"... and I am quite undone!"
My Ipod randomly cycled to Roger O'Hehir and The Jolly Beggar-Reel while I was doing some Archive stuff in the Eastland Room. Considering this to be an odd coincidence, I glanced up at Senator Eastland's portrait and was struck by how amazing it is that people can make such colossally bad choices based on transient circumstance. The circumstance of a heated moment, the circumstance of a period in history; it's ultimately the same decision-making calculus writ large or small, isn't it?
I suppose it may be that it's just too easy to be disappointed in people.
*****
That the debate here at Ole Miss may not happen tomorrow has caused a bit of displeasure.
The big screen-thingy at the stadium also (I'm told) caught fire a little bit this morning.
Lesson to be learned: God hates the University of Mississippi in general, and possibly Chancellor Khayat in particular.
*****
Somebody told me that they think I'm the only 1L with a job.
I refuse to believe this. I'm not ready to be truly and genuinely embittered.
*****
Eh, yeah... I work at the Law Library. At present I'm in charge of the archiving project for the materials in the Eastland Room - everything from LQC Lamar's letters (the few that they have there) to Eastland's papers. I've also been appointed 'Manager of the Faculty Library', which is an invented title originating three weeks ago and involving little work and less responsibility or prestige.
It's about as exciting as it sounds. I get so terrifically bored that I voluntarily perform minion-tasks. Shelving books has actually become a twisted form of vaguely masochistic therapy.
They pay me quite a bit (it's good to have an LLM in your back pocket I suppose) and I can literally work whenever the fancy strikes me, so it's much more attractive than working part time at a Firm or bank.
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Dr. O'Kelly and I have been exchanging a lot of e-mails in the wake of Wall Streets latest adventure.
I don't know why, but I quite liked that observation. It's actually a little frightening that our opinions are perfectly in line here; when I opined that regulation and the massive coming legislative back-lash to this would fail to provide a remedy despite the cost, he agreed hands down. The sad truth is that corporations are allowed to make errors - even errors as grotesque as these. The problem lay in a risk-taking culture in which the potential benefits do not justify the possible harms in the event of failure; to believe that government can so drastically alter the landscape of governance regulation as to limit the ability o corporations to take risks is both practically and theoretically terrifying.
... we're working on finding something here we disagree on. I don't know that we've ever agreed before. Scary.
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On the up side, I'm pretty sure that my LLM (in Corporate Governance and Public Policy from a top-ten UK law school!) has doubled in worth, or more, in the last two weeks.
Is it immoral to be pleased when Wall Streets mismanagement of its own interests to the detriment of the public good has made me more financially secure?
... 'cause I sortof hope not.
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Reason for this long and cripplingly disinteresting entry: I had to fill a desk shift. I have to fill another tomorrow morning.
... I hate desk shifts. To say that they're mind-numbingly boring does a grave disservice to undertakings that are merely mind-numbingly boring.
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I tried desperately (literally) to pick a fight with Czarnetzky in Civil Procedure over the International Shoe case. I so very much wanted to see how it'd go down! Unfortunately he just got out the vital statistics and then explained 90% of the relevant concepts himself rather than indulging me.
That's a cruel thing to do to a young man typically so very pleased with the sound of his own voice.
Alas. I was shut out and shut down.
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Plans:
November 13th: Speaking engagement in Gulfport
Thanksgiving: Virginia
Christmas: Home
Spring Break: Snowboarding
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I'm quickly closing on completion as far as my current carving project. Mayhap I'll take a picture of it as it is now and post it. As soon as I'm finished I'm going to start working on a triptych for Fiesty - she's deserving, and it's quite overdue.
I rather think that I may have to enlist Prof. Thompson's aid on the final bits; I'm going to peg the panels together rather than use screws, and make decorative pegs and wooden hinges with which to accopmlish this. He will have the knowing of this. (Thompson is the master carver I apprenticed to when I was learnin' me some carvin'.)
*****
Tori - one of my former students - got a 100 on Prof. Thompson's Reformation test! She missed the fewest problems of the entire sophomore European History class!
... which is particularly good since I stayed up until past midnight on Skype helping her and a friend of hers prepare for it. Both got 100s. Thompson discounted the first three missed, and Tori missed only two.
The credit is all hers, as it's a question of personal discipline and studiousness - I merely helped. Still, it's good to see the kids I like get ahead.
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I unexpectedly had to head home last weekend. The circumstances were decidedly sad, but I'm glad that I went.
Everybody at church was pleased when I unexpectedly took my place in the choir loft, re-robed and grinning. I think that the sheer scale of how much I miss my church exceeds anything I expected; it was bad enough when I moved to Belfast, but when I came back I got too comfortable again, and too soon headed off to Oxford.
Mum seemed exceedingly happy to have me home. She was hoping I'd come back this weekend too, but I've got some things I need to do with the archives, and I want to get some work done on my carving and knock out all of the remaining CALI and Citation exercises for Legal Writing and Research.
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Irritating thing:
While I was in Ulster and later when finishing my dissertation I got in the habit of using British spellings. Favour instead of favor, centre instead of center, that manner of thing. Now that I'm done with all of that I'm trying to break the habit.
Surprisingly difficult.
*****
First rule of the Library's severe weather protocols:
STAY CALM.
I'd pay real money to have this altered to 'DON'T PANIC'.
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I found the original proposal for the construction of the Law Center in the archives. Interestingly, there was meant to be a pretty cool diamond-shaped auditorium/movie theatre attrached to the north, but it was never built. That's unfortunate. Interesting, though.
... yes, I've run out of things that are only passingly boring to remark upon.
And yes, I did initially type 'Law Centre' instead of 'Law Center' above.
WORST. BLOG. EVER.