January 31, 2009
You Never Know...
Several months ago, I blogged about the episode of This American Life (the Showtime series) that featured Mike Phillips, a writer and geek who also happens to have spinal muscular atrophy. Mike is unable to speak and Johnny Depp served as Mike's proxy voice. In the latest edition of The A.V. Club, TAL host Ira Glass reveals how Depp came to be involved with that particular episode:
We were about three weeks away from having to have the whole thing
finished and ready to go on TV, and the president of the network, Bob
Greenblatt, said, "Hey, have you tried this other star [Depp]?" We thought,
"No, because what chance would we have?" Bob said "No, no try him, try
him." So basically, I sent an e-mail to his sister, who is his manager,
and his sister forwarded it to him, and we got a response five minutes
later, saying yes.
Remind me to ask Depp to do the audio version of my first book. Both of us will be pushing old age by the time I get anything published and he might need the work.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 12:48 PM | Comments (1)
January 30, 2009
Playlist
What am I listening to? So glad you asked.
"Collapsing at Your Doorstep" by Air France--In the unlikely event that I ever find myself zooming along a Pacific Coast highway in a convertible with the top down, this is the song I want playing on the stereo. It's a propulsive mix of lush electronic arrangement, distorted vocals, and fragments of sampled dialogue. Just the thing to ward off my seasonal affective disorder.
"Believe the Hype" by Lookbook--Lookbook is a local band that I've grown to love over the last few months. The lead singer, Maggie Morrison, has a rich, seductive voice that blends perfectly with the dark, smoky beats. I almost want these guys to sell out and have their songs featured on some television show, just so more people can hear how great they are.
"My Delirium" by Ladyhawke--This New Zealander has crafted some irresistible pop music that riffs heavily on the Eighties. She captures the pure fun of that decade's music without cheesing it up. And I read somewhere that she has Asperger's Syndrome, so she's got disability cred to boot.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:40 PM | Comments (2)
January 29, 2009
Good Thing I Had The Radio On
The MPR News Cut blog features a brief story on Aaron Westendorp, a student with a disability attending Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Aaron and I have crossed paths a few times and I've always enjoyed our talks. Aaron got a shout-out last night from Current dj Mark Wheat, which indicates he inhabits a realm of coolness of which I can only dream. Aaron is interested in pursuing a career in human services. It's not just a career, Aaron. It's an adventure.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:35 PM | Comments (0)
January 28, 2009
Breaking My Heart
Dear Hollywood,
Let's get something straight. I'm not your tool. Sure, like a lot of geeks, I was excited to hear that you were planning a movie based on Isaac Asimov's Golden Age space opera Foundation. A film that combines a cerebral tale of a galactic empire's fall with healthy doses of eye candy would be like a big box full of awesome wrapped in win. But then you go and sign Roland Emmerich to direct it. Have you seen Roland Emmerich's movies? All the man knows how to do is direct splashy scenes involving the destruction of famous landmarks. There's nothing wrong with that, but letting him adapt Foundation is a little like letting an American Idol finalist sing the lead in Carmen. It's just not a good idea.
Then I hear that some other hack is trying to pitch a sequel to Blade Runner. No, no, a thousand times no.
I've cut you a lot of slack over the years. The Star Wars prequels. The Matrix sequels. But I'm starting to think you're taking me for granted. If you keep it up, you'll leave me no choice but to avoid the cineplex until you can give me a little respect.
Sincerely,
Mark
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:56 PM | Comments (1)
January 27, 2009
Don't Encourage Them
You have to give Republicans credit; they're quickly figuring out how to play the media game in their role as the opposition party. They have their chastity belts all in a twist over the fact that the proposed stimulus bill contains funding for family planning services under Medicaid. Never mind that the Bush administration started making family planning waivers available to states several years ago. Never mind that states with Republican governors, including Minnesota, are currently operating family planning programs. Never mind that family planning funding saves money by enabling women (and men) to make deliberate decisions to bring a child into the world. Never mind that not one penny goes toward paying for abortions.
I'm all for bipartisanship, but not when it means rewarding the prudishness and hypocrisy of conservatives.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:57 PM | Comments (3)
January 26, 2009
A Good Idea, But...
