so is that it might look like I'm taking it really easy this semester If I do, I'm pretty much guilty as charged. At the same time, I don't have to be here at all, so the way I look at it I'm showing intellectual curiosity this semester rather than not working hard. If the looking lazy thing is not an issue for law school apps, I'm going to take it pass/fail, because then it's only downside to taking it for a grade. There's a pretty good chance I wouldn't get an A in the class (large class, subject outside my major, somewhat philosophical bent to the course which isn't my strong suit), and I would prefer to get straight As this semester, even on 9 graded credit hours.

Yesterday was pretty fantastic, as it was the return of my favorite thing on this here Earth, the college football Saturday. The games weren't too great, but there were some interesting notes as it relates to ND football: Michigan stinks (I still think we're going to lose to them, as we might stink more) and USC is really really good (my mind hasn't changed on how that game is going to go either).

The day was actually somewhat quiet for me. Drew and Charles took off on some day trip, and Packy was/is studying constantly for the GRE. My friends off-campus didn't pick up the phone when I called after I realized that Drew and Charles were gone, so I watched the Michigan game (3:30-7) by my lonesome self. Fortunately, Packy pried himself from the test prep and the other guys got back with some Badin girls, so we all watched the night games with the appropriate cold brews.

Sunday at Notre Dame is always quiet, other than the church bells from the basilica. The gym doesn't open until noon, which messes with my preferred morning workout routine, but somehow I deal. (On a tangent: My favorite workout day is Saturday morning. It's always the same messed up neurotic gym freaks like myself who show up when it opens at 9:00 or thereabouts when the place opens while the rest of school is still asleep. One of my favorite feelings at school has been seeing my friends slowly dragging themselves to the shower after having just woken up on a Saturday morning when I've already eaten, read the paper, gone to the gym, showered, and eaten again. Plus I didn't have to deal with a massive hangover. I love being a morning person. Tangent over) So on Sunday mornings I read the NYT Sunday paper, which is pretty time consuming. This morning I also finished off The Wire Season 5.

Allow me to repeat to all four of you who read the blog: get Netflix. Watch the Wire. You will not regret it. I promise.

This afternoon was spent doing... stuff. I don't quite recall exactly how time flies, but it does. I got some homework done, like every other kid on campus. That's what Sundays are for here. That and church, but mass isn't until 10:30PM in Dillon.

As far as law school apps go, I'm going to ask my professors this week or next for recommendations. I've also pretty much set my list for where I am going to apply with my best guess on the outcome:

Yale ("so you're sayin' there's a chance"), Stanford (35%), Harvard (50/50), Columbia and/or NYU (better than even shot), Chicago (75%), U of M (80%), UVA (80%), Duke (90%), and Georgetown. Georgetown waived my application fee, so I figure that's a telling sign, right? Anyhow, I'm not quite sure how I'd rank my preferences right now. I ranked them there based off of the US News and World Report, but I think schools get weighted in my mind based on a couple of important criteria: clerkship placement and, perhaps most importantly, weather. Remember: I'm leaving Northern Indiana's little slice of heaven early because of the cold.

Actually, my odds are completely wrong. What are the chances I get into these schools? It's 50/50.

Beginning of the year

Wednesday was the first day of classes for me, since I do not have class on most Tuesdays and did not this week. Here is my schedule:

MW 1:30-2:45 On War
MW 3:00-4:15 Tax Policy
Some Tuesdays 3:30-4:45 Peer Advising
W 5:00-6:00 Honors Program Research Colloquium
Whenever I feel like it Senior Thesis

That might look like a lot to the untrained eye. The untrained eye would be dead freaking wrong: essentially, I only have class most weeks on Monday and Wednesday and I do not start class until the afternoon, with no evening classes. Life's hard.

On War is a political science class which examines the causes of war, the effects of war and how and why wars end focusing on the Napoleonic Wars, WWI, WWII, and Iraq II. The class is taught by Sebastian Rosato, who has a ridiculously good teacher score on NDToday, where we can rate our professors (and, damn, that academic record is impressive. If you didn't click on the link: B.A., Cambridge University; M.Phil., Oxford University; M.A., Ph.D., University of Chicago). He's young and British, and in the intro class he was really really funny, which is always good. Also, he's Dan Krcmaric's thesis adviser, and Dan says he's really nice.

The Tax Policy course is taught by my thesis adviser. I think the class is going to be really interesting, because it looks at taxation from an economic perspective and a political perspective. So, yeah, I like my two classes. Again, two classes. This semester is going to be fun.

The Honors colloquium is just every week three people in the Honors Program will get up and talk about their research, where they are, etc. Since I had to be at a meeting halfway through the class, I got first dibs on when to sign up. I figured, ahh, what the hell, and signed up for next week in the first slot. If I don't do what they want, who can blame me? That's the beauty of going first. The only problem is that I'm supposed to talk for 20 minutes. I have no clue what I'm going to say.

