Saturday, September 27, 2008

To sleep, perchance to dream

I'm taking a break from making an outline for Evidence to talk at you. I don't really know if an outline is required for Evidence class (The professor has already told us he gives us his outline - which has a 100 percent chance of being at least 400 percent better than my outline - but we don't get to use an outline on the exam. Ay, there's the rub...)

Anyway, I'm feeling really great today (earlier I told Kat I thought I could run through a brick wall), and I wanted to explain why. The reason, what I'm now calling The Secret, is thus:

I slept for 13 hours last night!

It was more than just last night since I went to sleep when it was light outside (6 p.m.) and woke up when it was light again (7 a.m.). It was glorious. What started as a nap after a very long day turned into a marathon of sleeping that has re-energized me.

I'm aware that all of my readers have some experience with sleep deprivation (vast experience for some of them), but I actually have very little. I never pulled any "all-nighters" in college because only an idiot would ever put himself in such a position willingly. I knew I couldn't stay up all night if I tried, so I just avoided it. Even as editor of the school newspaper (I often thought of myself as sort of like Jimmy Olsen on percocet) we kept the nights relatively short (the newspaper had tons of errors but at least I didn't miss my beauty rest!).

I have yet to pull an all-nighter in law school, however, the potent cocktail of 8 a.m. Evidence class, a Tuesday evening class, trying to get a summer law firm job and not lose my mind has often rendered me very, very tired. So after driving to Phoenix, having interviews and then driving back, last evening I was ready for some shut-eye.

I let that shut-eye continue longer than most people would consider sensible, but the beauty was that the 6 p.m. to midnight sleeping shift really made me feel great today. Everyone talks about how sleeping the day away doesn't make you feel better (although this doesn't stop me from sleeping in on the weekends), but I think this old wives tale may be true. I felt awesome today. Drugs are not the answer; sleep is the answer.

I'm sure this post could be considered sleep-inducing (it mixes high boredom content with talk about sleep, there couldn't be a more zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz). Anyway, for one day at least, I feel spectacular. While it was not the most exciting Friday night, I consider it very productive.

So when you are feeling worn down and its only 6 p.m., don't listen to your friends who say that only nursing home residents go to bed that early. Just throw on some pajamas, get your favorite pillow and start making a better you.

I'm Larry Rogers, and I approve this message.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

I wish I had more...

But I'm afraid I just don't.

I haven't been doing anything interesting lately because my time has been taken up with uninteresting things. The only thing more uninteresting than what I have been doing would be the actual work of listing those uninteresting things here. I will spare you.

I do have a few things.

It is sad to hear of the death of David Foster Wallace. I never got around to reading Infinite Jest (not that I can't in the future), but if you want to read some Wallace I really enjoy this article. He has a way of capturing what it is really like to deeply understand and enjoy the amazing ability of Federer. Sometimes it seems the only thing more difficult than being great at a sport is explaining why someone is great at a sport. And for the most transcendent athletes the only parallel is religion because the greatness is unquantifiable and unknowable and truly only reflected in the feelings that are created in those that properly appreciate the difficulty and the beauty.

I am known as a lover of sport, but even I won't go too far into fandom. I thought this would be a positive for me as a person and as a possible future lawyer. However, I think I definitely won't get hired by one firm because I had the audacity to consider sports "not that important in the grand scheme of things." I guess I was wrong; however, I stand by my point. Fantasy football teams are not important; they are fun, just not important.

I don't think I would be in very good shape if I didn't have Kat helping me. Often I take for granted what she does (after all, I'm the one reading Trial Evidence and the ALWD Manual!) but I know for certain that I wouldn't be able to get through my life on a daily basis without her. This may be an obvious point, but it has been hammered home to me over the last few weeks.

Those nice things being said, I am a bit afraid that she may divorce me and run off with a certain red Mazda MX5.

I know that award show swag is excellent, but I think law firm interview swag has to be right up there as well. Does anyone need an external laptop mouse?

I went to a wine bar last night. I felt very cool. I probably wasn't.

Kat and I watched Gimme Shelter over the weekend, which is the documentary about the Rolling Stones 1969 US tour. Of course, it concludes with the rather unpleasant free show at Altamont Speedway. But what was cool about it was the large role played by famous "King of Torts" lawyer Melvin Belli. Obviously, many did not like him, but it was cool to see him working with The Stones and trying to understand what Mick Jagger wanted - a tall order for anyone.

OK that's all for now. I think I might watch a little football and try to unwind. We'll see if I can do it.

Lloyd, I hope this was sufficient. Like many things I discuss in this space, I don't think I'm as good at this as I used to be. During The Yumanity era I was a much better blogger. Oh well, c'est la vie.