gone are the holidays...

well, the holidays are come and gone. my sis got all christian on me, and was somewhat disturbed by my lighting hannukah candles. as if this is some pagan thing or something. anyway, I didn't argue with her about it, but as far as I'm concerned I would point out a few things:

1. Jesus celebrated hannukah, as have all the jews since the founding of the 2nd temple.
2. this is a season to celebrate miracles, so let's just rejoice in that.
3. I respect your religious choices, you should respect mine.

anyway, the day was fun, the kids are getting big. I got my neice her flower girl dress and she looks so fabulous, I can't wait for the wedding.

the drive home was horrid. the grapevine is bad enough on a clear day, but we had this wicked storm, and I had to play 'dodge the tumbleweeds' in zero visibility rain. it wasn't raining buckets, it was sheets with cats and dogs. of course, as soon as I made it home, the weather cleared up. go figure.

I miss the hannukah candles already. such a big buildup, lighting one more candle each day for eight days, and then its all over. too bad we don't light them every week. they really are beautiful. at least I can stop eating sufganiyot. the only problem with this holiday is the enormous amounts of fat that one takes in eating all these fried foods.

I've got three days to clean the house. A tornado hit during finals season, and there are still a lot of boxes yet to unpack. the walls are still bare, but I'm gradually hanging some pictures and making it look a little more 'homey.'

I got some fish for the fishtank. 4 beautiful angels, a tiger plecostamus, and a handful of neons. I think they are settling in, but I'll know in a few days if everything is cool. They need some plants. I didn't want to add them right away because I want to be sure that the temperature, pH, and all is stable. Go slowly, they say. I'm thinking about adding a clown loach. Never had one before, but they are colorful and funny, and they get along with the angels. maybe next week.

looking forward to the new year, so many changes in store. not the least of which is getting married (finally). will do some travelling this summer, hopefully Italy. never been there yet. very exciting indeed.

finals are over, the rest begins...

better to blog late than never. yes, I survived final exams. I thought it most prudent to wait a few days before blogging about exams (you never know if there is someone out there still waiting to take them -- as if they would read my blog???).

the last three weren't all that bad, crim was the most fun. pink fuzzy slippers ablaze, you gotta love the crazy fact patterns.

you have to wonder why and how someone could ignore their pink fuzzy slippers on fire and as a result, burn down the new york public library. the whole fact pattern was loaded with mistakes of fact, but in the end this crazy guy and his slippers breaks the causal chain.

I had to try to come up with some defenses for the guy. this is where the creativity comes in. I wondered, who on Earth could ignore his feet on fire??? Certainly not a crazy person -- he would freak out even if they turned out not to be on fire -- so no straight insanity defense available.

so, I decide that the only person who would do such a thing had to be on hallucinagenics. So I made two explanatory paragraphs, one where the guy is a total acid head and will try to claim 'clinical insanity' for taking LSD so many times (but rejected his voluntary intoxication as a defense), the other where the guy is a straight arrow, but someone slipped LSD into his drink at a party in 'the village.' this guy would get off on the involuntary intoxication defense, and I felt pretty bad for the guy in the end.

I hope there is no problem with making up missing facts, if you need them to give the guy a defense. pretty good stories, I think.

The only exam I'm truly worried about is civ pro. I'm kicking myself daily for not doing a straight minimum contacts/international shoe analysis in part 1, and instead talked about sufficiency of notice and assuming (wrongly) that the Lanham Act has a nationwide service of process provision (kicking myself again). My part 2 kicks butt because I did a really great analysis of the zippo test. The problem with the exam is that the whole thing was premised on a ME company making a MTD for lack of PJ on a declaratory judgment action. I didn't like it at all, and seriously had a problem trying to figure out why they would do such a thing when they were the ones who sent the cease and desist letter claiming TM infringment in the first place.

anyway, I guess it is because CA issued a court decision giving the okay to pop-up ads, but I didn't know that when I was writing the exam. But they could have just filed a forum non conveniens motion, so I didn't see the point of the MTD. I did, however, mention that they should get Rule 11 sanctions if they were doing to harass and delay.

no amjur award here 8-{

anway, torts was fine. nothing so extraordinary such as pink fuzzy slippers on fire, but I was thorough and concise. In fact, I'm a little worried because I only wrote 4 1/2 pages, and other people wrote 8-10 pages (how can they do this in 2 hours???) anyway, I hope I pick up points for clarity, conciseness, and presentation. I'm sure my prof will appreciate the quick read.

