I swear this isn't a traffic blog

However, I find that the easiest thing to complain about is the traffic because it doesn't legitimately affect anybody negatively here. (This is a huge difference from my movie and sports blogs engage in rather severe name calling of certain people. I'm looking at you Orlando Bloom.

Anyway, I was trying to get to Alderman road from my apartment. First, I tried to go down Old Ivy. No dice. We had a football game here today so Old Ivy is closed to traffic heading towards Ivy at the Tunnel of Death. For those of you not familiar with the Tunnel of Death, there are train tracks running above the Tunnel of Death. The road narrows underneath these tracks because, well, why not? Why should engineers be expected to design a bridge capable of allowing two cars to pass by at once.

So, it was back up Old Ivy, onto the 250 Bypass, and through the Northern campus. Surely I can cross Ivy from Copeley.

Wrong. Besides getting stuck behind, count them, one, two, three, FOUR Sheriff cars, there was a police officer waving traffic through to the right. Or, back to Old Ivy. Thanks guys. That's really cool. Eventually, I just cut my losses and headed to the law school.

The thing I really don't understand though is the die hard affection for UVA football. Listen, UVA sucks at football. I hate to break that to everyone in this state, but at no point is this team going to be relevant. The high water mark for this program in the past 6 years was a 9-5 finish in 2002. Subsequent campaigns of excellence included 8-5, 8-5, 7-5, 5-7.

That's mediocrity at it's finest. On top of that, the program is 7-9 in bowl games. Not only do they not get invited often, they get invited to crappy ones and usually lose. So, really people, there's no need to mess up traffic on this side of Charlottesville for this kind of stuff.

Library Part II

Of course, the day after I write about the Library guy, he disappears. I've not seen him in a couple of days. Of course, the interweb was out here on campus so maybe he's only in the law library to l33ch it.

Update: Ah, there he is
-2:05

First Thing We Do, Let's Kill All the Lawyers

Bonus points to whomever gets that reference. Leave the answer in the comments.

Anyway, the longer I'm in law school, the more esoteric law references are funny. My small section and I crack jokes about liability, contracts, mens rea, Civil Procedure (actually, that's probably the least funny out of all of them. We just complain about all of the Federal Rules).

Probably the funniest thing I heard in law school I'm not going to write on this blog because I don't want it coming back to bite me during law interviews. Yeah, this "blawg" is anonymous, but I don't take great pains to keep it so. I'm sure that the University or Law firms can figure out who's writing it.

Regardless, I'll can tell you the punchline is "Your favorite case is Lawrence v. Texas." The set up is a direct quote of a question posed by a comedy from a few years back. Sorry to be so vague, but my career is at stake (think about it and you'll get it though).

Also, Avast Ye Landlubbers

Crocs

This has nothign to do with law school, but I hate those things

Library

The thing about Law School is that you spend an inordinate amount of time in the library. For some, this is because they wish to study. For me though, some of it has to do with living off campus for the first time in my college career. Where else am I going to go?

When you go to the library on a regular basis, you start to get a particular study spot. Today, I have been thwarted because the spot I normally sit has been overrun.

So, I was forced to expand my horizons and it sucks. I am a creature of habit. Most people talk about how they want to "shake things up" and "do something new." Not me. I like what I do. That's the major reason that I do it. Now, obviously moving in the library isn't a big deal. Still though, it's representative of how much of a creature of habit I am.

Speaking of creatures of habit, there is this one old dude that is in the same spot in the library EVERY single day. I'm trying to figure out what he's doing here. He's there until at least 5 every day and usually later. He's there all day as far as I can tell. There hasn't been a day yet or a time of day during the week when I've not seen him in there. This isn't a matter of us just having the same times off. No, even on days when I have a class cancelled and I'm in the library at a much different time than normal, he's there.

Who is he? What does he do? These are all mysteries that I may never solve. One day, I want to get in here at like 8 am and just sit in that chair all day. I want to see what he does.

Crickets

The past couple of days I've been serenaded as I've walked into the law school. Down by the parking lot, in the lower part of Withers-Brown Hall, there's a potted plant. i think it's a fake potted plant, but regardless, it's there. Inside said plant, there is a cricket. Each time I've walked through the door, that thing has completely flipped out and made as much noise as possible.

Honestly, I'm quite impressed by the cricket's gusto. On top of that, I think it really adds some atmosphere to the law school. I think it'd be kinda cool to have cricket sounds in the law school in the evening. It'd create a relaxing, peaceful atmosphere in which to study. Of course, the cricket downstairs would not be a good candidate for this activity because it would drive people up a wall with its volume. Honestly, Pavarotti is quieter than this thing.

Art

When I first came to Charlotteville, the first thing that struck me was “Holy Crap, you can’t drive in here!” After a couple of days, that feeling was entrenched and will never be gotten rid of. However, once you accept that the layout of the city was designed by someone who was inspired by Jackson Pollock, you start noticing other things when you’re driving…

…Like the giant pieces of art.

My parents and I were looking around down here when I noticed a piece of metal sticking out of the median along the 250 by-pass. “Is that a whale’s tail?” I asked. Why yes it is!

I feel that such a sculpture really captures the nature of the town, if that town happened to be some whaling community in New England. Unfortunately, this is in Charlottesville, where you’d have to go to Sea World to see a whale and you definitely wouldn’t see one with a tale like that!

From the website:

At the beginning of 2006, I was smitten by a calendar photograph of a sperm whale tail. I became obsessed with the image and decided to share my obsession with the rest of Charlottesville through ArtInPlace.

I'm glad that you decided to share your obsession with us. I'm glad your outlet for obsession has chosen a safe, money-wasting outlet as opposed to other alternatives.

The Tail is created from discarded wood, much of it harvested locally. The skin is cedar waste from a millwork shop. The base is comprised of branches and roots from a single Osage-orange tree.

Because that tree was far less useful than this giant whale fin in an inland town.

I really can't get over all of these sculptures. Some are ok, but others are just nuts. I'm sure I'll write about this some later day.

Labor Day

Here at Virginia Law, we have a really cool policy. That policy is that National Holidays are meaningless. At least, that’s how Labor day is treated. Instead of getting our much deserved vacation day after a grueling two weeks of organized drinking events and group activities, we’re forced to have class today.

This is means we have our typically chaotic day of 3 classes.

Honestly, maybe I’m missing the boat, but I really don’t feel like Law School is that difficult. If you sit down and do the work, it only takes about 45 minutes per class per day to get it all done. As it is, I just stay at school into the early evening and then go back to my apartment with little or nothing to do.