blueblanketblogmy not-so-temporary blog, i guess saturday, october 6...for when I settle down. I should read Volume 25 of the Vermont Law Review, which focuses on "The Environmental Law of War." Oh, and to read this, because it sounds amusing: .: 5:36 PM .:People like Martha Nussbaum make me feel like I am spinning my wheels. Some people do so many things, and seem to do them reasonably well. Not saying I agree with her or anything, just that I admire her breadth. I feel so fucking slow. By the time this vacation is over, I will be raring to go. .: 4:43 PM .:sometimes i wish i took pictures, because if i took pictures i could make my page all pretty, like so many people's pages are pretty. but i always forget there are such things as pictures. i only remember the words. half the time, when i walk around and see things, all i remember are the words. i sometimes blame my self-centeredness, because the words match my insides, while the pictures, the pictures are only the outside. .: 6:22 AM .:my three favorite not-too-assuming bars * Toad, Cambridge, MA .: 12:06 AM .:friday, october 5Just when I was all excited about changing my appearance, I go walking in Harvard Square and a law school classmate recognizes me. Fortunately, she wasn't someone I minded recognizing me. Still. Two other things I should retract: .: 11:53 PM .:EPA: Fuel Economy Hits 20-Yr. Low. .: 11:50 PM .:I keep mentioning it, but haven't described it. Here's a description, cut-and-pasted from my email to Ilana, with parts redacted in an attempt to thwart stalkers. ---- It's at --- and ---. --- blocks away from the Mt. Vernon Square metro. It's $[relative low figure], and it's **huge**. And funkily structured. There's a giant first floor (like a monstrous room that's a living room and a dining room combined), with a beautiful bay window (and the windows are very tall), a fairly large kitchen, and this weird two-and-a-half-floor space that stretches up the whole back wall of the apartment (it's hard to describe). The living room has a huge fireplace. The kitchen has a gas stove and a dishwasher, and the windows there are huge too. There's a washer/dryer near the kitchen, and coat closet on the first floor. Then there's this weird mid-level floor that's basically another whole den / living room. Then there's the 2nd floor, with two bedrooms. One is gigantic (which I'm sure [Ilana] would like) and has a way cool high ceiling that slopes up, plus giant windows, and the other is smaller (which is fine with me) with no windows but does have a skylight (which would be great for me to wake up and stuff.) Each of the bedrooms has a big closet and its own bathroom. One of the bathrooms overlooks that weird two-and-a-half-floor vertical space I mentioned earlier. ---- It's huge, like I said, and fairly cool. It's a mildly sketchy area (though not a problem for Ilana and me), but I am, sadly, a bringer of gentrification. All my friends (and you know who you are when I say friends) have to visit. .: 12:16 PM .:Part of the reason I change appearances, I think, is that I like being able to hide, even from people I know. I like being the one who gets to take the affirmative act of greeting, the one who makes the choice about whether an interaction will or will not occur. If I don't look the same as when you last saw me, you can't see me, see? I discovered this ability in college, when I found out that simply by wearing a dress, I made myself invisible to 80% of MIT students. It was amazing. I wanted to do this again and again. Be able to hide, I mean. Another part of the reason, I think, is to remind (me, you, everyone) that I am not my outside. .: 12:10 PM .:Somewhere, just around the corner, is the next big thing. It's obvious, and huge, and we just keep missing it somehow. "We" meaning the people searching for that big thing. I'm one of those people, too, even though I while away my time doing medium things, even though I hope I'm not so trapped in my medium things such that I can't grab onto the big thing when it comes along. But even though I've got my medium things, I understand the people who wait, the people who are still waiting for the really big thing. Because, god, wouldn't it be neat just to touch it? Be a part of it? Take hold of it? Be it? Yeah. .: 12:04 PM .:wednesday, october 3So in DC, I'm talking to my friend Brady, who does legislative drafting for Congress. Basically, when any representative (of any party affiliation or non-affiliation) wants to draft a bill, Brady's office gets contacted. As you'd expect with working in a governmental office that deals with all parties, Brady often has to deal with legislative proposals that are just, well, the opposite of what he believes in. So Brady was telling me how he deals with that. He was really bothered at first, he said. But then he talked to a senior drafter. (Brady is the newest one in the office.) The senior drafter's advice was this -- if you have to work with a bill you think is just evil evil evil, you should have an even stronger incentive to do your work, and do your work well. Because if you do your work well, then it's totally clear what the bill does. And if the bill is indeed as evil as you think it is, then by making it clear what the bill does, you make it more obvious why it should be voted down. And by making it obvious why the bill should be voted down, and if its evil is indeed as obvious as you believe, then you'll (hopefully) increase the chances that it'll get voted down. Totally interesting conversation about the role of professional responsibility as a public servant. There were, of course, other interesting parts of the conversation (about law school classmates and about Brady's tendency to date guys with three letters in their name), but this is the only story I'll relate here. .: 11:43 PM .:tuesday, october 2It's not a real trip to DC unless I run into Ken. Ran into Ken on Saturday, the day before I left town, in the Pentagon City mall. He didn't recognize me. Whew. .: 8:58 PM .:monday, october 1So you've read my story about missing the Modest Mouse concert, I guess. Anyway, I just realized what it means. It means that I have to take back everything I've said about completely being unable to meet cool strangers in DC. I guess you can meet cool strangers in DC, strangers into fun things like indie music and pomo books. You just have to go to the right places. I've just been going to the wrong ones so far. Here's to checking out DC when I'm not in law school, yay. .: 10:00 PM .: |
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