Tommy Law, 3L Cast, Pt. II

Ewen Bremner as Rob Lafrentz



















Donald Sutherland (circa 1980 and with a better haircut) as Jeff Smith











Tom Brady as Tom Kettleson















Michael Jordan as Michael Jordan




















Dolf Lundgren as Ilya Knyazev
















Moby as Michael Harralson

Everyone is a 24 fan.

"What would Jack Bauer do?": a WorldNetDaily article by Pat Buchanan.

More Observations of a 24 Junky

It's pretty convenient for Jack Bauer that all of the days that are used for seasons happen to be the ones when some terrorist is trying to blow up LA or kill the President. What if they used one of the days in between? Like the day before Season 2? At the beginning of Season 2, Jack Bauer is single, unemployed, no longer working at CTU (or shaving for that matter), and estranged from his daughter, with whom he he attempts to reestablish a relationship. Here's a brief synopsis of that season:

"My name is Jack Bauer...and today is the day before the longest day of my life."

7:00 a.m.: Asleep on couch.

8:00 a.m.: Still asleep on couch.

9:00 a.m.: Uses restroom, returns to couch. Sleeps.

. . .

12:00 p.m.: Wakes up, gets off couch. Scratches self.

1:00 p.m.: Sitting on floor eating Haagen Das and drinking a High Life.

2:00 p.m.: Sally Jesse.

3:00 p.m.: Maury.

4:00 p.m.: Take shower.

5:00 p.m.: Kill some guy hiding in closet.

6:00 p.m.: Taco Bell run.

7:00 p.m.: In car on way to Wal-Mart.

8:00 p.m.: Buying more flannel.

Hell, you get the idea...

Tommy Law, 3L Cast, Pt. I

Another post that no one from outside UST Law will have any interest in...

Sylvester Stallone as Alex Demarco




















Neil McDonough as Charles Austinson








Jason Priestly as Tommy Lawyer (no, I did not choose Jason Priestly...I much prefer Dave Foley)










Claire Dane as Anna Nelson













Some guy from Sex and the City who apparently looks a bit like Brendan O'Connell . . . as Brendan O'Connell
















Gal from ER as Deb Pinsinault








Jeremy Piven as Bill Josten












Mark Hoppus as Bryan Feldhaus

I was reading CNN's article on the execution of Clarence Ray Allen this morning when I noticed this quote. How bizarre is this:

Having suffered a heart attack back in September, Allen had asked prison authorities to let him die if he went into cardiac arrest before his execution, a request prison officials said they would not honor.

"At no point are we not going to value the sanctity of life," said prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon. "We would resuscitate him," then execute him.

Extreme Makeover: Dome Edition

The solution to the mess with the Vikings' new stadium hit me this weekend. Rather than quibble over public funds and bonding issues or trying to raise private funds, someone should just call up Ty Pennington at Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and have ABC do it.

They can send the team off to Disneyworld for about seven days, tear down the Metrodome, and put up some high tech behemoth in its place. And of course, they'll have to put in some personalized areas in lieu of bedrooms. I'm thinking some sort of Love Boat-themed room (I hear they're fans), a "smoking" den for Onterrio Smith, and naturally a UV-proof retractable roof for any young fans with a rare allergy to sunlight. The team is brought back at the end of the week, Ty moves the bus, and the Vikings see their new stadium. Zygi Wilf weeps. It'll be beautiful.

Randy's solution.

Someone took my laundry out of the washer yesterday and left it sopping wet on the table in my apartment building's laundry room. I had a buddy in college who had a quick cure for that. When he found half of his still-warm clothes laying on top of the drier and half laying on the floor next to it, he opened the drier up, relieved himself all over the clothes inside, closed it, and restarted the cycle. Nothing teaches courtesy like walking around all week smelling like Randy's piss.

Gay Cowboy Love Story vs. Hostelry Ultra-Violence

The former Ill-Informed Agitator, a denizen of Salt Lake City, pointed this one out. The Larry Miller-owned theatre in suburban SLC that refused to show Brokeback Mountain is still going to show Hostel. Apparently gruesome serial murder is less offensive to Miller's religious sensitivities than a couple of lonely male sheepherders deciding they fancy each other more than women.

WTF?

