In a funk.

The post title pretty much sums it up. I find myself feeling sluggish about life these days. The creative juices are flowing but seem to be trapped under a sheet of ice.

Like they're a mosquito stuck in amber and I can see them there and I know there's dino DNA to be had, I just can't get to it. And that's frustrating.

Yes, I'm a nerd. Said nerd turns around after an analogy like that and says, well, maybe it's for the best. You don't want to breed raptors, after all. That never ends well.

And I say, you know what, inner nerd? You're right. Plus it's a lot of work breeding raptors. It takes a lot of energy. I would much rather just snuggle up on the couch with a good book or with useless interwebs.

Inner nerd says, let's watch Jurassic Park instead.

But then the annoying industrious side of me pipes up and gives the rest of us a guilt trip about being unproductive, so I can't even lounge properly until the funk goes away but my veins are too full of molasses to actually get much of anything useful done, so, yeah. (In the interest of giving credit where it's due, it's not just Industrious Me's fault. The Little Guy also contributes a LOT to the preventing-me-from-lounging fund. Especially now that he's walking.)

This is all extra frustrating because it's keeping me from really enjoying November, which is usually one of my favorite times of year. (Yeah, I know that just adds to the weirdness. Whatever.)

I'd write an angry letter to someone, but I just don't have the energy.

Maybe I'll put in that Jurassic Park DVD instead.



If you see my missing get-up-and-go, please kick its wandering little trash back home to me. Much obliged.

Sweet and tender

I wanted to take a brief break from this last big push to finish my Major Paper (neigh!) to share this link with all y'all. I ran into it yesterday and really liked it, but haven't had a chance to put it up here until now.

Amazing what the prospect of another hour with the Major Paper (neigh!) will do to your unimportant-but-it-would-be-nice-to-do list.

At any rate, this is one of the sweetest things I have read in a while. Enjoy!

And please don't be deterred by the fact that most of what I have read in the last while is stuff related to my Major Paper (neeeeeeeiiiigh!); even if I had just finished reading Persuasion,* this would still have been a strong contender.


*This whole scene is amazing, but if you want to cut to the chase, fast forward to 2:20.

Three weeks.

At a time when most of my fellow 3Ls are waxing nostalgic about this being the last week of classes, probably EVER for most of them, I'm too busy and stressed to be nostalgic. I will be nostalgic later; I'll think about it tomorrow. Whatever you like.

For right now, I'm just repeating my new mantra:

Three weeks. Three weeks. Three weeks.

Three weeks from today it will all be over. I will have my JD. I will not need to write any more papers. I will not need to read textbooks. I will not need to stress about how I keep missing class because I'm still sick the majority of the time.

I will have graduated.

And what's more, I will officially be in my second trimester, no matter which way you count it. Which means, with any luck, that I won't feel so sick anymore, either. I might even have some energy by then. (Of course, I really could use some of that energy now to get through the next few weeks, but that's another story.)

So. Three weeks. Three weeks. Three weeks.

I can do this.

But Mother, I don't WANT to edit an article about civil liability!

(said in my best Wendy voice)

Argh.

I have two or three great posts I want to write up for the blog but I can't because I'm supposed to be editing an article for the law journal.

I don't LIKE editing articles for the law journal. First off, I don't think it's the editor's (namely, my) job to write your thesis sentence, roadmaps, arguments and footnotes for you if you couldn't do it yourself. Is this the way it works for all journals? Because with my limited experience in publishing, it seems like editors usually give the author ideas, suggestions and feedback about what work needs to be done and then make her do it herself. (And why is our journal accepting articles that have no discernible theses to begin with? Who knows.)

The point is, there are so many more interesting and useful things I'd like to be doing. Cleaning off the kitchen desk. Baking bread. Exercising while catching up on Gilmore Girls. Playing old-school video games. Blogging.

