A very disturbing image

I hoped to never have to blog about this, but I fear it is the only way to purge this out or my memory. I few weeks ago I saw what I believe was the most disturbing thing I have ever seen.

I thought that I would be able to suppress the image for as long as it took me to forget and I would never have to speak or think of it again. I was pretty successful in it’s suppression until… the friend I was with at the time mentioned it to me a few days ago. Since then I have been unable to get it out of my head. My hope now is that if I blog about it, and put it out for the whole world (the whole world = my three regular readers) to see, I can somehow purge it permanently from my head without actually talking about it.

The disturbing scene I had the misfortune of seeing was… homeless sex.

Yes, I had the misfortune of seeing two homeless people fornicating on a sidewalk. It was a pretty very disgusting site. I was in an area of town where many homeless seem to congregate. I was at a stop sign (the second car, actually) and I was looking around when I saw a homeless couple, sharing a sleeping bag on the side walk. Sharing a sleeping bag, face to face, facing each other, with movement in the mid section. Had that been all, I could have easily forgotten the image knowing that sex was likely but still not certain. But then I saw the guy moving around too much. The sleeping bag fell off. The worst part of the sleeping bag to fall off. There was then no doubt whatsoever. I saw a total of about one to two seconds, and it was the WRONG one or two to see. Without even knowing I said “they are having sex.” My friend turned, saw the scene and confirmed it. The car in front of me finally moved and I then ran the stop sign in an effort to get away from the scene as fast as I could.

I know that by posting this I am opening myself up to all kinds of comments that I am some closet homeless voyeur, that I’m just an ordinary perv, or that I’m somehow anti-homeless people. But I’m not, really I’m not. If I was a perv (not that there’s anything wrong with that (apologies to Seinfeld)) I hope that I wouldn’t be so desperate to troll around under bridges hoping to see homeless sex. As for being anti-homeless, I know that the homeless have needs and urges, just please don’t fill those needs and urges on the sidewalk during the day when traffic is around. Is that too much to ask? I think not.

I have a feeling that I’ll be deleting my first post very soon…

I thought this was interesting

I know I don’t usually link to news articles, but I found this interesting. A federal judge has held that the current form of paper money in the United States is discriminatory against people who are blind. It was from a District Court and I just don’t see this being upheld on appeal. This isn’t to say the legal arguments are unsound, I just find it very hard to believe that that the Court of Appeals (or SCOTUS) will let stand an order to the US Treasury to completely revamp all paper currency.

This thought just came to me, what about checks???

I was a poet and didn’t even know it.

I was sitting in the Lounge this morning discussing my most recent post. The conversation soon moved from criticism of my most recent attempt at haiku to the lack of legal limericks. A Google search proved to be pretty disappointing, but it did come up with this blog. After reading them we agreed most were pretty bad and that we could come up with much better ones. I don’t know if that was proven by this sampeling, but without further adieu, I present more legal limericks. (Names have been redacted to protect the guilty when necessary.)

There once was a law prof named Mitch

Whose students all thought him a bitch.

There was too much to read,

So they all then agreed,

He’d be better off found in a ditch.

--D

Contracts with Rau was quite bad.

The students all thought they’d been had.

Damages was all that he taught,

Till their brains started to rot,

Now they all have gone quite mad.

--D

Wills is a class, it’s been said,

Whose material is dense as lead,

But the key to remember,

All the way till December,

Is in the end, everyone ends up dead.

-- Ex.Coll.

Ascher once taught a tax class.

His delivery was smooth as glass.

Some clauses did bite,

As Congress did write,

But they pulled all out of their ass.

--Ex.Coll

UPDTE: This site has much better limericks the the previously linked to blog.

An ode / to iPod / Haiku

i Pod, I miss you.

Sans you, read in quiet I must.

Read in quiet I hate.

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In case it isn’t apparent in my poem, my iPod is gone. I had no idea I was hooked to it. I have a smaller (capacity), less user-friendly, mp3 player, but I’ve lost most of my iTunes.

Does anyone have a website where I can download some classical music? If so, please post in the comments or email me. (excollblog@yahoo.com) Thanks.

football

Like an alcoholic who knows he got a problem but is not ready to admit it, I just wasn’t ready to say that the Horns had been overrated all season. It is now painfully obvious. I, along with most fans, was willing to accept the loss to No. 1, but losing two consecutive games to unranked teams? How the Hell do you explain that? To go from talk (very outside chance) of going for the national championship again, to setting for the Big 12 title, to now hoping that OU manages to screw it up against OK state.

What went wrong today? Plenty. I could chalk up a lot of it to some of the worst officiating I’ve seen all season. I could also blame it on the couple cheap shots the Aggies laid on our QB. But even those things can’t make up for the Longhorn’s own shortcomings.

They were finally able to stop the pass, but allowed the Aggies to run all over them. Then there were the turnovers. And Colt not being at 100% and thus causing him to throw bad passes that should have been completed. Oh, and don’t forget what I said about the last game, we don’t have a god backup QB. QB2 did have a 100% pass completion rate; the only problem is that it was to an Aggie.

Man on man, this sucks.

