Saturday, November 03, 2007

Time for Trivia

The federal government says we’ve enjoyed evening sunlight long enough. For people like Nick who need all they help he can get to raise from the dead in the morning, this will come as a welcome shift. For others - myself included - this hullabaloo is entirely unnecessary. Whatever side of the debate you fall on, don’t forget to put your clocks back an hour before going to bed tonight!

In the meantime, here’s a little time trivia for you:

Summer solstice: The longest day this year was June 21 at 15 hours, 59 minutes of daylight.

Winter solstice: The shortest day will be Dec. 21 at eight hours, 25 minutes of daylight.

1784: Benjamin Franklin first mentioned the idea of daylight-saving time in his essay “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light.”

1840: “Standard time” was first established in England to regulate the railroads.

1883: Railroads in the United States instituted standard time with time zones.

WWI: Changing between standard time and daylight-saving time began with World War I.

1916: British summer time was instituted in 1916, when clocks were put one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.

1918: The U.S. followed with DST to save money for military efforts during World War I. The move was so unpopular, it wasn’t brought up again until World War II.

1942: From then on, DST has been followed by the majority of the United States.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Law School Diary: Week 10

Dear Seattle University School of Law,

They say law school changes you. It can’t be helped. Nick says my German-born weakness for long sentences has exploded. In fact, when I’m trying to explain anything anymore, I apparently ramble on in run-on sentences. (Technically, they’re not run on sentences, he just can’t keep up with my dependent clauses.) I also tend to use more complicated words like “enumerate” when “explain” would work equally well. Go figure.

I did a quick survey of my classmates to see what other changes they’ve noticed. Here’s a reader’s digest.

You know you’re in law school when…

...you carry yellow, green, pink, orange, and blue highlighters with you all the time and get excited when they are on sale at Staples.
...your bedtime read is “Getting to Maybe” - not a self-help book, but rather an exam strategy book.
...your friends at school start telling you you’re breaching an oral contract not exempted from the statute of frauds when you back out of going to a party in order to sleep.
...sleeping sounds more desirable than beer about 75 percent of the time. In fact, it’s how you “treat” yourself.
...your classmates dress as a hung jury on Halloween (a group of 12 with nooses tied around their necks).
...your biggest fear in leaving your laptop unattended is not that it will get stolen, but that if it does, you’ll lose all your outlines.
...you start winning arguments with your friends by quoting Supreme Court concurrences.
...you read a Cosmo article on “gray rape” and immediately think “mistake of fact.”
...you’re sitting with a bunch of 1Ls and accidentally say “teacher” and “teachee” and no one realizes the mistake.
...you start analyzing current events in terms of the interesting legal questions they bring up.
...you look forward to reading and analyzing the complete text of each of the ballot initiatives in the voters’ pamphlet (you know, the text in the back that no one ever reads).

Finally, you know you’re in law school when you ask someone where they want to eat dinner and, upon hearing, “somewhere cheap,” you ask them to define “cheap” in terms of your present monetary status. Or, if you’re having a really bad night, it turns into this:

There are three elements to a food choice: the eatery must be open, there must be food, and the price must be cheap.

In order for a restaurant/eatery to be open, it must (1) have its doors unlocked; and (2) have food prepared, which is (a) ready to serve or (b) be substantially certain to be ready to be prepared and served.

In order to meet the second element of being food, the items must (1) be edible; (2) not be poisonous; and (3) not be (a) a drink or (b) gum.

To meet the final element of dinner for tonight, the food choice must also be cheap. A food choice is cheap when (1) it does not cost a substantial amount of money compared to the volume of food; and (2) the actual price is not so high as would put a reasonable person into imminent apprehension.

See ya next week.

-Carry

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Mad croissant-making skillz

pounding the butter

Nick has taken up croissant-making in his spare time. It’s a two-day process. On the first day, he makes the dough and rolls it out with the butter. Roll, fold, chill, roll, fold, chill, roll, fold, chill...After the fifth chill, he forms the crescents and lets them rise overnight. The next morning he pops them in the oven for a tasty breakfast treat. Yum!