Come on, people! Don't you understand? There are cupcakes to decorate (a new-found love), scarves to knit (because I'm totally going to teach myself to do that now), hats to crochet, old blogs to read, new blogs to discover, recipes to try, offices to organize, houses to redecorate, numbers to paint by, and OH MY GOODNESS books to read.

SO. MANY. BOOKS. (Some of them written by highly attractive Welshmen.)

FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, THERE ARE BOOKS TO BE READ!!!!

And, unfortunately, at least one article on civil liability for misstatements in offer documents (yeah, you read that right) to edit.

With attendant threats of demerits if someone doesn't get it done in time. (Really, people? Demerits? Really?? Are we not past the elementary school stage yet?)

So the books by gorgeous Welshmen will have to wait.

And so will you, because my more interesting posts will not get written tonight.

BOY, you WILL . . .

That's how Shallow Man's theory of discipline starts out. I've decided I'm going to see how it works in semi-real life.

All right, take-home final. This is it.

You don't like me and I certainly don't like you.

But you're going to get done.

Today.

That's all there is to it.

In other words,

BOY,

you WILL

be written and printed

TODAY.

NOW STOP YOUR PRISSY WHINING AND PREPARE TO HAVE THE TRASH KICKED OUT OF YOU.

Thank you.

That will be all.


I'll let you know how it turns out, folks. Stay tuned.

I believe you have my stapler.

So does anyone remember that small scene in the movie Office Space (which I've only seen edited on TV, but really, who hasn't wanted to take the recalcitrant printer or other bit of office equipment out to the back field and whack it with a baseball bat?) where you hear this squeaking noise going up and down repeatedly and then the camera pans over to the next cubicle where the girl answers the phone and it's her voice pitch changing as she says "Hello" and "Please hold" that was making the noise the whole time?

Yeah, me neither.*

But I'm sitting at my carrel here at the law school at 5:36 p.m. when most people are gone so the few people who are left feel safe talking a bit louder than they otherwise would, and the tone of their talking is having the same effect where it sounds like some sort of cricket or small baby bird has made its way into the law library and is chirping whenever someone says a word containing the letter "s" anywhere in it.

Which of course, leaves me torn between the desire to save that poor baby bird and the urge to find that bug and kill it (or at the very least make it leave the building).

Which I guess is the long way of saying that the reading for tomorrow's class has failed to catch my interest.


*Actually, I totally remember this part. I just couldn't find a clip online quickly and didn't feel like making a protracted search effort. If one of all y'alls finds it, though, please feel free to share it with the class.

And a leave-ish of absence

This is just to let all 12-20 of you know that I will be preparing for and taking finals for the next four weeks, so posting here may be slim. Not that this is a huge change from the norm, but at least I'll have a good excuse this time, as opposed to mostly just laziness.

Although, on the other hand, it's also entirely possible that I will post here even more in an effort to procrastinate said studying. We'll see.

Yup. The excitement never ends here at The Scritchy Nib!

She's not dead yet!

Yes, I'm still alive. But also still in the middle of finals. The major ones will be done on Monday, though, and then all I have left is a take-home. And then I will officially be halfway done with law school.

And I might even have a chance to blog.

Till then, keep on tranglin, Larry Pat.



Yes, that final apostrophe has been purposely omitted to match original source formatting. And yes, it is hurting my soul.

And once I figured out how to spell...

110

The things you learn when you don't want to read for Professional Responsibility...

74

Also, I found out that I know more country names than I know how to spell.

Oh, hey.

So apparently Carrie tagged me awhile back and I didn't notice until my husband pointed it out. Probably because, thinking back on it, I've never actually been tagged for one of these things before (at least that I can recall). So.

Six of my quirks (and if you're reading this, you probably already know me well enough to know all of them):

1. Lightswitches. If a room has more than one lightswitch connected to the same light, I will walk across the room, turn off the light, and then go back to the other switch and turn it on if that's what needs to be done in order for the switches to be turned in the right direction.

2. I hate washing loads of towels. I don't like doing laundry much anyway, but the towel/linen load just bugs me more than the rest. Which is dumb, really -- you don't really need to sort it and it's ridiculously easy to fold. But that's what makes it a quirk.

