A bright happy light on the horizon?

My life for the past couple of weeks has been pretty glum. I got disappointing news on a job front and have been blue about that for about two weeks. The weather, even here in Berkeley, has also been uniformly yucky. This morning there was such a torrential downpour that a sewer main down the street on Woolsey broke. There was a literal geyser of poo-water flooding our street for about 45 minutes. The water reached so far as to cover the first doorstep up to our building. Thankfully, Rordog and I were able to watch this scene, and all of our sleepy and scantily clad neighbors photographing the flood, from our second-story turret. To add to this rainy chaos, on Friday there was apparently an earthquake around 10:30am which could be felt from Boalt but which I missed. [Cue the "It's the End of the World as we Know It"]

On top of all this, finals are also sort of a lonely period and I get really depressed when trying to learn an entire course-worth of material in 72 hours. Now that my intense, and productive, period of study is over, I am left feeling sort of guilty about the lack of energy I have to devote to my final final. That sense of malaise brings me back to the blog.

In order to distract myself while "studying" at a tea shop with the Ha this afternoon, I came up with my dream job. I want to be a TV lawyer consultant. Many popular shows misrepresent the law and how it works or have their attorney characters acting inconsistently with their profession/and or persona. (As an illustration here I'm thinking about Sandy Cohen on the OC. Admittedly, I think Sandy is supposed to act from his heart, throwing caution and the Rules of Professional Responsibility to the wind from time to time but... sometimes I think the show could use some better legal advice from someone with a JD... someone like me.) So, the idea is that I become a consultant to writers and producers and do their legal homework for them. This way I can be involved in all sorts of fake legal drama and get TV plots for my favorite shows way on the early side. Perhaps I can even meet real live stars. Hollywood, here I come!

I like big butts and I cannot lie...

My musicology may be off, but to the best of my knowledge, the musical expression of true fondness for large rear ends began in the rap genre. Perhaps the critical piece in this field is Sir-Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back." Other (at least somewhat related) exemplars include Sisqo's, "The Thong Song" and whatever spawned the phrase, "Junk in the Trunk."

Until today, I thought this hysteria was primarily confined to rap. I was sorely mistaken. Today I was exposed to my new favorite song/monstrosity by "former college football player and oil rig roughneck," Trace Adkins. The illustrious song is "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk."

I am still reeling from the glory of these lyrics, and Trace's smooth baritone, so I'll simply nod to a few of the choicest phrases and now implore you all to download this gem.

"And whoo-wee
Shut my mouth, slap your grandma*
There ought-a be a law
Get the Sheriff on the phone
Lord have mercy, how'd she even get them britches on?"

*Is this a common phrase? I cannot endorse this type of abuse.

there's nothing like finals to inspire procrastination

so here i am, back again. thanks to all who expressed solidarity and concern with the health of my little mac. right now we are back on rosy terms although it appears that while fixing my hard drive, the folks at apple essentially destroyed my wireless capacity. i suppose this is a blessing in disguise as, at least in theory, it should make me more productive. see above for how well that's working...