well, grades won't be posted until 'next year'...so I'm trying to relax and remember that there is nothing more I can do at this point to improve things.

the holidays are keeping me pretty busy. Its a very target (pronounced with a french accent, tar-JEY) christmas. I managed to get everything in one place and kept the prices down. the sucky thing is that I don't even celebrate christmas any more, but still have to buy christmas presents. hanukkah is much more fun (better food, lots of candles, goofy songs, and presents spread over 8 days).

but, I am looking forward to visiting with my sister and kids, I haven't seen anyone since school started. so, I still have to do christmas for my family every year, and they insist on doing christmas for me. at least they don't make it a religious thing, it makes it so much easier to be different. I like the idea of lighting the hannukia on christmas eve, because we can't light a fire in the fireplace (because you-know-who would not come down the chimney). nice compromise. no sacrificing one's values, no stepping on others'. respect is a two-way street.

so happy holidays to all, and I'll try to blog more often while I have some free time.

Gay Marriage Poll...

Everyone should take this poll...beat these guys at their own game!

The American Family Association, an anti-gay organization, is doing a poll on gay marriage. They are going to present the results to Congress, hoping to gain support for the federal constitutional amendment to define "marriage" as solely a heterosexual union.

However, anyone can take their poll, so please pass this URL far and wide. (I doubt they expect anyone but their own, anti-gay members to answer it.)

If you are on AOL, click here.

Otherwise, click here.

Please encourage all LGBT-friendly people to take this poll. The pro-gay marriage is at 39%, anti-gay marriage at 55%. A few thousand more votes will tip the scales.

Saddam found hiding in spider hole...

US Forces captured Saddam hiding in a 6-8 foot deep spider hole outside tikrit.

man, he is not looking good. he looks like ted kosinski.

for the first time in my life, I am proud of our military. they managed to capture him without firing a shot. that's professional work.

final exams and lack of sleep...

yes, surely one can tell from my lack of blogging (aside from cool archaelogical finds) that I am deep in final exam mode.

two down...one tomorrow...two to go after that.

feel pretty confident about property...didn't fall for the HUGE red herring.

no more fear and loathing about contracts...did exceedingly well, except that I didn't mention that pesky detrimental reliance issue on one of the fact patterns. shouldn't matter too much because it probably wasn't a strong argument anyway.

civ pro tomorrow. I'm still trying to figure out if Shaffer did away with attachment QIR and made everything IPJ and "open box" -- I hope my prof gets back to me on that before I take the test.

haven't even thought about torts or crim, but that is for the weekend. Not much time to study for torts for monday though. I think its a lot of winging it anyway. spot the issues and take the ball and run. creative argumentation is the key.

crim will be a bear. "too much information, running through my brain" (ala The Police). not fair to be closed book since we covered so much in such great detail.

as long as I "ace" civ pro (and property and contracts), I should be sitting pretty. my torts and crim grades won't affect me professionally since I want to do tax and not crim or PI lit. However, of course, I set high standards for myself and won't be happy if I do really lame, but I don't feel pressure to AmJur these courses.

marsupials walked with dinosaurs...

Scientists in China have discovered a fossil of a marsupial that is 125 million years old.

Wow. Cool. Looks like a 'possum.

Scientists find 425 million year old penis...

the fossilized penis was discovered in England...

it is the penis of a water flea and has been named Colymbosathon ecplecticos, which means "astounding swimmer with a large penis."

hee hee hee ... a penis fossil...(makes me think of beavis n' butthead)

miracle baby?

a baby was born in bethlehem bearing a birthmark that people claim looks like the name "Ala" in arabic (ala, his uncle, was a hamas terrorist killed by israeli troops because he planned the November 2002 bus bombing in Jerusalem).

seriously folks...this birthmark does not look anything like "ala" in arabic.

while admittedly my arabic skills are rudimentary, it is simply a birthmark. if anything, it looks more like the proposed palestinian state than anything else. they should be claiming that as a symbol of peace, not a sign that terrorism is legit.

the family should rejoice that they have a healthy child. but to make the child a freak show for the world, and to use the baby to legitimize their use of terrorism is disgusting to me.