Why I Smoke Cigars

I came across this article today while I was avoiding studying. Its a great article that I wholeheartedly agree with.

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Why I Smoke Cigars

By Dennis Prager
FrontPageMagazine.com November 21, 2006

There are few personal confessions more likely to alienate many Americans than to admit to smoking. Singles ads are filled with people who will never even go on a first date with someone who smokes. I strongly suspect that more women would date a millionaire who earned his money disreputably than a millionaire who smoked.

Drinkers are far more highly regarded than smokers, as are playboys, gamblers, lawyers, politicians and almost anyone else except child molesters.

So I have no doubt that some readers who until now have held me in esteem will lose respect for me when they learn that not only do I smoke cigars and a pipe, but I love doing so, have no interest in stopping and have been happy to pass this pleasure on to my older son. In fact, we regularly have some of our best talks while we enjoy our cigars.

[Read the rest of the article here]

And speaking of exams…

Am I the only one disheartened by the fact that Texas came out fourth in terms of bar passage rates for the July bar?

You mean we have finals EVERY semester?

Yes, it is finals time. The time of the semester where the Tom Clark lounge is a viable study option because the library has not yet opened. The time when students curse that the coffee booth isn’t open at 8 p.m. The time when students wonder if you can actually check out books from the library.

Other blawgs have made their comments this time of semester and I had planned on posting mine, but I had a very difficult time in coming up with anything decent (I know, that’s never stopped be from posting before). Anyhow, as I was browsing the internet, in an effort to stay awake in class, I came across the following picture. It speaks volumes to my thoughts at this time. Guess which one is me.

Misc.

I guess in the interest of full disclosure, I should reveal what the cigar was that I blind tasted. The only thing I was told was that it was a Fuente. It has to be a green band, because it was Conn. Shade wrapper. I was not told the specific size, but I am going to guess that it was a Cuban Corona. I think my experience is not typical for Fuentes, I assume I just got a dud.
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OSU and Michigan are playing right now. It’s halftime and OSU is proving why they are #1.

Blind Tasting Results

First my rating system. I will be using a 100 point scale with the breakdown as follows:
Appearance: 10 points
Construction (including draw): 20 points
Beginning flavor (first ¼ of cigar): 20 points
Ending flavor (remaining ¾): 40 points
Overall enjoyment (a somewhat arbitrary number that I assign to how all the other factors come together): 10 points

First thought on the cigar: defiantly not a Cuban cigar. The wrapper is probably Connecticut Shade (a negative since I rarely like Conn Shade cigars). When I first got the cigar, it was kind of squishy to the touch; I assumed it was because of over-humidification. When I smoked it about a week later, it had firmed up a bit, but still too soft, I attribute it to construction.

The wrapper was very nice, a light shade of brown, somewhat veiny, and with very little tooth. There was a minor tear on the wrapper near the head which could be attributed to the removal of the band.

I cut the cap and got a somewhat hard draw, probably because of the humidification. It had a good smell to it (very familiar scent, but defiantly not Cuban). The pre-light flavor was good, but not great. Appearance 9 points.

The cigar had a very good burn throughout and did not require any touch ups. The wrapper stayed intact. The draw eased up as I smoked. Construction: 18 points.

Beginning Flavor: Not good. I got an almost chemical taste to it in the very beginning. That taste died down after the first few puffs, but never really went away. It’s a medium body cigar to begin, but mellowed out fairly quickly. I might just be to harshin this aspect, but the chemical flavor really hurt the score here: 10 points.

Ending flavor: the cigar mellowed out even more but about halfway through started to develop more strength. About this time I got up form my chair and it hit me. A bit of a sleeper. The chemical taste never really left and the finish was extremely harsh. At about the 3/4 mark, I simply could not smoke any more, the flavor became too bitter and it was far too harsh to be enjoyable.. There is a lot of very dark smoke, which is uncommon for Conn Shade cigars and the ash is very dark, also uncommon. I think I might be a bit too generous on this score, but the middle of the cigar was enjoyable. Was the harsh beginning and end worth it, I don’t know, I am giving it the benefit of the doubt and awarding 35 points.

Overall, I don’t think this was a very good cigar, but it has some potential. I think a lot of negatives could be overcome with more aging. I think this cigar could be much better with about 2 years in the humidor. Would I smoke this one again, depends. If I were in a bar and just wanted something to smoke and was drinking a beer and it was offered to me for free, sure, if there were no others available. If I was at a cigar shop and I saw this on the shelf, I’d pass on it. I would not make this a part of my regular rotation. Overall Enjoyment: 5.

Final Score: 77

Blind Cigar Tasting

Normally I would never agree to this, but a classmate and fellow UT blawger offered me the challenge. A blind tasting of a cigar.

The reason I would never agree to this was because I’ve seen it blow up in other people’s faces. A few years ago, on a cigar BB that I frequent, a few guys were spouting off about how they were great cigars aficionados and how so many cigar smokers didn’t know what they were smoking and couldn’t tell a good one from a bad one. They claimed that people smoked expensive cigars only for their reputation. They then made the broad assumption that most smokers could not tell a Cuban from a non-Cuban cigar, an assumption that I share.