Fellow wonk Ezra Klein looks at the vast differences in state Medicaid programs and proposes a plan for simplification: set eligibility at 250% of the federal poverty line "with states able to use state money to expand categories or add services". Well, that's basically how it works now. Minnesota has devoted billions of dollars to expanding Medicaid eligibility and providing a multitude of services that are considered "optional" under Medicaid law. To make things even more confusing, states can seek waivers from the federal government to provide an expanded set of Medicaid services to a defined population, like people with developmental disabilities or people who have complex medical conditions. On the one hand, this flexibility gives states the freedom to tailor Medicaid to the needs of their populations. On the other, it creates an environment where one state can offer many more services than the state next door. Klein's solution wouldn't change that situation.
Here's what I would do if I was ruler of everything. Require every state to offer a common menu of Medicaid services that are funded using existing federal matching rates. If a state wants to provide additional services, the feds should provide an enhanced matching rate for those extras. Yes, it will cost more at the federal level, but the alternative is an unpredictable cycle of service expansions and draconian cuts; a wasteful process that devours billions of administrative dollars at the state level.
And we can fund all this by nationalizing Citibank and Bank of America. Viva la revolucion.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:23 PM | Comments (1)
January 25, 2009
What's The Special?
I spent a lot of time in hospitals when I was a kid. I ate plenty of hospital food. And not once have I since thought to myself, "Gee, wouldn't it be cool to eat in a hospital-themed restaurant where the food is served in flasks and I can be tied up in a straitjacket if I'm in the mood?" But a group of entrepreneurial physicians in Latvia have imagined just such an establishment called Hospitalis, thus demonstrating that the free-market system is capable of turning just about any late-night bullshit session into a business plan. Judging from the photos, Hospitalis has kitsch appeal, but I'm not sure it will garner a lot of repeat business.
And I do have to confess a certain fondness for the waitstaff's outfits: 
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 02:52 PM | Comments (2)
January 24, 2009
Not That Anyone Asked For My Opinion
The state Legislative Auditor released a report yesterday heavily criticizing the Medicaid-funded personal care assistance service (summary and full text available here). The PCA program provides assistance to people with disabilities and the elderly with the ordinary tasks of daily living: eating, bathing, dressing, etc. The report several structural problems with the program, such as workers being paid for more than 24 hours of service in a day and home care agencies providing insufficient supervision for workers.
Before I go any further, I should make a disclaimer: the views expressed here are my own and not those of the Minnesota Department of Human Services.
The report makes a few points that deserve further discussion:
- Workers being paid more than 24 hours in a day: Fraud and abuse undoubtedly occurs, but the some of these billing irregularities can be attributed to shortcomings in the Medicaid reimbursement system. Every PCA worker is required to have a unique provider number. But the backlog for issuing provider numbers is several weeks long and, in the meantime, agencies need to fill shifts for their clients. So agencies might use an existing provider number to bill for those hours until the new provider number is issued. I'm not excusing the practice, but it's one created by external factors.
- All PCA consumers should have professional supervision of their workers: I have mixed feelings about this. I understand the need for supervision, especially in cases where the individual is particularly vulnerable. But plenty of people are capable of supervising their own workers and sending in a professional would simply be a waste of time and money.
- Some PCA workers are working more than 40 hours a week, raising questions about quality of care: Well, if you earned only $9-$11 an hour with few benefits, you might be inclined to pick up extra shifts. And I don't sense the same collective hand-wringing about physicians and nurses working overtime in hospitals. Finally, I'm not sure that raising amorphous concerns about quality--without presenting any supporting data--is either helpful or particularly insightful.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 12:59 PM | Comments (2)
January 23, 2009
Shake It
This T-Mobile ad set in a London Underground station is a clever piece of stagecraft. The performers are all a bit too good-looking for me to completely buy the spontaneous vibe and it doesn't make me want to upgrade my cell phone plan. But if multinational conglomerates want blow loads of money on fun little bits of viral marketing like this, I'm cool with that.
