-Something happened the other day that really exposed my own provincial origins, as I was at the supermarket getting a gallon of soda, someone immediately got their own fountain soda after me, they proceeded to walk by me trying to look cool, and shortly thereafter they dropped their soda and somehow the ice ricocheted into his eye and he was in physical pain and started using a stream of profanities.  This to me was the most hilarious thing, and wasn’t quite the real-life equivalent of Ow! My Balls! from Idiocracy (a show I would watch religiously if the networks ever chose to make it!), but it was damn close.  Let me tell you that stifling laughter at that moment was one of the greatest achievements of human willpower one will ever see.

-Speaking of parochial lowbrow tastes, a show that I wish would return is Celebrity Boxing.  I’ve never been a big proponent of reality television, although I will admit to having loved the first two seasons of Survivor.  I thought Celebrity Boxing was awesome, and the matchups they got were stuff people would concoct in their minds while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.  The Horseshack v. Screech, the Bonaduce v. Brady, the Vanilla Ice v. Todd Bridges and the Manute Bol v. The Fridge were all extremely entertaining fights.  The series even got pretty damn good ratings (if I recall correctly it was somewhere in the mid-teens), and yet after the 2nd one they stopped showing it.  It really boggles the mind why we haven’t seen one in several years.

-While I’ve never denied being an avid comic collector, I’ve also never demonstratively gone out of my way to let people know about my supposedly shameful secret (the hobby is kind of an albatross financially, but psychologically, I can’t bring myself to just stop, as I have a full run of virtually everything and it’d feel like such a waste to just let them end after a few decades).  Well with regard to comics I’d have to say that if you’re not reading Mark Millar’s work on FF and Wolverine, you’re really missing out.  I’m more of a collector of comics than a reader, but I do find that I’ve been going out of my way to read Millar’s stuff, as its really really good.  There was a scene in one of Millar’s Wolverine issues that just kind of blew my mind as it was really horrific.  And FF has somehow morphed into a very cool title.  Millar’s work isn’t completely saddled by continuity and you don’t have to buy a million other issues just to know what’s going on (I feel like to read Bendis’s Avengers titles, I have to buy all the Avengers titles, plus a million other one-shots and mini-series).

-Sometimes I’m tempted to make a return to DC and the whole political milieu, but then I turn on TV, read the Daily Kos or Huffpo, or rent a documentary like Religulous and quickly remember why I decided to leave it in the first place.  We’re not arguing with sane people here, and its frustrating that networks frame the debate as though there’s a legitimate debate to be had.  Honestly, I prefer my present insulation from certain types of people, and hope I can maintain it for a bit longer.

-The worst part of aging isn’t so much related to one’s self, but the evolution of others.  I’ve been back in my hometown for a while now, and I’ve encountered a disturbingly large amount of people from high school, and its extremely depressing to see how they’ve evolved over the years.  I more or less look the same as I did several years ago, if not better due to the fact I live a comparatively clean lifestyle now and don’t have unsightly facial hair anymore, but other people my age look like they’re old enough to be my parents at this point.  If its this bad in my mid-20s, I can’t imagine how depressing it’ll be ten years from now.  Its like none of them got the memo that aging doesn’t have to happen like it used to.

Well after a few decades of waiting, it is finally going to happen, and just several short months from now in the form of a comparatively long biography by one of the most prominent Slavic scholars alive (and one of the better writers I might add), Robert Service:

http://www.amazon.com/Trotsky-Biography-Robert-Service/dp/0674036158/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240902818&sr=1-1

Its not exactly as long as Deutscher’s bio of Trotsky, but there’s only so much ground one can cover at this point that hasn’t already been covered, so I know that I’m personally hoping to find out about newer revelations regarding his role in Soviet politics and his relationship with Stalin and Lenin.

And one might argue that Volkoganov’s bio utilized the archives, but I found his work wasn’t exactly earth shattering in any way shape or form, as a lot of what he wrote was common knowledge (although his book was pretty good nonetheless); but this might be a problem endemic to Sovietology as a lot of so-called revelations end up being anti-climactic.  For instance Pipes’ The Unknown Lenin was extremely disappointing in that most of the stuff within was widely speculated to have already been reality.

Regarding the new Trotsky biography, Service is very high on the list of people whom I’d want to see write a Trotsky bio.  His one’s on Lenin and Stalin were excellent, and his forays into non-biographical material have been outstanding as well.  I had been hoping Edvard Radzinsky would try his hand at it, as his Stalin bio was probably one of the best books I have ever read, but given how obscure and irrelevant Sovietology is to contemporary society, I guess one should be pleased that any publisher is willing to widely publish and promote any bio of anyone from that time, as I’m sure the demand can’t possibly be that high.

And this time is a little different from the last time as I’ve come to accept that I do actually like Lewis & Clark Law School a lot, and absolutely love Portland, OR as well.  This is important as I wasn’t so sure last year, but after being forced to defer a year, and having been admitted to other schools, things have crystallized in my mind.