3. I quote stuff. Movies, commercials, TV, books, comic strips, radio shows, you name it. I can (along with most of my family) hold an entire conversation using nothing but Far Side captions. I can even quote some stuff I've never seen. This is probably due to the fact that....

4. I have a crazy-amazing memory for random and useless stuff, like where that carabiner with the Morgan Stanley logo on it that I got two years ago is, where Shallow Man left any given object at any particular time, what day I saw a given movie for the first time, what I did for Halloween 2001, movie trivia, etc. But not important stuff like what on earth was it I scheduled for Tuesday night and what is my name again?

5. I'm a serial snooze button hitter. The alarm needs to be set at least 30 minutes before when I actually want to wake up or I'll miss it from hitting snooze too many times. This is probably connected to my crazy procrastination skillz. I am a PROcrastinator. Or, as that crazy personality test I took in Mr. Ekberg's 9th grade biology class said, "You have a tendency to take on more than any one person could possibly handle and still somehow manage to get it all done." At great expense and at the last minute? Yes. But it still gets done.

6. If you're talking to me, chances are good I'm making up a story about you or the object of the conversation in my head. Okay, maybe you didn't know this one. But you do now. (Careful, you may end up in my novel.) Kind of like how I make up fake song titles for fake songs for my fake band in my head. (Which actually is now a real fake band, since there are three other people in it now. We're called the Dutiful Existentialists and I'm on lead vocals. You should totally check us out on Facebook. We're the best fake band I've ever been in.)

Um. So. Tagging. Uh... It's late and I'm feeling lazy so if you want to do this, you'll have to tag yourself. Or consider yourself tagged. Just let me know if you do it.

Epiphany

Well, I've just discovered why I've never risen to the level of concert pianist.

Well, this stinks...

I swear someone cut out about three months of this semester. I haven't even had a chance to post the stories about finals from LAST semester and finals are almost upon us again. Seriously. Not. Cool.

Maybe I'll just do a compilation later with any stories from this round of finals... because I haven't got time to post them now; I'm supposed to be studying.

*whimper*

Memo 3 = very no

Ick. That's about all I have to say. And all I have time to say. So, in my absence (Memo 3 is due Monday), I leave you with these words of wisdom.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, both Pavarotti and Mr Darcy = very yes.

Ah, late nights... (bork bork bork!)

I shuoold be-a vreeting a memu reeght noo. Boot I vuoold rezeer prucresteenete-a und Incheffereeze-a stooffff fur my blug insteed. Bork Bork Bork!

(Translation: I should be writing a memo right now. But I would rather procrastinate and Encheferize stuff for my blog instead.)

Seriously, since ITLAPD has come and gone, this site may be all I have to tide me over until next Sept. 19.

Who knew? or, A Study in Procrastination

Because Kat did and because I should be cleaning right now:

Your Personality Profile

You are dependable, popular, and observant. Deep and thoughtful, you are prone to moodiness. In fact, your emotions tend to influence everything you do. You are unique, creative, and expressive. You don't mind waving your freak flag every once and a while. And lucky for you, most people find your weird ways charming!

The World's Shortest Personality Test

You Are a Smart American

You know a lot about US history, and you're opinions are probably well informed. Congratulations on bucking stereotypes. Now go show some foreigners how smart Americans can be.

Are You a Dumb American?

You Belong in New Zealand

Good on ya, mate You're the best looking one of the bunch Though you're often forgotten... You're quite proud of who you are

What English Speaking Country Are You?

BLUE

You give your love and friendship unconditionally. You enjoy long, thoughtful conversations rich in philosophy and spirituality. You are very loyal and intuitive.

Find out your color at QuizMeme.com!

You Are an Emo Rocker!

Expressive and deep, lyrics are really your thing. That doesn't mean you don't rock out... You just rock out with meaning. For you, rock is more about connecting than grandstanding.

What Kind of Rocker Are You?