As typically happens once someone gets behind a keyboard, bold statements were made and three people were called out. A VERY knowledgeable member, one who’s credentials and reputation were unquestionable offered to send each of the three a pack of several cigars of varying quality and origin. They were all sent the same cigars and they were numbered and packaged by a third party. The three blowhards were then to taste the cigars and post brief reviews on the BB. The reviews were simply for fun, the challenge was simply to say whether the cigars were Cuban or not.

Needless to say the results were hilarious. I don’t think a singe one got more than 50% right. The one that got me the most was that two of the three agreed one cigar was Cuban when it was really a Travis Club Senator, a ~$1 machine made cigar that can be bought in almost any gas station in the country, and uh… not Cuban.

So, with this in my mind, I still accepted this challenge. I am not expected to guess the origin of the cigar or it’s brand, I am simply to post here my thoughts and opinion on the cigar. I have also warned the challenger that I will not be posting a Cigar Aficionado-type review. I planned on posting my response in this entry, but seeing how long-winded I’ve already made this, I’ll do it in my next post. (I’m still smoking it and gathering my thoughts).

By the way, I unknowingly accepted this challenge by two people, but the other doesn’t know about this blog and therefore has no expectation of publicly humiliating me.

God’s Gonna Cut You Down

A video was released for God’s Gonna Cut You Down, from American V: A Hundred Highways. American V was the last of Johnny’s albums and was released posthumously. Johnny had selected all the songs for the album, but the final mixes were put together after he died. I think the album was great and this song is defiantly my favorite from the CD, but I’m not sure about the video.

It is a nice tribute, but I’m not sure that it should have been mixed with the song. The people featured on it, IMO, don’t really fit the tone of the song, one of righteousness, of going forth and doing God’s will.

I’ve not read much about the video itself, so I may be wrong, but it seems to me it’s just a bunch of the Hollywood-hipsters (very few, if any, of them deserve to be put into the same category of JR Cash, but maybe that’s the point) taking short videos of themselves and superimposing them over a Johnny Cash song.

I’ve watched it several times and I just can’t get the visuals to go with the song.

Any Johnny Cash fans want to chime in?

A BCS Shakeup

A hell of a week for college football. Rutgers started a trend because this week numbers 3, 5, 6, and 8, all lost this week to teams they should have won. This should make this week’s BCS ranking interesting.

Semi-live football blogging.

I call this "semi-live" becasue I don't plan on keeping this up all game as I did last time.

I’m watching the Longhorns tonight. 6:30 left in the half. All I have to say is W – T – F?

Why is it that Mack Brown never sees the need to have a decent backup quarterback? Everyone on the team has a good back up, depth is never a problem, except for the QB.


Texs Down 21-14.

UPDTE:
What the shit is going on here? How the Hell is Texas going to do shit with all these damn turnovers???
Texas down 35-21.

Generosity

Law schools have a reputation for being very competitive places and law students often have the reputation for being unwilling to help other students. I’ve heard first-hand accounts from people at other law schools, but I can honestly say I’ve never seen it or even heard about it at UT.

Just a few weeks ago, when it was discovered that a fellow student was in a car accident and was injured and lost her school work, other students took it upon themselves to help her out. Last year, other students were helping to bring a sick student’s family into the country for a visit they could otherwise not afford.

I had a minor setback this week, and was amazed at the assistance given to me by other students. Some I know are readers of this blog, I don’t know if others are. Whatever the case, I’m pretty sure you know who you are. To all of you I want to give you my sincerest thank you.

So my advice to everyone, is to always be willing to give a hand, you never know when you will need one yourself. You might also be humbled at the extent that others are willing to help you out.

Notice to all Independent Voters

In just a few minutes it can be a historic day, if you do your duty. In just a few minutes it will be Election Day and it is only a matter of hours before the polls will open and you have the ability to exercise the most fundamental of rights, the right to vote. It is your civic duty to make sure that your vote counts. Countless people have died so that you can stand up and make sure that you have a say in who governs you. To this day, there are people fighting and dieing to spread this right, yet in this country, the majority of those who have the right, don’t even bother to show up.

Make your voice heard. Vote and make Kinky Friedman the next Governor of the great state of Texas.

Notice to all Republican and Democratic Voters

In a few minutes it will be Tuesday. Go ahead; sleep in, you don’t have anything important to do anyway.

A couple friends came into town over the weekend. On Friday night, we were outside smoking cigars chatting about various things when the topic of Music came up. Before you knew it, two of us had out laptops out and playing what can only be described as inebriated Dueling iTunes. A couple of hours, a couple cigars, and many Vodka drinks, Tequila shots, and beers later, we declared a draw and went inside.

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon. I return from the grocery store and my neighbor sees me. He approaches and says “you know, on Friday night, at about 3 a.m. I heard some crazy noises. I didn’t come outside, but is sounded a lot like a couple drunks singing their heart out. They sounded like rejects from American Idol.” I told him I didn’t hear anything, blamed the homeless people in the woods and quickly went inside. I don’t think he bought it.