Shoveling Smoke

The root canal went well- I felt almost nothing the whole time. Apparently when I bit down, a piece of my tooth broke off and pushed into the pulp, which explained the agonizing pain. Oh well, now all I have to do is get a crown put on and all should be well.

My wife's strange back pain seems to be gone, so that's good. Maybe she's turned a corner. She's had an awful lot of bad luck lately.

A few grades are in. I made a C+ in Business Associations, which is actually a good thing in my book. Due to my stupidity, I had to write the exam, as I had left my power cord at the hospital with my wife. Also, the subject matter didn't exactly mesh with my interests- it's a nice enough topic, but I'm really not going to be a corporate attorney. So I'm not too concerned. Also, with the possibility of a C or D+ seemingly all to possible, a C+ is sweet relief indeed.

In brighter news, I made an A in Electronic Research Seminar. I enjoyed that class- it was interesting, and I managed to learn a few things along the way.

Constitutional Law, Appellate Advocacy, and Evidence are still outstanding. I had a B+ on the Evidence midterm, so I'm optimistic about the eventual outcome. Con Law is probably a B, I would assume. Appellate Advocacy is anybody's guess.

I hope to have some fairly big news I can post on this blog eventually, but I've decided that silence is the better part of discretion at this juncture. There's too much about it I don't know at this point to comfortably share, and I don't want to jinx it.

Labels: law school

Posted by Yorick at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments

My wife got out of the hospital two days ago, and seems to be doing fine. They're not sure if it's a kidney stone or a kidney infection, so they told her to drink a lot of water and take some antibiotics. Seems to be working.

In other (pain-related) news, today I was at work and decided to go get a Subway Sandwich. After a few bites, I felt excruciating pain. Bad pain. As in who do I have to kill to make this pain go away. Other bad news: it was Thursday, so I was practically broke. (I am a student, you know.) I drove to where my Mom works, scared her half to death, and she called my Dad, who drove me to the dentist. Regardless of the money issue, I'm pretty sure it was a good thing they drove, because I was losing it. My face had drained of all its color, and the constant pain was spreading across the left side of my face.

I have bruxism, which means I grind my teeth at night. I'm supposed to wear a mouthguard at night, but I get careless. Which wreaks havoc on my teeth. You can bet I won't be making that mistake again.

I got to the dentist, and apparently I need a root canal. So I set up an appointment for Tuesday. In the meantime, the dentist (my new best friend) gave me some Novacaine shots and a prescription for Hydrocodone. Which is also known as Vicodin, like the stuff Dr. House takes. I've only got twelve, so the risk of addiction is almost nil, but I can see why he likes them. What was a brain-shattering pain is now only barely perceptible. I guess that's what opiates will do for you.

Here's hoping that eventually my luck will turn. For now, the pain medication is at least pushing it back.

Posted by Yorick at 9:21 PM | Permalink | Comments

Today I took my last exam. I would really like to post something clever that explained how drained I was right now, but my brain is busted. You can use fancy words to describe it, sure, but "busted" just about captures it. It's like I'm on auto-pilot.

Last night my wife had to go to the emergency room, so I stayed with her until about 11:00. (Her father stayed with her after that.) I'd never seen her, or anyone else for that matter, endure that much pain. At one point she almost fainted. Her voice would catch when the pain was at its worst and she would just freeze in a state of pure hell. It was a horrible experience.

The doctors aren't quite sure what's wrong- it's either a kidney stone or an infection of some sort. If it's a stone, it's small enough to pass. If it's an infection, they gave her some antibiotics. So she basically has a lot of pain pills and a few days bed rest.

Needless to say, my mind wasn't exactly on my exam. It helps, if anything, to put life in perspective. We worry so much about things that don't mean much of nothing at all, when placed against the big picture. We live, then we die. If we get a few years, and don't suffer for most of them, we're pretty damned lucky.

Pretty lucky indeed.

If none of the above makes sense: remember, auto-pilot.

Posted by Yorick at 9:08 PM | Permalink | Comments

The weather as it hits the landscape is an unfinished pencil sketch, faint and muted with smudges of cold brushing across the canvas of my skin. It is early morning, but still too light for color. Everything is gray- burnished silvers and fresh charcoals show themselves before the sun's ascent dulls and chars the view, relegating the world to equal light.

I stop and look for landmarks. I'm familiar with the area, but it's been ages since I was here, and much has changed. Nature, in her way, has commenced reclaiming the land. The gas station on the corner, where owners in new tweed suits used to ply their Oldsmobile with leaded fuel, is now a tribute to the color brown- withered kudzu and old rust. Looking at it, one doesn't know whether to feel remorse or relief- so one is left with nothing, as I am now.

I'm not far from my destination. Around the next corner and behind the old brick church is a graveyard. At least, there was. A large part of me wants to find out what havoc time has wreaked.

