(no subject)

Today is disco. House, disco, cheesey dance...that is what I'm shoutcasting at work today. I feel disco.

Work:
I showed up at work today, and the two motions I wrapped up yesterday were in my box with minimal changes. My first motion was rejected outright, so I'm happy about this reception. I also got a discovery response back with everything we asked for and more. I bonded with a guy who is on the up and up because he walked in on me listening to gay dance music house, and he used to tour de house up in B'more. He has xtian stuff around his workspace so he'll probably hate me if he realizes I'm a fag, but until then he thinks we have something in common.

Exam prep:
I'm very ready for my legislation exam tonight, though I'm at work today. I'm far better prepared than for the mid-term, where I got a B+ after returning from travel. I'm far more ready for my evidence exam, listening to my cds in the car to and from work. I now am skipping past the main points and focusing on the details, contrasting similar rules (this doesn't come in as a present state impression but could be argued as excited utterance, and that 3rd level hearsay could come in from the cop if the person reporting the accident was described as agitated even though they have no duty to report). I need to polish the shifting burden of production vs. persuasion (proof? Ha!) in criminal vs. civil cases when there are required vs. permissive inferences. Bursting bubble or um...that other thing? If the flash cards and Goode are any guide, I can regurgitate and apply the rules. Will that help in the looney tune scenarios they put on exams? I can't say, but I "get it" far more than ever before, and I can weave a lot more points together. My one weak spot is the regulated industries course, but it's only 2 cr and I have all weekend, and mon-tues next week to worry about that. In that class I'll be given various regulatory arguments and scenarios, and be expected to apply SCOTUS precedent we have covered in class. Can this be cross-subsidized, or does that exceed regulatory authority of the act? Oh, my mediation exam is already due in draft form and it's not due until the 12th, page limit of 12 pages and I'm at 11 now.

This is all to say that when I bomb I'll be upset. Or when I do well I won't be ecstatic. I worked very hard, sacrificed a lot. God, my house is a mess. Still, I don't expect to do well or poorly. I just can't predict. But I have tried, and I will continue to try until 5/12 when it all ends.

Then I have one week until summer school starts.

My Dell investment was as awful as even my mom thought it would be. XM is down 40% from my purchase price. NYSE is a good 10% drop as well. It seems I might be better off liquidating my experiment with investing and just paying off my mortgage and student loans. Even though those are tax deductable, I'm a bad enough investor overall (I keep very tight records) that paying off debt might be a more profitable venture than my investment skill. I'm only lucky to be in the black as through sheer coincidence my wins have had more in them than my losses. Hell, crack rock might be better.

I'm also trying to drop 2% body fat, but jelly beans are on sale. It's easy to run this time of year, but I found out thanks to gmail pedometer than my runs are shorter than I thought. I've found that when I don't run with a partner, I run to the full extent of my ability - probably a heart rate of 170-180, and only slow when I'm huffing. I don't need to pace, but I do need to increase the distance and try to find more non-concrete ways to run.

Can you take a lesson from any of the above?

(no subject)

I was just studying for my final tonight when I heard the strangest series of sounds - a revved engine, a series of bumps, then the sound of machinery...spinning? I looked out my window, and saw a cloud of smoke and dust...and a car in the bushes. The bushes are about 10-15' up a 45 deg slope. The smoke hadn't settled and the wheels still spun, so I dropped my papers and ran out the door. I heard someone else running down the stairs and a door slam or a thud. I dashed out the door, and one of my neighbors, a hispanic woman from my building, was looking dazed in the car. Her window was still up. I
my heart is still kinda beating fast
went up to her window and by then she had turned off the car. She rolled down the window and I asked if she was all right, and she mostly responded "I don't know what just happened!" I looked inside the car and the auto transmission, in the middle of hte seats, was in park. I asked her what happened again, she said she didn't know. Her son came out. I didn't know he was her son - he's a guy in my building in GREAT SHAPE who works in rev cycles. I thought he lived on his own. He came out bleeding from his forehead. Her attention immediately turned to him, and he explained when he looked out the window and saw her in the bushes he ran out the door but fell, hitting his head. The blood ran down his face, but there wasn't much. She got out of hte car, and we talked about him and the accident a bit more. I let him in because he didn't have his keys, and he went to check out his injury. I asked her if the car was in park, and she answered (honestly) "I don't know." She couldn't say what just happened, just next thing she knew she was up the hill.

I checked to see if the brake was on, and it wasn't, so I asked her permission to put it on, she said yes, so I pushed in the parking brake with my foot.

It's funny because I spoke to her recently, and she was upset about how some kids had vandalized cars in the neighborhood lately - keyed them - and her new car, first new car in whenever, had been one. It's black.

We debated the merits of getting a tow truck - I suggested a truck since she might be involving insurance anyway. Her son and she were a little testy - you could tell he was frustrated and still full of adreniline. I mean I understand - the guy was bleeding and just saw his mom in a car at hte top of a hill! She asked me to drive the car back down the hill, and I said "Since I'm in law school, I really have to duck out of that one." Eventually me and another guy moved a concrete barrier (it was already knocked over) that was in the lot behind her. Her son got in the car and eased it down the hill again. They argued when it was clear there was no way back onto the street that didn't impact the bottom of the car and muffler since the angle was so steep. Since the car had done it once, and rather than getting a tow truck, they decided to take it all the way down. An Arlington County Sheriff pulled by right then, asked what happened, and again the woman said she didn't know and started talking about how the car just took off. I think the Sheriff left, not sure, then the son slowly drove the car the rest of the way down. The president of the Board had arrived by then, by coincidence she was just walking home, and fetched our manager.

The woman said she may have spaced out when listening to new age music, and she might not listen to Enya while driving anymore.

Why write this down? Well, it just happened and that's neat. It was exciting, though I doubt it makes much of an LJ story. I didn't use my cell-phone to take pics (that would be so rude too). It just occurs to me that I was wondering about evidence (too bad my exam in 2 hours is in legislation). Well, now, suppose I'm killed on the way to my Legislation exam, and somehow a case comes out of hte incident. Would this LJ post be admissible as an exception to the hearsay rule? I might have taken too long to be a present sense impression, but it was only moments ago. My comment about my heart beating might make it admissible under that - but my commenting on that possibility here might give the impression I had time to reflect, therefore eliminating it. It doesn't seem like an excited utterance, but that seems more flexible than the present sense. It can't be an original, but it can be ... oh what's the rule on past events recorded? No, I'm not a witness. Guess I'm not ready for that exam yet. My claim to fame would be a sad one if it was just "The guy who had the first LJ entry under this exception to the hearsay rule."

We've had trouble growing grass on that steep hill...