July 20, 2008

Underdogs

After watching the ESPYS you have to wonder what some of the nominees are feeling. For example, the nominees for best team were: the New York Giants, the Boston Red Sox, the Boston Celtics, the Detroit Red Wings, the Kansas Jayhawks, and....the Tennessee LADY VOLUNTEERS! I wonder what the Vegas odds were for a women's college bball team to win "best team," 10,000-1? 100,000-1? I bet the odds weren't very good for the men's college team, the Jayhawks, either. How about being a "minor" sport? A female skiier was nominated for best female athlete, a female tennis player was up against Adrian Peterson in Best Breakthrough Athlete, a track and field athlete was up against Brett Favre for best record breaking performance, and the 2 most anticipated categories: Best Male/Female Action-Sports Athlete, and Best Bowler. (Just for the record, Norm Duke won for best bowler...so there you go.) Don't get me wrong, I love all sports (except soccer...BORING!) but to put some of these people in these categories, it's like nominating Michael Bay with Scorsese and Coppola.

I was pleastantly surprised at how good a job Timberlake did hosting, although the Memphis/Kansas thing got a little tired. The best moment was probably Will Ferrell and John C Reilly making demands requests in order to be the hosts of the show ("I want to play 18 holes of golf with Tiger Woods...on the moon.") All in all it was a great way to spend my Sunday evening, especially in HD.

July 14, 2008

Yay Mississippi

Saw this on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives...


I guess it's OK since their BBQ looks amazingly delicious.

Nerd Xmas

Gizmodo
Engadget
Kotaku
XBox 360 Fanboy

I suppose this is like when the car manufacturers detail their new models and features. I can't say I'm not interested though. This, especially, looks pretty awesome!

July 12, 2008

Who's on First?

Pretty interesting post over at the Sports Law Blog. I like the resolution from the first comment. I don't know the intricacies of baseball rules, but I initially thought that the batter couldn't switch from lefty to righty after stepping into the batter's box. I'm actually surprised there isn't/wasn't a rule in place to address this considering all the other weird rules.

July 6, 2008

Getting my Work on

As of 8:30 AM on Monday I will be officially employed. I'm working for a local public defender but I don't know whether to be excited or bummed. It will be nice to have a little more structure in my life and a feeling that I am accomplishing something, but it was REALLY nice to do the things I wanted on my own terms. I had a great little schedule worked out and I was doing the things that I wanted to do. Now recess is over. After my stint with the New Orleans public defender, I have a vague idea of what to expect, lots of motions to exclude and habeas corpus petitions. That's fine with me, I don't hate that kind of writing and research. But, again, part of me is a little uneasy with defending people (not ALL, obviously) who have committed crimes. I suppose it really comes down to the fact that EVERYONE gets a fair trial, whether they have money or not. By challenging evidence or conduct that we feel is egregious or downright unlawful we are giving the system legitimacy, because if we challenge everything and it all holds up, there can be no accusations of an unfair trial. I liken it to the magician who lets the audience test the sword he's about to use to cut his assistant in half. If the sword is real and the box is real, then those items cannot be the source of the "trick," as it were. What's funny about all this is that I hope to be a prosecutor once I graduate. I hope that when I go up against a public defender that he/she will be sure to keep me honest, so to speak, and not let any violation of rights go unchallenged.

[*note: after reading some interpretations of this post, I think I should clarify something. The quote: "What's funny about all this is that I hope to be a prosecutor once I graduate" really should read like this: "What's funny about all this is that I might get a job offer for a prosecutor, which I would gladly accept."]

On a lighter note, I spent pretty much all afternoon cleaning my apartment. You know that saying from high school, "it's easier to stay caught up than to play catch up"? That also applies to cleaning and laundry.

July 4, 2008

The Way to a Man's Heart

The Food Network is running a marathon of "The Next Food Network Star." I hadn't seen it before today and all I can say is: Nipa, you can cook for me any day of the week!

Happy Birthday America



Nothing like emotion inducing patriotism to celebrate the day!

 
--------------- ---------------