Flemish brown ales (like the aformentioned Liefmans Goudenband) pair beautifully with nutty cheeses like Gruyère, Beaufort, and Parmigiano-Reggiano.  Especially when they’re accompanied by the sweet taste of victory, namely over 14-page memoranda of law.

I’ve been asked repeatedly how I’m able to retain my sanity as a full-time professional and a nearly-full-time law student.  The answer, in short, is that said sanity retention is almost a forced chore.  Let me take that back.  It is a forced chore.  However, I find that I still have plenty of time to avail of my many hobbies … more time, it seems, than many of my non-working classmates.

Not surprisingly, it all boils down to time management, and it’s actually made somewhat easier by having to work during the day.  I am by nature an expert procrastinator, and quite easily distracted by shiny objects and beer.  But when confronted with 40+ hours of work and 30 hours of school per week, I quickly realized how unbelievably valuable time is to those without enough of it (namely, myself).  For the first couple weeks of this arrangement, I was probably sleeping 4 or 5 hours per night, and my stress level was through the roof.  I think that it was during one of these frantic episodes that I, quite literally, slapped myself repeatedly and asked myself WHAT THE F#*& I WAS DOING.  

After calming down from these mild histrionics, I reflected upon my inner nerd and popped open Excel.  After a bit of numerical finagling, it became obvious that with optimal efficiency, I could easily get my 7 hours of sleep, and have Friday night as well as an entire weekend day to do whatever I felt like.  Doing so, of course, would require a strict regimen of ignoring distraction and finishing whatever homework I started.  I only had to force the new schedule upon myself like for a week before it just became normal.  I admit, it is somewhat unnatural for anyone to claim a 70-80 hour week as normal, much less manageable, but it really isn’t as bad as it seems if you actually look at it:

Weekdays, except Friday:

• Alarm: 0730
• Shower, etc.: 0730-0800
• Work from home: 0800-0930
• Take the train to work: 0930-1000
• At work: 1000-1745
• Take the train home: 1745-1815
• Drive to school: 1815-1825
• Class: 1830-2030 (or 2130, depending on the day)
• Drive home: 2030-2040 (or 2130-2140)
• Make and eat dinner: 2040-2130 (or 2140-2230), half of which I’m eating and studying simultaneously
• Continue studying: whenever I’m done with dinner until 0000
• Whatever: 0000-0030
• Bedtime: 0030

Friday:

• Same as above, except I get home around 1800 and don’t study at all

Saturday:

• 8-12 hours of studying, more if necessary (i.e. a paper is due)

Sunday:

• The joy of doing as little or as much of nothing as I feel like.

I mentioned that having to work makes time management easier.  It’s counterintuitive, but true nonetheless; having to get up at the same time every day, and knowing that work always takes up a certain amount of time per day helps with scheduling what’s left against what’s left to be done.  

One last important note:  I find it crucial to continue doing stuff I like whenever I can, especially when it involves physical exertion.  The only time I went two weeks without hiking, going for a bike ride, working out, or even just heading out for a quick jog was at the start of the school year.  At the end of those first two weeks, I don’t think I could have even written a summary of Green Eggs and Ham, much less properly brief a case.

Ok, I’ve moved on to a St. Bernardus Abt 12 and it’s time for me to focus on that rather than this silly post.

The Welsh reads: “I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated.”

… you know, I don’t think I can really comment on this one.

(Click the pic for the story on bbc.co.uk.)

From a recent Volokh Conspiracy (http://www.volokh.com) post:

But as I’ve looked at the actual policy positions of the two more closely, it seems to me that Obama really seems to be pretty far out there. He is no Bill Clinton. And from what I can tell none of those libertarians or conservatives who are Obama supporters are attracted to because of his positions (other than those who care strongly about the Iraq war and foreign policy), but rather because of who he is. Obama is a compelling personality. But in reading these encomiums to him, I haven’t seen any explanation as to how Obama’spolicies on tax, trade, spending, or regulatory would be friendlier to individual liberty than what is likely to be McCain’s (as weak as those will be). As someone observed somewhere recently, this is about the first time in history that you have endorsements from people who endorse Obama on the hope that he won’t do what he says he’ll do rather than because of what he says he’ll do.

This could not possibly be more accurate.  As I think about it, I fall into the aforementioned libertarians-for-Obama category for precisely the reasons stated.  To me, who he is makes a far more compelling argument for electing him than what he says. His mere act of taking the publicly elected office at the head of our country represents the kind of social liberation politicians could previously only talk about.  The idle stream of empty words dribbling from his lips is irrelevant, and largely no different than the equally banal puffery emanating from his opponent.  They’re both going to continue the statist policies of their respective forbears, and from a wholly philosophical viewpoint, their differences are insignificant.  No matter what, I’m going to keep getting five digits removed from my income to fund governmental incompetence, and proprietary views of morality will still be controlled by legislation.

So, I figure, I might as well vote for the guy who isn’t a) old, b) white, and c) doesn’t come attached to Golly Gee Yabetcha Palin.  Sad is the day that I vote for a president based on something other than than his or her ideology, but it isn’t as if we have any better choices.