Yesterday was a good day. Ran 7 1/4 miles on the treadmill in the morning, finished up the second DVD of the last season of the Wire (only four episodes to go. That makes me sad). After lunch, I took a quick nap, and I was lucky to check my email instead of going to run an errand, because they sent out an email announcing the MSU ticket lottery was from 12-4 on that day. I would have been mighty disappointed to miss the ticket lottery for the one away game I have a realistic shot of going to, considering tickets to UNC are damned near impossible to come by. Hopefully I win (actually, I just checked the winning numbers, and I don't think I won. I have my tickets in my room, but I'm not there right now. Darn).

Then I had a dinner up in the million dollar + donation box with the other peer advisers. The view was awesome, and I should have had my camera to get some nice pictures. I was up there a few years ago with the Reilly weekend, but I had forgotten how great of a view that was.

After running that errand (booze run, of course. What other kind of errand does a college kid run?), I got back to the room at 9PM, and COLLEGE FOOTBALL WAS ON. Oh, it was glorious. I hadn't seen a college football game on television in ages, and it was good. Drew and Charles have a sweet new flatscreen hi-def TV, so we watched South Carolina-NC State, and then watched Obama give his acceptance speech in Hi-Def. So I was super excited all around last night (the Rolling Rocks didn't hurt, of course). We're still one week away from ND football because we have a silly schedule. I can't wait for next weekend. Max is coming to town with another kid from Chapel Hill, so that will be cool that some PD people get to see ND.

Last night/ today was uneventful. I tried to get my freshman year roommate Charles to fix my computer (from now on when I say "my computer" I mean my mom's computer. My computer has an problem that cannot be easily fixed), as he worked at Redmond this summer for Microsoft. He fiddled around with it, then told me to eject things from the USB ports in a different way than just taking them out (some safe eject thing). It made sense, as I had been using the USB to watch The Wire, as the disk drive on the computer is external with a usb connection. Well, that made me happy, until about an hour later the computer went to blue screen of death again, and I hadn't put anything in the USB drive. So it wasn't that. So I'm back to square one with that.

I was happy to see that there are still free New York Times, Chicago Tribunes, and USA Todays outside the dining halls in the morning, although there were less that normal. They probably cut back because nobody except me has been picking them up for the last two years. Most people my age have two opinions on newspapers: 1)"Who cares about that crap?" or 2)"That crap is old news; don't you use the Internet?". I realize that both are rather valid points. I still read newspapers. What does that say about me?

Enough with the introspection (by the way, here's an easy trick to employ in order to live the unexamined life: in order to not be too introspective I turn questions that could easily be answered with a little thought into rhetorical questions by changing the subject) and on with the rest of the day. Gym trip, followed by lunch, followed by writing a few pages for my thesis, followed by homework reading (preclass homework?!? What do they think we are, students or something?), followed by a picnic dinner out in front of library quad with about 3000 of my closest friends, and then back to the computer lab to "work on my thesis." This "thesis work" has involved surfing the internet a little, rating movies on Netflix a lot, composing a long message to Mike Thompson on facebook, and typing out this blog. Ahhh, college.

The End as a New Beginning

I have decided to blog once again. I really enjoyed blogging my Rome semester, and I did get some excellent feedback. I took last semester and the summer off as well, mainly because I correctly surmised that my life would be relatively boring after months writing about life in Italy and traveling through Europe.

One key moment that made me think of blogging again was on my birthday I got the neatest gift: my Dad turned my Rome blog into a book, with color pictures and everything! It is cool to look back on the old posts without having to squint at computer screen.

So this summer was relatively uneventful. Instead of applying for jobs last spring I decided that I was going to work on my senior thesis, which is supposed to be two semesters worth of work. I am doing that because I decided to graduate a semester early in December, mainly because I was also deciding at the same time that I wanted to go to law school thanks to my Law and Economics class, and I figured an 8 month break from academics would be a welcome respite. As of this moment I have no clue what I am going to do for that time, but I'll be blogging it (that's part of the transition, I suppose).

The summer was spent like so: one month in Charlotte, highlighted by Tim's graduation and a week at the beach that followed. On June 11 I headed back to South Bend, living in Keough Hall. My 21st birthday was uneventful, because three days later I took the LSAT and I wanted zero distractions. After that, I started working on the thesis, which has morphed from a focus on victimless crime theory to legalization of gambling, and this semester I am going to apply the framework for legalizing gambling to Indiana's decision to legalize a lottery and commercial casinos in the late 80s/early 90s. I spent a little more than a month and a half up in South Bend, with a week break during July 4th up at the Lake with the family. On July 21, I packed up my Keough room and headed up to the lake for what I thought would be a relatively uneventful month.