I continue down the gravel road, the muffled sound of my feet hitting the icy rocks the only audible proof of my existence. The tips of my fingers grow painful from the cold; I shove them into my coat pockets.

I try to picture the cemetery in my head as I walk, partially out of curiosity, but also to ward off the mental effects of the cold. I see worn concrete and bent iron fences, their spires either missing or lacking the glory they once had. For their glory is cumulative- the effect of cemetery fences with missing spires is wholly unimpressive, for it is the unbroken line of spires pointing skyward that catches grandeur. Once disturbed- either through vandals or the rise of Nature- one is left with an oddity that arouses suspicion, but not interest.

The graves, however, are different. As they are merely symbolic edifices, their importance is not tethered to any measure of material integrity. A cracked tombstone is still a tombstone; a tombstone washed away by a flood and buried in the bed of a mighty river is still a tombstone. One could borrow Thor's hammer and smash a tombstone into millions of atoms, and those atoms would still be tombstones. Thus, by that logic (or rule of natural law), those things that change the materiality of the marker only increase the interest, and do nothing to detract.

I have no interest in new grave markers- they are but poor symbols for the corpse beneath. One could argue that they are made to represent the person's soul, but I think that proves too much. The soul, if it exists, needs no symbol- surely our poor flesh didn't serve the purpose while we were living. Instead, they mark the spot where bodies were laid to rest or rot, depending on your particular view. (As I walk, it grows so cold that I wonder whether or not I'll freeze to death. Hypothermia doesn't particularly care about my point of view. So many things supersede and supplant our opinions with their power of actuality and truth, I someimes wonder why I believe anything at all.) Either way, they mark the spot where the horses, tired and breathing with sweat and verve, stopped the carriage. The place where the casket was lowered and a few words said. That's it. And just like we did, they fall apart over time. It is disturbing if viewed at from one angle, but profoundly enlightening if looked at from another. This is true of both the tombstone and the vision.

In my time, I've seen some wonderfully altered gravesites. Most being this old are at least cracked. Water, freezing and thawing and freezing again, works its way into any crevice and causes the sturdiest concrete into fits. Occasionally, the whole top half lops off, and the name of the deceased presses into the earth. Once, I saw a grave that was partially engulfed by a nearby tree tunk- a perfect vision of Nature subsuming not only the flesh, but also its symbol.

I've reached the place now. From where I stand, I can see a portion of the cemetery fence emerging from the dying kudzu. The uniform spires cast a staccato shadow over a perfectly upright grave, its eminence shining in the newly wrought light of the sun.

I sigh, and turn to go. It's so damn cold, after all.

Labels: Musings

Posted by Yorick at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments

Sorry about the long absence, but the past week has been brutal.

Two exams in two days. Had a birthday the day before those. I'm now twenty-seven. Which is still young, granted, but it's closer to thirty-five than eighteen. That's a bit scary.

Felt like I did okay on the exams- one more to go on Tuesday, then I'm off for a while.

Posted by Yorick at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments

As a general rule, I don't have great ideas. I'll lounge in my chair, a half-baked idea will loll around in my head, and I'll grow terribly excited. Then someone possessing common sense will shoot it down for reasons I should have anticipated. It's fairly depressing.

I've thought this one through more than most, and I haven't found any real chinks yet. So tell me why it won't work- I promise, you won't hurt my feelings.

I was watching a credit card commercial the other day, and a fancy card splashed across the screen. The embossed and raised credit card number gleamed like a new Cadillac. And I thought to myself- what's the point of putting the credit card number on the card itself? I remember back when stores used the old systems where they would make an embossment of the card, but I haven't see any of those around in years. Most people that take credit nowadays are sophistacated enough to have the ubiquitous card readers that someone made millions designing. And those machines don't care if you slide through a bus ticket stub- as long as it has a magnetic strip on the back that contains a card number.

So why the numbers where people can find them if they have steal your wallet? Without the number on the card itself, people wouldn't be able to go nuts on one of the gazillion Internet websites that just require the basic credit card information. It would save both the consumers and credit card companies insane amounts of money. And it's simple.

The only weakness I've been able to figure out is that people would have to carry their credit card number around perhaps, if they do a lot of Internet shopping away from home. But I just don't think that's a terribly large number of people. And needing two separate items in order to carry out identity theft helps to thwart the activity. At the very least, having the numbers taken off the front should be an option for the savvy consumer. (You could make the argument that anyone using a credit card isn't terribly savvy, but that's a whole other post.)

Some credit card companies have a small picture of yourself in the corner, but the thief with a stolen credit card doesn't use it at the grocery store. So the picture doesn't help.

So tell me, what's the practical purpose of having embossed and shiny numbers on the face of credit cards? Is it an example of not changing based on outdated industry standards or does it serve a purpose I'm just not seeing?

Labels: Musings

Posted by Yorick at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments