Me and Winston

It has occured to me that most of you have never seen my parrot. So here is a picture of me and Winston. We are, of course, best of friends.

And here’s one of Winston alone. It’s a close-up… he absolutely loves posing for pictures! I bring out my behemoth of a camera, and he stands on my knee bobbing his head around while I count to three and take a billion shots.

And finally, because he loves to fly, here’s a shot my dad was able to snap of Winston in mid-flight. This was taken with my old 2 megapixel camera a few years ago. Try as I might, I have never been able to recreate this picture. Kudos Dad!

One of the best parts about returning home to Michigan is getting to see Winston again. He has a wonderful personality, a great sense of humor, and a keen little bird brain — Quaker parrots are about as smart as a three year old human child! Picture a three year old who can fly, and you will begin to get a sense of how precocious Winston is.

The Joys of Discovery

For years, friends and acquaintances alike have sung the praises of file sharing services to help them find unknown artists. “Unknown artists?” I often wondered, “If they are unknown, there’s probably a reason for that. I’ll stick with the classics, tried and true.”

Boy was I wrong. I have recently been playing around on some file sharing services, and downloading some songs from music.download.com, and I have stumbled across an amazing acoustic singer named Mieka Pauley. Her voice is sweet, sultry, emotional, and ultimately joyful. I enjoy acoustic music because it’s so natural — just a girl and her guitar. It’s basic and fulfilling.

Plus, some acoustic guitar music almost transports me back to summer camp, and I remember sitting on the wooden benches, smelling the campfire and burning leaves in front of me, feeling the heat on my face, while someone strums a guitar in the distance.

I highly recommend you download some of her songs!

T minus 20 days and counting

20 days, 7 hours left. I don’t even know what to tackle first. Well, that’s not true… I am on call Monday in advanced criminal procedure, so I gotta read and brief all those cases. But after that, how do I structure my time?

The paper is due either on May 2nd, or anytime during the finals period, i.e. up to May 17th. I thought it was the latter but the registrar seems to think it’s the former. Have to figure that out first thing on Monday. Either way, I intend to get my professor a second draft in one week.

Once the second draft is done, I should just focus on the first couple finals that are coming up: crimpro and evidence. Crimpro’s first, and it’s worth 2 credits, and then three days later it’s evidence, for 4 credits. One week after that is constitutional law II, for 4 credits, and of course there is putting the finishing touches on the paper… and then I go home.

In the meantime, I am dealing with a slightly more pressing problem: My iBook’s logic board is close to death. The problems are all documented and Apple will replace it for free, but that means doing without my baby for up to a week. And I’m just not sure I can handle that right now…

Then again, my Apple does me no good if she’s dead.

dirty words

We were discussing indecency regulation in conlaw today… the exact topic my paper is on. It seems almost the entire class feels that the dirty words in the Carlin monologue are perfectly valid in every day civil conversation, and to ban them “turns the First Amendment on its head.” I tried my best to argue the other way, but I was faced with a number of shaking heads and responses filled with scorn and derision.

After class, as I was back in my dorm waiting for the elevator, I ran into a classmate. She’s cute — I have long had a mini crush on her. “Interesting class,” she said. She smiled at me, but it was an empty smile. She shook her head. “I disagree with basically everything you said.”

The elevator arrived and we walked in. She was going to the fifth floor — I had about 10 seconds to explain my position.

“Those words are never needed in everyday conversation,” I said. “You never hear them in law school. You never hear them unless we are specifically discussing a case that has to do with those words.”

I was going to talk about how some people find fuck and shit and cunt offensive. I was going to say that they coarsen discourse. I was going to say that when people claim First Amendment protections for indecency, it cheapens the meaning of the First Amendment.

She cut me off. “I use those words all the time in my speech. And as an artist, expression is important to me. What about Chris Rock — would his routine be as funny without those words? I want to be able to hear that.”

The elevator stopped on her floor; the door opened. I had about three seconds.

“I agree,” I said. “But should it be on TV at 2 in the afternoon when eight year old kids can hear it?”

Her response was immediate, her tone dismissive: “Sure. Eight year olds should hear that. If they can’t handle it…”

Her voice trailed off. She turned and walked away. My memory flashed on the Chris Rock monologue; snippets ran through my head. “Put the dick down”; “Fee fi fo figger, boy I hate a nigger”… an eight year old should hear that? He wouldn’t know what to do with it, what to make of it. If he were exposed to that kind of language on a constant basis, he would be coarsened. I don’t know why the prospect troubles me so; it just does, it shakes me, and I can’t brush it off. I don’t want to hear indecency in my home as I flick through the channels. I don’t want my kids to hear that.

What is wrong with people, I think, defeated. What is wrong with society?

More time more time i want more time

Oh, what I wouldn’t give for that hour back. Ah, but who am I kidding — an extra hour would do me no good. I need an extra day, an extra week! I missed my ConLaw classes last week. Too swamped with other work, specifically this paper I’m trying to get out. So my sleeping schedule has been all askew and the past few days have been one big blur of Microsoft Word, Westlaw, countless law review articles and cases to read, orange highlighters, Starbucks, Mountain Dew, classical music on XM radio, and occasional online chess games with my good friend Brett. I am awake in the middle of the night, asleep in the middle of the day, and thanks to 24-hour news on the Internet and a TiVo that doesn’t care what time it is, the only clue I have that it’s morning is the light shining through my window.

The good news is that, at the risk of speaking too soon, I have finally completed the bulk of my research and writing on this paper. Yes, I have a stack of 20 articles and cases sitting in my desk, still waiting to be read, but I think those are just going to add nuance to my article. The big stuff is already done. So I can take the next month to leisurely work on my paper (currently 4200 words without footnotes, 5400 words with footnotes), while spending the majority of my time on catching up in my classes and preparing for finals.

IN the lower right corner of my computer screen is a status box that counts down to my first final exam, Advanced Criminal Procedure. Yesterday the counter said “34 days 17 hours.” Currently it says “33 days 4 hours.” Am I so fucking screwed? Gladly, I can answer that with a resounding No. Do I want more time? Sure. Do I need more time? No. Thirty-three days is plenty, as long as I stay on the ball. And so I shall.

Current music: Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet symphony, XM Channel 113

An open letter to President Bush

Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2005 03:24:46 -0400
From: “Matthew S. Schwartz”
To: president@whitehouse.gov
Subject: Daylight Savings Time

Dear Mister President,

I lost an hour tonight. It was 1:59 a.m. and then, just like that, BOOM, 3 a.m. As a concerned citizen, I must complain. I don’t like the fact that the government steals my hour every April. Sure, I get it back in October, but who needs an extra hour in October? I, and everyone else I know, need all my hours NOW.

Furthermore, since when is the government in the business of hour savings and loans? The government should provide for the common defense, and maybe provide highway money. That’s it. And what is the government *doing* with all the hours it has confiscated from its citizens? Are you using them to take another vacation on your ranch?

Additionally, since I *am* loaning my hour to the government, why on earth am I not earning any interest? After six months, I should realistically get at least an hour and a half back, if not two hours.

As my president, I trust you can convince Congress to repeal Daylight Savings Time.

Thank you.

Cordially,
Matthew S. Schwartz
“Concerned Citizen”