And yes, this is total fluff, but you're probably tired of me going on about Obama this and Obama that.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:13 PM | Comments (0)
January 22, 2009
I Don't Think That Word Means What You Think It Means
A word of advice for proprietors of bars, taverns, pubs, and other drinking establishments. If a potential customer calls to inquire whether your business is accessible, take a good look around. If one entrance has three steps and the other entrance is behind a foot-high curb, you are not, by any stretch of the word, accessible and you should answer accordingly. You should not answer with a chipper "Sure!" because said caller will incorrectly assume he can enter your establishment without the assistance of a small crane or a squad of bodybuilders, neither of which he has on hand.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:54 PM | Comments (3)
January 21, 2009
Talk, Damnit!
24 is one of those television shows that has stayed on the air a year or two past its expiration date, but I decided to give the new season a shot to see if it had rediscovered how to tell a gripping story. My verdict so far: it's pretty silly. But one scene in a recent episode caught my attention. The way cute FBI agent is interrogating a wounded terrorist in his hospital room. Mr. Bad Guy isn't in a cooperative mood, so the way cute agent gets all Gitmo and pinches off his ventilator tube in an effort to make him talk. I wish to make two points to the show's writers:
- Pinching off the vent tube is so amateur hour. It usually doesn't completely cut off the air supply and it will set off alarms. Really loud alarms. Turning off the vent is much more effective. Better yet, you could have had the way cute agent simply stick her thumb over the guy's trach stoma. It's a method guaranteed to elicit compliance. Just ask my siblings.
- Can I please play a terrorist in Season 8? You can make me some embittered cripple hacker who's pissed at the government for cutting his personal assistance hours. I'll work for scale and I'll let you turn off my vent for real. Just as long as I get to share my interrogation scene with a way cute agent.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:29 PM | Comments (2)
January 20, 2009
Our Long National Nightmare Is Over
You have no idea how long I have waited to use that header.
President Obama (it's a bit surreal to write that) gave a good speech, although probably not a great one. It contained few, if any, lines that will echo into the future. And that's okay. Obama has already proven his skill as an orator and the unspoken symbolism of the day was more powerful than anything he could have said. But the speech's content left no doubt that a new governing philosophy is in ascendancy. I can't imagine Bush bothering to recognize nonbelievers in any public address. This passage leaves little doubt that Obama has fundamental differences with the previous administration:
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our
Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a
charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter
expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the
world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake.
But this nonbeliever thought the most graceful moments of the ceremony came during Reverend Joseph Lowery's benediction. It struck an optimistic chord while also being somewhat melancholy, as if he was trying to make us appreciate the blood price of so many lives lost in the long struggle culminating in this moment. And it was corny, but in a sweet way that you only find in the words of charming old men who have witnessed much.
Bush is really gone, right? He doesn't have some super-secret skeleton key that will let him sneak back into the Oval Office tonight and smear Vaseline on all the drawer handles? Because I wouldn't put it past the guy.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:35 PM | Comments (3)
January 19, 2009
That Ribbon Of Highway
Ezra Klein (who, incidentally, is one of the best progressive political bloggers on the scene) points us to this terrific video of Pete Seeger and friends singing "This Land Is Your Land" at yesterday's concert on the National Mall. Pay close attention to the lyrics. Your grade school music teacher probably would have been shocked to realize that the original song is unabashedly political.
I've been thinking back to Inauguration Day 2000 and how different the mood of the country was. Those of us on the left were grumpy and dour, but I think most people just didn't care. The recount process and litigation had left both sides looking petty and small, characteristics that don't inspire optimism or engagement. I've been thinking that maybe the last eight years, as awful as they were for the country and the world, provided the only possible path to this moment. I'm no believer in destiny or fate. Much of our history is shaped by accident and happenstance. If Obama had chosen a life of academia rather than politics, I might be blogging instead about the inauguration of Hillary Clinton. If Bush had been just a little more competent, Republicans might have had their enduring majority. This was one of those rare occasions when the swirl of human events created a window of opportunity. Obama just happened to be the one to open that window.
