Done

My first week of law school is over and, boy, was it a long week. In fact, I'm so tired that I don't even feel like writing anymore about it.

Brand Loyal

I've kind of always been a brand loyal guy. I figure if someone makes a product and I like it, I owe them something. Well, on my recent trip home, I found some more brands to support.
1) Super 8 Motel: The room in Colby, Kansas was huge and still way cheaper than the other hotels. The one in Longview, Texas had a microwave and a fridge. I had no need of these appliances, but I felt special in knowing that I had them.
2) (This isn't exactly a brand) ALICE 105.9 in Denver. They got me through a 2 hour traffic jam in the mountains west of Denver when there were only two stations I could even receive (the other was in Spanish). How come no one from Denver ever told me about this station? Can I listen over the internet?
3) Coke...Oh wait, I was already addicted to that from Atlanta.

Atlanta vs. The Grid System

I discovered a new reason why I'm so scared to leave Utah. I don't know if I'll be able to handle life outside of the street grid system. Like many new students in Provo, at first I hated it, I thought it reeked of boredom. After getting used to it however, I found it to be a very practical tool. Where else can you just give someone your address and they automatically can find your house without any further directions?
Well, on our recent excursion to Atlanta I was reminded again of how cool the grid system is. Several times, we would have the address of where we wanted to go and a map and we still couldn't find it. It didn't help that in Atlanta, you can ask 5 different people the way to get to a restaurant 3 blocks away and you will get 5 completely different sets of directions; some will get you there and some will lead you so deep into the ghetto that you'll be scared to slow down enough to turn around. Also Atlantians (not to be confused with people from Atlantis) or A-T-L-ians, as I prefer to call them, have a somewhat skewed interpretation of the whole left-right-straight system of giving directions. Apparently, sometimes "go right" means go right. But sometimes "go right" means to go left or to turn completely around with a slight course deviation. Maybe they just saw we were tourists and wanted to have some fun. And if you're wondering why they just don't say North or South or East or West, you need to realize that you can't tell those directions in the South because everything is flat so going North looks exactly the same as going South-Southwest. Anyway, these address problems, although slightly annoying did seem to make the trip a little funnier. But I'm still scared to go back to Louisiana, the only state that has even more messed up streets. I'll have to blog about that later.

Innocence Lost

There are several times in our lives when our eyes are opened to the world a little faster than we are ready for. We learn things that all of a sudden make the world a much meaner, colder, and scary place. We feel a little bit more vulnerable. A few examples from my life are when I learned that there was no Santa, when I watched that gross video in 7th grade Health Class called "The Miracle of Life" (because of which I decided to never be in the delivery room when my wife has a baby), and when I went on my first date.
Recently, I learned something that most people probably already knew, but I just hadn't thought about it. I discovered this dark secret during my daily perusal of CNN.com and saw an article about the passage of a bill that would lengthen Daylight Savings by one month. Now, I had always been under the impression that Daylight Savings was a matter of scientific fact, a Law if you will. I was just so shocked that Congress could just change it at their whim. And the reason for this change was just to save energy. Like I said, this probably wasn't a shock to anyone else, but I'm scared to think of where Congress will stop now that I know they have these broad powers. Maybe they'll have two Christmas's to boost the economy in the summer and the winter. Or maybe they'll make Saturday disappear. To what ends could they go? Why didn't anyone try to stop them from changing Daylight Savings? I'm feeling scared... and alone...