I did get into GW, and I do love Washington, DC, but that degree would only have gotten me a job on the Hill, and I’m not entirely sure I want to even return to that milieu.  I’m certain I’ve embellished my experience as my fondness for my time there had more to do with the receptions (where staffers all get free booze, expensive food and get to mingle with political celebrities), rather than the actual work or co-workers. It really is a silly place.

And I think an important thing I need to do this year is not join the stupid class Facebook group and try and avoid knowing who my fellow students are.  Last year I joined the official class Facebook group, got all these friend requests and learned a lot of my fellow classmates are really dense, obnoxious and annoying people. Granted, it was a very small vocal minority, but still, it killed a lot of my enthusiasm for the school.  I find this is one of the problems with having everyone’s lives out in the open with Facebook/MySpace/Twitter, as I know if these websites were around (or as prominent), when I went to my undergrad school, I would most assuredly have gone elsewhere.

And this isn’t some catchphrase that was labored over for months and possibly years with focus  group testing and marketing professionals; so its not really analagous to various bits of pop culture terminology that infiltrate people’s vernacular.  The Bale thing was spontaneous and the intent of it, him complaining about someone distracting him on the set, has resulted in very strange and unintended consequences (there’s even a catchy techno re-mix of his rant that is somewhat addicting to listen to).

The whole way its unfolded has got me to thinking if anything like it has happened before.  And I don’t think it has.

First up is the surprising drop of GW from 20 to 28.  GW has a fairly strong reputation and has been a borderline 15-20 school for the past several years, however its now beneath a number of schools that had previously been thought to have been regional powerhouses but a bit lacking in terms of national placement (although this is true of all non T14 schools I suppose, but it becomes a lot more evident the lower a school’s ranking).  When the layman thinks of a strong law school, Indiana-Bloomington probably doesn’t come to mind, but stastically they’re now superior to George Washington University, Notre Dame and Fordham, so there you have it.

And from a personal standpoint, the jump of Lewis and Clark law school from 73 to 61 is simultaneously surprising and depressing.  Surprising in that they’ve been primarily considered a niche school for Environmental and Natural Resources law, and now they’re on the cusp of being a tier 1 school.

Of course, the rankings do tend to fluctuate, and while L+C Law has been trending upward, the fact is they could be knocked back down to 85 next year if things don’t go the right way for whatever reason.  But its also possible (albeit unlikely), that the upward trend continues and they find themselves in the first tier within the next few years.

Conversely, their ranking is depressing primarily because I withdrew my offer of admission a few months ago after I decided it was impractical to go at this time due to the cost-benefit ratio.  I then of course flip-flopped on the notion and contacted them about rescinding my withdrawal request (seeing that they haven’t returned my partial tuition deposit refund and the class shouldn’t be full quite yet, I assume its a vague possibility), but at this point, it’d look like I’m crawling back because of their spiffy new ranking, so they might not view such a request favorably (although I actually submitted the request before the rankings were leaked, and with tier 2 rankings, they will likely not be up that high for long, but that may not be how they’ll see things).

And another intriguing aspect of the new rankings was that all of the NW schools are trending upward, and interestingly enough, Gonazaga law finally broke into the top 100.  This is notable as just a few years ago they was in the bottom 50 and were viewed with some amount of derision by a lot of people as being low man on the totem pole with regard to NW law schools.  This still may be the case, but the differential between the tier 2 triumvirate and Gonzaga (which itself is tier 2 now, at least for the time being), is a lot smaller now.

Although another thing that comes to mind when thinking of the rankings is the grim legal market, the lack of jobs and the fact no positive change can be seen on the horizon.  More and more new lawyers are being churned out by over 200 law schools each year, and there isn’t exactly a comparable growth in legal jobs to go along with the new influx of talent, so the fact is any movement in the rankings at this time probably doesn’t mean all that much when one views the situation logically (of course when I myself try and view it logically, I feel very comfortable with my decision to withdraw!).  But if one just looks at it from a superficial standpoint, it is neat to see the changes from one year to the next.

Its rather amazing to look back on the transition as I’m not the least bit certain as to how I got away from it (I recall feeling some sense of dismay that I didn’t read enough even when I read a lot, which is really weird given my present situation!).  Even a few years ago I’d at least try and read one several hundred page book a month, but I don’t even do that now.  The last long book I read was probably Colin Powell’s autobiography, and that was in early 2008.  Since then its been shorter books, and sparingly at that.

And regarding the experience of trying to reenergize my work ethic, the internet has been both a good and bad thing.  On the one hand, with sites like wikipedia a person can have a quick overview of stuff they’re interested in, without having to get really in-depth.  Basically, it almost kills one’s willingness to read a long book as they can get much of the same info pretty quickly without the effort.

