Hallo und guten tag to my reader in Germany. Since you’re in Nuremberg, I presume I’m being watched to determine if I was complicit in crimes against humanity. If you count persuading my friends to watch Disaster Movie (dirs. These Assholes, 2008), then I’m guilty as charged. Speaking with the candor expected of me by the court and in keeping with the spirit of my oath: it is genuinely the worst film I’ve ever seen, and a strong contender for the worst movie ever made.
On that note, I was not a fan of Con Law today, but more on that later.
I got up at the usual time, but forgot that class started at 10:30; accordingly, I was ready ahead of schedule, and resolved to enjoy a light breakfast before Evidence with Dean Oates. My outfit today is a black shirt and grey slacks with glossy black loafers. Evidence went well, we covered Rules 401-403 relating to relevancy and started getting into United States v. James, 169 F.3d 1210 (9th Cir. 1999) (en banc). We briefly touched on a few other cases, most notable to me being Commonwealth v. Zagranski, 558 N.E.2d 933 (Mass. 1990) and Montana v. Egelhoff, 518 U.S. 37 (1996). The relevant lessons from each being: (1) do not talk to the cops, and (2) don’t drink so much your BAC is .36 (any higher and call me the Lord because my blood’s wine at that point).
Afterwards was Con Law. I’m convinced Prof. Abu El-Haj dislikes me despite my engagement with the material; I had my hand up for five minutes intending to ask about/comment on Fed. 10 (specifically the idea floated that factionalism is reduced under repression; I wanted to mention that special interests still exist under authoritarian systems, elite cliques still form, etc.) but she just kept lecturing (using the Troubles of all things as an analogy) as if she couldn’t see me. Mind you, I sit front and center. I think I should bring my ADHD med (the one I take on an as-needed basis) to school and take a dose before class because goodness the lectures are dry, in my opinion. I plan on starting a study group, some of the people I worked with for the group project are on board, and I was thinking of maybe inviting Brian (the guy who hosts our Spelljammer table, not the DM) since his contributions in class are always high quality.
Afterwards was Essentials of IP, in which we were going over Trade Secrets. I do not care for the use of AI images in the PowerPoint but if it wasn’t for Con Law sapping my energy I’d be pretty engaged with the lecture. One of the hypos was loosely inspired by a case involving an infamous new religious movement I can’t name which was established by a pulp-SF author in the middle of the last century, so that was neat.
As I write this it’s been about an hour since IP let out. I bought a Celsius (it tastes blue) and set up in the library. I’m sitting near the windows, the sky is rippling shades of grey- or maybe a pale, desaturated lilac- today with horizontal clouds streaked by sunlight like brushstrokes. I heard thunder crashing directly overhead during Con Law, and there’s a very faint breeze at ground level. I do have to get back to work, I have to keep up on my readings. But on the bright side most of my friends from high school live in or around Philly now, so we’re planning to meet up some time soon. Exciting!
Sierpinski Tetrahedron 