And while it's conceivable that we could find ourselves in a continued downward spiral, I'm going to indulge in some optimism for the moment.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:39 PM | Comments (1)
January 18, 2009
Witnessing History
My brother is on his way to Washington D.C. to join a few million others in the Inauguration festivities. I'm counting on him to send me photos from his iPhone on Tuesday, or else I'm going to be linking to the same YouTube videos that a bazillion other bloggers will be linking. And I might put in a request for a cheap souvenir (I could probably accomplish the same thing just by going on eBay, but that feels like cheating). I'll be working on Tuesday, but I hope to watch the proceedings out of the corner of my eye via one of the many streaming video options available.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 05:50 PM | Comments (2)
January 17, 2009
I'm Bill Gates' Tool
I stretched my geek foo muscles today and installed the Windows 7 beta on my computer. It's surprisingly stable and polished for a beta. I like the user interface enhancements, such as being able to look at thumbnail previews of the programs on your taskbar. The eye candy (transparent windows, dissolving dialog boxes) are nice and now Windows XP feels a little kludgy in comparison. The only catch is that the word prediction function on my keyboard doesn't work, but that's why they call it a "beta".
I liked it enough that I'll probably spring for the final version once it's released. In the meantime, I can take satisfaction that I got it to run without blowing up my system. If the economy ever robs me of my policy gig, I still might have a future in computer maintenance and repair.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:44 PM | Comments (1)
January 16, 2009
Pop Art
Here's the new official logo of The 19th Floor. Actually, I'm not sure there was an old official logo, but whatever: 
You can make your own here.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:34 PM | Comments (4)
January 15, 2009
Diving Into The Details
Here's a rundown of the disability-related provisions contained in the proposed stimulus bill that was unveiled today. This information comes from the summary released by the House leadership:
- IDEA Special Education: $13 billion for formula grants to increase the federal share of special education costs and prevent these mandatory costs from forcing states to cut other areas of education.
- IDEA Infants and Families: $600 million for formula grants to help states serve children with disabilities age 2 and younger.
- Vocational Rehabilitation State Grants: $500 million for state formula grants for construction and rehabilitation of facilities to help persons with disabilities prepare for gainful employment.
- Payments to Disabled and Elderly: $4.2 billion to help 7.5 million low-income disabled and elderly individuals with rising costs by providing an additional SSI payment in 2009 equal to the average monthly federal payment under the program (approximately $450 for an individual and $630 for a couple). This one-time payment will serve as an immediate economic stimulus as half of SSI recipients have no other form of income and the other half average outside income of less than $450 per month.
- Social Security Administration Disability Backlog and Claims Processing: $500 million to help the Social Security Administration process a steep rise in disability and retirement claims, getting people their benefits faster, and preventing existing backlogs from getting worse. Within this total, $40 million will help SSI upgrade health information technology.
- Centers for Independent Living: $200 million for state formula grants to help individuals with disabilities continue to live in their communities.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:32 PM | Comments (0)
January 14, 2009
A Promising Start
Preident Bush and his conservative allies didn't manage to accomplish much during their waning years in power, but they did block reauthorization of SCHIP, the public health insurance program for kids that enjoys wide and deep support on both sides of the aisle. At the time, Bush framed his veto as a principled stand against the encroaching forces of American socialism. But what he really did was jeopardize ongoing health coverage for millions of kids while slamming the door on millions more who lacked coverage. But what a difference a year can make. Today, the House passed an SCHIP bill that is almost identical to the one Bush vetoed. It's likely to gain swift approval in the Senate and be signed into law soon after Obama is inaugurated.
This is why elections matter.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:09 PM | Comments (1)
January 13, 2009
Critic At Large: Gran Torino
A lot of us who have grown up in the Midwest have probably known someone like Walt Kowalski, the gruff protagonist of Gran Torino. He was the blue-collar retiree who lived down the street; the one who was always working in his garage and had a tendency to drink too many beers at the summer block party. He was the guy your parents avoided after he told one too many racist jokes while holding court on his front porch. Eastwood plays Walt with a kind of grumpy xenophobia that, the audience is supposed to surmise, obscures Walt's true decency and kind-heartedness.
The movie has been garnering a lot of positive buzz and it is by no means terrible. But after the credits began to roll, I wondered what the fuss was about. The movie unfolds with all the subtlety of an after-school special. Meet old racist white guy. See white guy bitch about his Hmong neighbors. See white guy inadvertently come to the rescue of his neighbors. See white guy start to turn into an old softie who mentors the nerdy Hmong kid in the ways of home maintenance. But then the movie swings dramatically in tone without much of a set-up. Also hampering matters is the flat delivery of most of Eastwood's co-stars. After eliciting some truly marvelous performances in Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby, I'm not sure why he was content with such amateurish performances here.