On the other hand, I’ve found a lot of practical advice regarding my present endeavor of getting back into reading.  Foremost amongst this advice was probably to not read before going to sleep.  This is something I’ve done my whole life, and apparently doing so makes one equate reading with sleeping.  Thus, reading will more often than not make you sleepy.  So apparently, its best to read earlier in the day.  Probably common knowledge, but its certainly not something I’d been aware of.

Its almost somewhat humorous that a person would have to go through some internal personal struggle just to get back into reading, but that does seem to be what the situation has come to.

Regarding the death of the character (I won’t mention who, since it might spoil it for some), it was well-done and served a purpose, which is as much as one could ask for.  Previous deaths had a tendency to be nihilistic and didn’t do much of anything with regard to plot development; however this was not the case with today’s episode.  Today’s episode will set the tone for the rest of the season and while I wouldn’t say it came completely out of the blue (after all, this is the show that killed off two of its most popular characters in David Palmer and Michelle Dessler), it did come as something of a surprise, all things considered.

Nonetheless, I did find it to be rather depressing, for a variety of reasons, and it somewhat conjured memories of Ryan Chappelle’s fate in season 3.  Which is further evidence that the latter half of season 6 was a complete aberration, as the majority of the events in that season didn’t conjure any feelings one way or the other aside from “meh”.

There are some types of characters that can make a person stop watching a show entirely if the writers aren’t careful.  Specifically, I’m speaking of stuff like Smallville not only retaining Lana Lang as a character but making her the centerpiece of the show, and 24 trotting out Kim Bauer during the first three seasons, and having her appear sporadically since then.

Regarding Lana Lang, I was completely dumbstruck upon buying the season 6 DVD of Smallville. Nobody but Kristen Kreuk and Kristen Kreuk’s family find Lana Lang to be a remotely interesting character, and she’s been pretty much a one-dimensional character from the get-go with an extremely tired catchphrase (without fail, she’ll admonish Clark for “keeping secrets”).   Superman has such a rich history to draw from, and yet the writers inexplicably chose to elevate Lana Lang to a very prominent position of importance.  A smart show would’ve seen what the audience’s reaction was to Lana Lang, and quickly made her a recurring character, or allow her to meet a grisly end to really satiate the audience.  Her level of annoyance got the point where I couldn’t even watch the rest of the season, and have stopped watching Smallville entirely.

And another example would be Kim Bauer on 24.  Her actions on season 1 might’ve been somewhat forgivable, as she was still young, it was obviously a rough day for her, and in the end, they might’ve been an aberation.  But to continue doing extremely stupid things well into season 2 and season 3 made no sense whatsoever.  And her marrying some freak and choosing to prove some sort of point against Jack in season 5, at one the most inopportune times imaginable, made no sense whatsoever.  Thankfully she hasn’t been around much to ruin things in a few years, but apparently she may be coming back in the latter 1/3rd of 24′s newest season, in an attempt to completely kill the show’s momentum and try and take the show’s quality down a few notches.

Such things make one really appreciate how accomodating other shows are to audience demand, and make one understand why they manage to stay on top.  Lost has had instances where they introduce newer island inhabitants who the audience does not respond to at all, and they are quickly written off the show in some way.  And Young and the Restless manages to stay the top daily soap opera by doing this as well (I remember a few years ago they had a Billy Abbot that no one anywhere liked, and suddenly he found himself with a job abroad and he was off the show).  Its really confusing as to why other shows can’t be as responsive, as it’d help ratings and would be better for business (which is the main reason these shows are on in the first place).  Smallville had been responsive in such a way in the past, as almost everyone hated Pete with a passion, so Pete had to go for Smallville to remain a viable show–if only Smallville had maintained this method of operating, a lot of us still might have been watching it.

Now fast forward 12 months and once again, I’ve gotten into a decent enough school (its not exactly Harvard or Yale, but its also not Cooley either), but this time with the added boon that there was some scholarship money offered. Sadly, the costs are still daunting, as the school in question raised their tuition prices by around 5k, thus nullifying any benefit to be had from the scholarship they offered.  So I’m beginning to think law might not be in the cards at all (or at least not anytime soon), as I’m looking at assuming even more debt now than I would’ve at the last school I ended up spurning.  I won’t lie and say I’m not considering the idea, but my going is predicated on a Grad Plus Loan, which is credit based, so I’m not particularly optimistic things will pan out…

So what is the alternative?  Well I have a post-bac application to UW for Russian Literature, and I think if they let me in there, I’d do that for sure, but I don’t really see that happening.  I also got into EWU as a post-bac already, and I’m strongly considering doing that to get a teacher’s certificate–but I’m about 100% certain I’d be one of the worst teachers ever (I wouldn’t say the worst, as I’m not violent or criminally insane like some teachers), so it’d probably be better for everybody if I didn’t do that.

Realistically, I’m faced with the choice of returning to DC and going to GW, or taking yet another year off and losing yet another year of productivity.  I wouldn’t be averse to the latter if my TV hadn’t died to be honest, but it did, so I am…and I’m a Greener grad so actually working during another year off is a laughable suggestion.