Memoirs from Dublin

We all had one heck of a time in Ireland. Here's the trip in a nutshell:

I got to the Burlington Hotel before any of the Carroll or Northern Arizona people, so I decided to wander around a bit. Had to visit my first true Irish pub, so I dropped into this joint called M. O'Brien's. Sat down, had myself a Guiness, and ended up talking with a gentleman named Patrick Mulligan (on the right in the photo). Hell of a guy. We sat there and discussed everything from Ireland and Montana to Iraq and JFK. And in the midst of our conversation, he mentioned that the Duke of Wellington (the man who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo) was not only an Irishman, but had been born just a few blocks away. So why not wander over and have a look?

Patrick led me around a pretty good chunk of Georgian Dublin. We stopped by a few pubs along the way, including Toner's (a pub that James Joyce used to frequent) and another where the Dubliners had their start (can't remember the name, unfortunately). We must have hit about four altogether after leaving O'Brien's and before arriving at the Duke's. It was a regular old flat right in the middle of Dublin (I know this is the right place too because I happened to find it on a map later).

We rambled around town for awhile over the canal, past the capitol, as far as the Temple Bar district. After awhile, we shook hands, parted ways, and I took a cab back to the hotel to meet up with Joey and the rest of the NAU crowd.

This was the first time that I've gotten to spend more than a couple of days with Joey since high school (right to left: Joey, me, Danny). He came along with his wife Amanda, his brother Danny, and a couple NAU students named Liz and Garrett.

Tournament itself was great, as is to be expected. The rounds I got to judge were much better than I expected. Worlds is unique in that your judge isn't randomly drawn. They rank teams every round so that the top four teams in each round are together, the fifth through eighth are together, etc., but at the same time, judges are ranked as well so that the best judges are adjudicating the top teams. Somehow or other I must have been somewhere high up there because when all was said and done, I'd judged three of the four teams that appeared in finals, as well as a couple of the semifinalists. Let me tell you, these are some smart frickin' people who definitely deserved to clear the field of 300+ teams. In some of the rounds I watched, round six in particular with UC Cork Philosophy, Hart House (the eventual champion), and Sidney, any of the participants could easily have been a top speaker at NPDA or NPTE. The only thing that shocked me even more was that after watching a round between these teams, when discussing with the judges, neither of them found it to be more than simply a mediocre round.

The person I was the most proud of in this tournament and a guy who certainly deserved to be amongst those in the final round is Aaron Donaldson (on the right in the picture, with Scott Peterson on the left...not the murderer). Aaron was my debate partner my senior year of college and is currently a coach at University of Oregon, who he represented at the tournament. Aaron and his partner not only became the first team from a public American university to make the octafinals (in the 31st seed out of 32 qualifiers), but he then proceeded to plow on through into the semifinals. Tite moves, Jethro, and way to make ole CC proud. Hope you get to lose the trucker stash soon.
We took a trip around Dublin and saw the sites in our spare time. I was really hoping to get to get to see Michael Collins' grave, though that never really happened. We did get to see St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was the balls. The park adjacent to the cathedral holds the former location of a well that St. Patrick is believed to have used to baptize the Irish. Centuries later they dug up stone markers from there that are now located inside the church. The cathedral itself was beautiful--built in the 1100s and lined with memorials and catacombs added over the centuries.

We also saw the old city gates from roughly 1240, used to keep out the damned Vikings (though the modern day Vikings couldn't beat their way out of a paper bag), stopped by Dublin Castle (of Michael Collins fame) and hit a few of Dublin's older pubs.

The Stag's Head was established roughly 250 years ago. It's actually tucked away in a little alleyway and we just happened to stumble upon a sign embedded in the sidewalk in the Temple Bar district, went in, and had ourselves a pint. The big story, though, is the Brazen Head, which is certified by the Guiness Book of World Records as the oldest pub in Ireland, dating back to 1198.

Anyway, this is just a small piece of the picture, but we had a great time over there. Got to hang out with the Carroll kids for the first time in ages. The four of us rang out a rendition of "When the Saints Go Marching in" after Donaldson's big break New Year's Eve, with Mike Owen, Brigette Burns, and the NAU crowd in chorus.

Took a trip to a small fishing town on the coast with Joey, Amanda, et al and saw some of the coast. One of the top highlights of the trip, though, was getting to hang out with Joey and the crew. Been quite awhile since I've gotten to hang with that character. Hope it's not too long before I get to again.

Anyway, that's the trip. I'm sure I'll be adding the occasional story or two over the next week or so. Glad to be back, though, home with Lea and getting back into the swing of things.