A total flyby

Working at night can really take a lot out of you. I had to leave Epoch, not that I wanted to. That place is awesome. Hands down one of the top places to visit in Austin as far as I’m concerned.

I actually moved to Houston. I’ve invaded the sprawl.

The distinctions between Austin and Houston are on either side of a huge gulf. I enjoyed the traffic in Austin more than Houston thus far, though I may start to enjoy the new traffic as well.

Houston certainly takes more fuel, at least for the time being until I can better correct travel paths to minimize fuel consumption.

I’m both excited for Houston and terrified as well. I will certainly have to make things happen. But I have a knack for grabbing the bull by the horns when needed. I’ve grown up more in Austin, and now I will turn the talents I gain towards a much larger city of two million.

I will miss the hill country. It’s so damn flat. But at least  I can go to the beach to explore, so that’s a positive I believe.

With every new city becomes a rebirth of the human spirit. They are dropped into a new environment, they can either survive or be crushed.

Year in Review 2016

I never thought I would be sitting here in December at three in the morning sewing a button on a peacoat, listening to Christmas music. Twenty-sixteen has went to the dogs. Personal tragedy, with employment setbacks have put a dim shimmer on the star that represents this year. I remember when it started I was so hopeful for the world. We were making advancements in technology and ecology. Human Rights had gotten a boost.

Then March came. My father passed with it. It was a few numb months. The feeling has come back to my cheeks. Still working through some of it.

Soon after my father went to ground, I lost my job as a recruiter. Good riddance. I can’t stand to look at LinkedIn much anymore. It completely destroyed it for me. It also taught me what I didn’t want in a job.

Then came the laughable, and deplorable Capitol Acquisitions. I can say with confidence, I cannot, nor do I desire to, sell a sinking ship. Thankfully I got a tip about Epoch Coffee. Fantastic place. Great people.

Then came the rise of Trump. Jesus, 2016, not in the nuts. Low blow. You take my father and then threaten my very country. Not cool bro. Not cool!

I honestly have no idea what to think about my country at this point. Half of you should really get your shit together, the other half basically elected a yelling cheeto. The first thing this rug-wearing cheese puff does is basically spit on the Consitution of the nation as we currently know it. He’s like… Taking a shit on it. Just, all over it. And no one is swatting him with a rolled up newspaper.

Let me be clear: We the People of the United States of America… Fucked up.

We. Just. Fucked. Up.

But I’m not all hum-glum. Twenty-seventeen will be a productive year for me. Quite a few projects coming to conclusion. So that’s nice.

Finding humor in dry pages

As anyone that’s ever committed themselves to learning, to some degree, a dry subject knows that if you don’t find some humor in it, it will be a painful experience. This can be especially asured with topics found in pre-law.

Which apparently is what I’m doing a self study of, also, to a degree. I have enrolled in some Coursera courses offered by the University of Pennsylvania. The course, Introduction to Key Constitutional Concepts and Supreme Court Cases as taught by Kermit Roosevelt, III is pretty nice.

I’ve tried watching other courses taught by instructors that were just not as engaging. I wanted them to be, but they just fell short.

An Introduction to American Law taught by Anita Allen et al. should be pretty intense because of all the sublimental text and video they provide. Which is great. I’ve watched Coursera come quite a ways in terms of quality. And it seems they are looking to always improve, but that’s all an aside. But only to the degree that I’ve actually heard of both instructor’s outside of them teaching at the university. This is a very good sign.

I’m certainly writing quite a few notes already, and this will just give me structure. So I think I will make it an absolute focus and read titles within what it is going to teach me. In a broader stroke I get a foundation in Consitutitional Law and Civil Law, which can only help.

I do look forward to the civil law course, I find the logic in the cases amusing. Another amusing thing I found while working through the course work was the Articles of Confederation. Well, not so much the document, but how fast the Constitutional Convention tossed those bitches out.

Before the convention even starts most of the delegates from Virginia are already there. James Madison is hanging out, waiting on everyone else and while kicking back drafts up the Virginia Plan. Everyone thinks it’s the bee’s knees except for a few.

Well, once things get kicked off it’s pretty universal that everyone thinks the Articles of Confederation is pretty much shit, and they shouldn’t be there to amend them, but to say, fuck it and form a new government from the documents ashes.

During the debates New Jersey, that New Jersey proposes it’s own plan, but no one took them serious; centuries later, no one still took them serious. Poor New Jersey. Maybe it will get better once the whole of… Ya know what, nope. Nope, it won’t. Anyway.

After much debate and probably a few tears, John Rutledge birthed the first draft of the Constitution.

And then as any good writer knows, the best work is found in the edits. Come ye Amendments!

Maybe it was the medication at the time, but I found it all rather amusing. I know, I have an odd sense of humor… That can clearly find itself in dry pages.