I was hoping for more, especially considering that the script was written by someone who used to call Minnesota home. I'm hoping that Clint has one more great movie in him because it would be a shame if Gran Torino became his coda.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:18 PM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2009
Testing The Waters
One of the more popular subjects in health policy circles lately is the notion of providing subsidized health care to newly unemployed workers. Paul Thissen, a Minnesota state legislator, is the latest to get in on the act with an editorial in the strib advocating for an expansion of MinnesotaCare that would provide health insurance to the jobless. MinnesotaCare is a largely state-funded health care program for low-income adults and families. It's an interesting idea, but I don't think it will go far without a large infusion of cash from the feds. But this kind of push from Thissen and others would have been mocked and ridiculed in the media only a few years ago. The fact that these ideas are being greeted with serious consideration tells me that the old bogeyman of "socialized medicine" might not have the persuasive power it once did.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
January 11, 2009
Postmortem
Salon has a sobering itemized list of the wreckage left in the wake of the Bush administration. A few of the most egregious examples:
Number of manufacturing jobs lost since 2000: 3.78 million
- Increase in number of unemployed workers from 2001 to 2008: 4 million, a jump of 2.7 percent in the unemployment rate
- Cost to conduct the Iraq war per month: $12 billion
- Amount the Bush administration estimated the war would cost from start to finish: $60 billion
- Increase in the amount that the average employee pays toward employer-provided healthcare since 2000: 120 percent
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:39 PM | Comments (1)
January 10, 2009
Game On
More Facebook news. Remember Scrabulous, that addictive Scrabble knock-off that Facebook took down because of legal troubles? I just got an e-mail from Scrabulous' creators notifying me that the game is back on-line. And other than a name change ("Lexulous"--very original) and a few other minor enhancements, the game doesn't look much different. Either they reached a settlement with Hasbro and Mattel or they decided to take their chances with litigation. I'm just glad its back. So much for getting my writing schedule back on track.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 02:16 PM | Comments (0)
January 09, 2009
Finally, Hard Proof Of My Likeability
I just passed the 100-friend milepost on Facebook. I'm expecting a suitable-for-framing certificate to arrive shortly in the mail. You know, the one that says "Congratulations! At least 100 people in this world are willing to admit they know you. Now do you feel validated?"
Many of my new Facebook friends ask me about my profile picture, which happens to be the one of me and then-Senator Obama. And every time, I'm tempted to make up some story about how the photo was taken after my job interview with the President-Elect for the position of Undersecretary of Gimp Affairs, but I just can't bring myself to do it.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:22 PM | Comments (1)
January 08, 2009
Real-Time Strategy
Paul Krugman points out that the recession is going to keep devouring jobs for at least another year and maybe longer, even taking into account the effects of a stimulus bill. Republicans would love nothing more than to enter the next election cycle with an economy still in the doldrums, which might be the excuse Obama and his advisers need to go for broke. They should assemble a bill that showers money on infrastructure, R&D, education, and health care with enough left over to cut payroll taxes for the vast majority of working people. To put it in geek terms, Obama is about to play a very long game of Civilization. And the best way to win at a game of Civ is to research the hell out of that technology tree and build lots of cool stuff that will keep your citizens happy and productive. Well, that and ensuring a stray cavalry unit doesn't wander into foreign territory and piss off the Aztecs.
I'm not thrilled about running up the deficit to the stratosphere, but austerity measures are the last thing we need right now. Obama has one chance, maybe two, to push for the kind of investment needed to keep the economy from tailspinning. If he misses those opportunities, there's no "reload" button to click.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:48 PM | Comments (1)
January 07, 2009
Workplace Education
Shortly after I started my new position, I realized that my colleagues might be wondering about the strange beeping noises sometimes emanating from my office. The co-workers in my former division had grown largely accustomed to my vent's assorted alarms in the seven years I had worked there, but my new associates are still getting to know me and my many quirks. I sent out a brief e-mail explaining my vent beeps when the tube is disconnected from me and is usually no cause for concern. I also pointed out that disconnecting me from the vent is a quick and efficient way to silence me, should they feel so inclined.
In time, I might teach a few of them to drive my wheelchair. My standard response to people who get nervous about crashing me or similarly unjustified fears: "Take a good look at me. You're going to have to try really hard to mess me up any further."
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:35 PM | Comments (1)
January 06, 2009
Selling Hope
Kids with severe disabilities who have limited or no speech capabilities face tremendous obstacles in developing communication skills. Brain-computer interfaces could one day give these kids the means to express themselves and engage with the world, if the technology lives up to its promise. But while we await the real breakthroughs, small businesses and home inventors are starting to market devices that are not brain-computer interfaces, but instead rely on more generalized biofeedback. I guess I don't have a problem with that, but these devices are expensive and I wonder if their capabilities are being oversold to families who are desperately searching for anything that might allow even a trickle of communication with their loved ones. And it would be a shame to have these families become disillusioned and frustrated with these crude devices when the real advances are (hopefully) only a few years away.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:19 PM | Comments (0)
January 05, 2009
Alternative Format
Ian Rankin, the Scottish mystery author, is pushing to have more books published in Braille. Incidentally, this week marks the 200th birthday of Braille's inventor, Louis Braille.
It's great that high-profile authors like Rankin are bringing attention to the woeful shortage of books printed in Braille, but I wonder if the format will still exist in a couple decades. With a few more interface tweaks, devices like the Kindle could read text to the user at any desired speed. Smartphones could also be modified to the task, when they aren't reading street signs or serving as GPS locators. I could be missing something, but Braille doesn't have a whole cultural milieu built around it, as we see with American Sign Language. Braille exists as a purely written form of communication developed within the confines of 19th-century technology. Once technology makes print universally accessible via optical character recognition and speech output, will Braille still have a following? We should also ask where the deafblind community stands on this.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:59 PM | Comments (3)
January 04, 2009
Avatar
I thought this story from The Onion about a videogame where you play someone playing World of Warcraft was kind of cute.
'Warcraft' Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing 'Warcraft'
It got me thinking about what it might be like to play a game that lets you control a digital version of myself using the computer. Some of the game's instructions might include the following:
- Press Cntrl-M to make Mark impulsively purchase something on iTunes.
- Press Alt-Shift-E to make Mark remember that he needs to eat at some point.
- Press Shift-F6 to make Mark mutter "Dude!" whenever he comes across some random bit of geek-related news.
- Press Alt-Shift-B to make Mark stop surfing for pictures of women in fishnets and start writing that damn blog entry he's been putting off all afternoon. Players may have to press this key combination repeatedly to achieve results.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:45 PM | Comments (0)
January 03, 2009
Passing The Sonic Screwdriver
The BBC just announced the identity of the actor who will play the eleventh incarnation of the good Doctor. I've never heard of him and, apparently, neither have most Brits. I was kind of hoping they'd pick Chiwetel Ejiofor, the guy who played the badass assassin in Serenity, but I'm sure this new guy will work out fine. After all, I had never heard of David Tennant before he took over the role.
On a related note, fans of Battlestar Galactica might want to check out the series of mini-episodes running here as a prelude to the final batch of full episodes. It's got all kinds of interesting themes. Drug abuse. Bisexuality. And yes, even disability. The only thing missing is Six in a smoking red dress.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 04:17 PM | Comments (0)
January 02, 2009
Term Of Art
The other day, I attended a work meeting where the discussion focused on life estates. I haven't had to think about life estates since I was a wee law student. I just hope there won't be any quizzes. Property wasn't one of my best subjects, mostly because I thought I wouldn't have any use for things like life estates and remaindermen after I graduated. Silly me. It never occurred to me that such things exist in real life. I thought they only existed in medieval England and in the minds of textbook authors.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:48 PM | Comments (0)
January 01, 2009
Catching Zs
I slept in this morning after staying up quite late last night. As some of you already know, sleeping in is one of my favorite decadent activities. Now I discover that there's scientific evidence to support the sensibility of my decadence. According to studies, night owls are more creative (if you need further evidence, just check out the wittylate-evening posts on my blog. There's at least a couple.). Getting up early also increases stress hormones, a fact I'm sure to be reminded of as I'm sitting bleary-eyed in the shower tomorrow morning.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:03 PM | Comments (1)