Following the verdict in the George Zimmerman case, there have been a lot of nonlawyers earnestly explaining the law on the internet today. Conservatives feel vindicted; liberals see the verdict as another example of racism that still pervades our legal system - that a black young man can be shot without consequence. Without getting too deeply into ( Read more... )

Keiko: -_-; ..i think she's taking up residence in the litter box

Me: ... that sounds bad long-term, but isn't locking oneself in the bathroom a normal response to stress?

Me: (Aside: #textmessagestosomeoneinthesamehouse )

Keiko: good point :) ok, nevermind she crawled back out. #iamlazy

Me: #hashtagsinreallife #iweepforourcivilization

Katherine and Kevin have, or had, two cats. Both were adopted from the Humane Society. One, Cleo, was there because it seems that someone tried to drown her and her littermates in a vat of oil when she was a kitten; only she survived. Cleo and Athena were adopted at the same time and initially got along, but lately, it seems that Cleo's kitty-PTSD ( Read more... )

Some time last night, I woke up from some dream, with this horrible feeling of fear and regret. That feeling stuck with me when I got up later, though I'm fairly sure that whatever I was dreaming or thinking about wasn't real. I can't remember what it was.

I have been waiting in the Denver airport for about nine hours, now.

A new study by a Pepperdine law professor ranked the state Bar exams from hardest to easiest, by measuring pass rates and controlling for the takers' LSAT scores. As of 2010-11, the hardest was California's (unsurprisingly), followed by Arkansas' (WTF?). Oregon's was the seventh-hardest. (Alaska, Delaware, and DC were not included in the study for ( Read more... )

So on the weekend of the 20th, I'll be driving with a friend down to northern California to help pick up some things left behind when she moved. The weather has improved immensely in Portland of late, but I still have traumatic memories of a road trip to California from Portland ten years ago - in the height of summer, natch - when we got stuck on ( Read more... )

I carry a box of cigarettes in my messenger bag. I didn't buy them; I just found them around somewhere. I don't smoke, of course. I keep them to give to people who ask me for them - usually homeless people downtown ( Read more... )

Who still reads this site?

Went biking for the first time this year. It's wonderful and liberating, as always. But the air was bitter chill, especially as the sun began to sink, and the sky turned from grey to slate. It felt like autumn, somehow. The air smelled like burning leaves and cold, and the dark clouds low under the sky threatened rain ( Read more... )