My parents were there for the first week, and we had a good time. After that, I cleaned up the house, watered the plants, went to the township office for Internet and exercised. That, plus watching episodes of The Wire (which is, beyond a doubt in my mind, the best show in the history of television to this point, and I am not usually one for superlatives), filled a good number of days. All the while, I have the thesis floating around in the back of my mind, because I wanted to write a section of it before I got back to ND. So, by about August 6, I had read a few more things for my thesis, and I had fully outlined the section I wanted to write. Life is good, right? No: two days after I had finished my outline, the screen on my laptop goes black. I didn't panic, but I knew something was up. I start calling around, and I realize that the LCD screen has died, and the computer is out of warranty. At least it wasn't a hard drive issue, because all my files for my senior thesis were on that computer, but I had no way to work on my thesis. So my dad overnights my mom's Dell laptop, and I buy a flashdrive and the nice ladies at the township office let my plug my computer into their monitors so I can upload my thesis files to the flashdrive. So problem solved, apparently.

So when everything looks to be okay again, Uncle Mick, Aunt Julie, and their kids, as well as Grandma and Grandpa show up to the Lakehouse. Since Grandma and Grandpa are leaving within a week, I allowed myself to get distracted from my paper again, because I figured even after they left I'd have 10 or so days up there with my laptop and nothing else to do, because I wasn't going to water those damned flowers any more. So, the day my Grandparents are about to leave, I come back to my laptop after a nice walk, and I can't get it out of what I think is sleep mode. So I reboot it, and it won't load Windows. Dammit. I soon realize that I need a Windows XP disk to solve my problem, and no one has it up in Middle of Nowhere, MI. I think I must have pissed off the Higgins Lake Gods: too much technology for such an unplugged place. Bad computer karma.

So, my Grandparents leave, go down to Owosso, and I'm up a creek without a paddle. Their computer runs on Vista, so I didn't know what to do. While I am at a trial in Roscommon about the roadend, I get a call saying that Grandma and Grandpa do have an XP disk. A minor miracle. So that night I head down to Owosso, hoping to salvage my mom's laptop. The next day, after moving in, I used my Grandparents computer to get instructions on how to solve my problem, and after doing a bunch of confusing techno-babble into the computer, XP loads again! Yay. So, of course, the first thing I want to do is watch an episode of the Wire on the laptop. It works! I am saved. Or so I think. Again, after working out, I come back and the computer is into blue screen of death mode. It just won't load right.

So I spent about 5 days in Owosso eating good food (Grandma cooks way better than I do) and working on my thesis on my Grandparents computer. I didn't get a ton done, mainly because I kept trying to fix my mom's laptop, to no avail. I moved back down to South Bend on Wednesday, and moved into 307 Dillon Hall. I have a beautiful view of South Quad, like I've always wanted. I can see the Dome. I would post pictures, but I forgot to bring the connector cord for my camera, so I should post those shortly.

Anyhow, I was still having computer issues, but I figured I could use some from the computer clusters. Problem was, they weren't opening until today (Monday). So I was again up a creek without a paddle, but at least I had to move in, so that gave me something to do. Moving in has been a slow process, and I just finished everything up yesterday when Packy finally got everything out of storage (a few of my things were in the back, so I couldn't get back to them).

A few days ago, though, I tried to turn on the Dell, and it randomly worked! Magical. Everything seemed okay, and it worked all day, so I was thrilled. The next morning my computer was making weird noises around where the hard drive is, and the screen was black again. It wouldn't turn on. So I went a day without computer. The next day, it worked for a little while, then it started making the noise, and then the computer went into blue screen of death. And today is the next day, and the computer is working fine, as I am typing on it. But when the noise starts, I know what is coming next. I don't know if I should work on my thesis on this computer, but at least I have a flash drive.

Outside of dealing with computer things and moving in, I've had a pretty good time since last Wednesday. I'm back in the flow, exercising at Rolfs like always. It's nice to have the treadmill after so long without one up at the lake, but I am out of shape so I can't run for an hour like normal. I'm working back to it. Also, I had a very pleasant evening with the Sweeneys, who were nice enough to take me out to dinner with Meghan and a friend of hers who is going to study abroad in France, and they also took a bag of my junk home so that I will have a little more space to stick things in the VW when I move out in December and drive back to Charlotte (probably... we'll see). I also helped with the freshman orientation on Saturday because I am taking a Peer Advising class this semester through the First Year of Studies. It's really, really weird seeing these freshmen moving in. I didn't go through that last year with going to Rome, so this is the first time I've really felt older than the new kids on campus. I look older too. It's really odd. Plus, Dan Krcmaric is Michael Reeve's RA. Dear God: we're in charge. How did that happen?

Anyhow, I'll try to update often, as I only have class on Mondays, every other Tuesday, and Wednesdays. I will have to do applications to law school, but that shouldn't preclude this by any stretch of the imagination. Also, if anyone is reading this any wants to know anything about ND life or what I am up to, just fire me an email or leave a comment