Our Neighborhood Murder

Madison had its first homicide of the year yesterday, just down the street from me and literally around the corner from Charlie. You can read about it here. Now, murder isn't funny. It is entertainment (see my undying interest in/affection for L & O). But let's examine a couple of things about that news article.

Ok, well first of all, we all know what "person of interest" means.*

Second, what the hell kind of description is this?

The man, who was seen in the area at the time, is described as 6 feet to 6 feet 1 inch tall. He was last seen wearing a white stocking cap with a red "W" on the front and a tan, sheepskin-type jacket and was carrying a gray backpack, which appeared to be new. The man's race is unknown.

So all we know is that someone saw him, he is a very specific height, recently bought a backpack and is a Badger fan? But we don't know his hair color, skin color or any other silly details? Hmmmm... according to my research with Profs. Stabler and Benson, this case should be cracked in no time.

*Apparently I have to explain this. Gary Hilton was a "person of interest" and turned out to be a decapitating serial killer. Then, again, there is this guy. There goes that theory.

I rode the bus with 27 Jennifers

In my newest class/experiment with UW undergrads, there are 18 people.

5 of them are named Sara(h).

11 people studied abroad in Chile.

13 are Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies and Spanish majors.


It's kind of like taking a seminar with 17 versions of myself in 2003. Love it.

This is what bad news looks like:

But I took it with my cameraphone to show it to the genius the Apple Store.

Cool, huh?

Some News

1. My computer is busted. Instead of turning on, it flashes red, green, blue, then this crazy black and white pattern before going black... and then red, green, blue. Oh, and making this terribly crackling noise like the insides are a walkie-talkie on fire. So. The apple people have it. There are "various potential problems." I have 4 more months of AppleCare. Which means I have a loaner from the library and this whole episode won't cost me anything. A big deal for someone who lives on the internet/her computer, though. Also, because of this now know one can rent a MacBook from UW, three days at a time for free. Awesome.

2. I have noticed a shift in the classes this year, which is a little scary. They aren't talking about theories anymore, they're just telling us how to be lawyers. In Evidence tonight I got a little freaked out at the idea of being in trial and everything to consider and how much you can fuck someone's life up. And maybe I am not smart enough for this. And what is even more scary is that if I'm not smart enough for it, the vast majority of people are totally screwed. Wait, they already are. Nevermind.

The bright side? As a professor said other day: a bad prosecutor can ruin many peoples' lives in a morning. A bad defender ruins lives one at a time. Phew.


3. According to Lauren and her sources, brown hair is cool. This is good. Look how cool I am:



4. When the police trick kids on The Wire, it's funny. When they do it in the public defender class scenarios, I'll fight them. Speaking of The Wire, the first episode of season 5 is on iTunes for no monies. If you're into it.

Back 2 Cool

So I am taking an undergrad lecture course this semester. I know, yuck it up and judge my complaining about 18 credits in light of that all you want. It is about Transitional Justice, this professor is this really cool lady I have been reading about since I got here, it's basically perfect for me-- including, of course, the fact that I have taken classes on everything we are talking about before.
But I digress. There is a lot of reading and kind of a lot more work than I would have expected, I was a little nervous-- this time just to balance everything, as opposed to last semester when I was worried about looking dumb. So today was our first class. The professor gives us a definition of transitional justice, as asks for an example of when these methods were used. A kid raises his hand, first student participation of the term--

"That thing that came after the Civil War that starts with an 'R'-- what's that called?"



So to my mind, it's not that he couldn't summon the word, "reconstruction" that makes me suspect he is dumb... but his willingness to bring up something he can't even remember in front of the class. Was he not teased in elementary school? Does Wisconsin not properly socialize its children? Geez, louise!

The various other folks proceeded to bring up all and only the examples that were provided in the syllabus and one girl asked what an annotated bibliography was.

So. Um. I am not really so worried anymore.

Updating Machine

I didn't blog anything about New Orleans. I know. Here's a little. It was great, as always. Very fun (although the whole city seemed to get the stomach flu while we there. Yeah, yeah, me too, the "stomach flu" aka drinking like a freshman in college in a 26.5 yr old body) and very interesting to reflect on the changes since I first went a year ago. Like that the signs nailed to posts in the 9th ward have changed from "See the Levees Breach?" or "GUT Houses" to "Tiling!" and "Drywall." That's progress, I guess. I also got to revisit a lot of favorites and finally get to some spots-- like when C and I had a datey date at Jacques Imo's where I gave him this:

and he refrained from gagging all over it. I like it in New Orleans a lot, though, and after driving myself crazy for really two months, making trips happen for 550 people, while also making finals happen for me... it was nice to see the fruits of my labors, get some kudos and be reminded not to give up.
It also made the recent return to school feel a little scary and terrible. I don't know how I did it last semester and I just don't want to this one. There is actually so much more going on, we're hosting the NLG midwest regional, Spring Break trips will be huge, I have a little paying job, and then those silly 18 credits of school/clinic/journal. I am not just trying to bitch, or impress the internet with my toughness (or my enormous balls) but just explain why I get cold and scared so often and probably also why my weird little heart thing has gotten a lot worse. (I am seeing the Dr. on Friday, don't worry, internet.) Ok, I think this kinda brings us up to the present.

News Bits

1. According to the stylist, I have wavy hair. This is a change in my life and paradoxically if I had the hair I always wished was curly when I had it, this haircut would work much better without a flat iron. Harumph.

2. I drive to New Orleans tomorrow, with 3 friend/classmates, possibly in a hybrid. If we do, in fact, get a hybrid, I will officially be the best person in the world. Keep your fingers crossed.

24 Walgreens

You can only imagine my confusion and dismay this evening when, for a few minutes, it appeared I had forgotten where the nearest 24 hour Walgreens was in St. Paul. If you know me at all, you should know how strange and unlikely this is. Not only do I have a good sense of direction, but I love Walgreens and so I damn sure know where they are in my home turf. I even resorted to googletexting, thinking perhaps I got the street wrong before noticing that the old Walgreens had been torn down and the store had moved to a spiffy new spot across the street and a couple of blocks away. Phew. I made my purchases that would only embarrass a pre-teen-- tampons, anti-itch cream, cold medicine and brought them to the register. The dude in front of me was buying a box of hemorroid suppositories, two large containers of vaseline and a package of rubber gloves. He then said to the cashier, "God bless you for being open 24 hours." The cashier said, "Hey, no problem, man. We're open for, like, ever." And he's right. And that is why I love Walgreens, they have what you need when you need it, be it itchy feet or some kind of homemade rectal procedure.

So, maybe it's just me... but I would hope after selling out in a new and different way to become half of suburban America's one-time dream (being a VJ, not being Kurt Loder, I don't think)... well, I'd hope I'd at least be good at it. See some awkward, not-hard-hitting, America's Next Top journalism here.

Also:
- Happy New Year
- Montana was fun
-GObama! It's all happening....!