Corruption of the youth

My wife and I were watching How I Met Your Mother on Monday. One of the characters had called another a name after she had broken up with his friend, and they were substituting with the word “Grinch.” Everytime they said grinch, people would look at them like they had said the worst word imaginable. I asked my wife what she thought he had called her, and she thought it was “bitch”.

“Bitch doesn’t get that kind of a reaction,” I said, “I bet it’s the c-word”

“What’s the c-word?” Connor asked.

“‘Crimanitley,’” I said, “And don’t you ever say it.”

“Oh,” he said, “I thought it was c***.”

He said it. He actually said the c-word. I didn’t know that word until I was at least 12. I asked him where he heard it. He said his friend Travis said it. I told him not to associate with Travis anymore. I love his teacher, but sometimes it sucks having your child go to one of the lowest-income schools in the district.

A whole lot of shakin’

Hey, all.  Sorry about all the downtime on my blog lately.  I decided to try out WordPress for awhile, and it’s been kind of a headache.  I’m gonna stick with it, though, until I get really sick of it.  Ideally, I’ll be able to tweak it and get it looking how I want as I get more familiar with the software.  When I initially installed it manually, I wanted to use the pretty permalinks option, but then my archive links wouldn’t work.  So I deleted everything and had GoDaddy install it for me, hoping that in doing so, they would adjust all the Apache settings so it would work.  It doesn’t.  Anyone who knows how to get this to work, please let me know.

Anyhow, the major news is that I finished my Contracts final today.  That means no classes or finals for the next few weeks .  Don’t ask me about grades because I won’t know for at least a month.  Anyone I’ve been neglecting because of finals, drop me a line. I’ll be happy to come visit as long as you don’t mind my bringing Zeph along.
I’ll keep tweaking around with WordPress.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get it nice and pretty eventually.

Peace, all

Happy Thanksgiving

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted. I had an insane memo due for Legal writing last week, and didn’t do much else for a couple of days. So naturally I spent the rest of the week catching up. Anyhow, a little update:

Zephyr’s very colicky, he drives his poor mother nuts. At the bottom of this post I have two very rare photos of him actually smiling. It’s not that he doesn’t ever smile, it’s that it’s impossible to predict when and in what circumstances he will smile. By the time we get the camera, it’s gone– Kinda like sasquatch. It has gotten a bit better since we got a cradle swing (one that goes side to side instead of front to back).

We had Thanksgiving at Brie’s sister’s yesterday. I’m not entirely sure why my mother-in-law insisted on having it there. My sister-in-law is a smidge high-strung, and preparing dinner there almost made her snap. She even threw a spikey pinecone at my wife and hit her in the face (don’t ask where she got a spike pinecone–long story). Hopefully she’s taken a couple tranquilizers and feels better now. (We love you Nikki).

But that’s not all–we get Thanksgiving today too! Two Thanksgivings–everyone should be so lucky. We’ll be headed to my sister’s house so Connor can hang with his thirty or so cousins, and get our choice between three turkeys–one traditional, one smoked and one deep fried. Yum!

Anyhow, feel free to drop a line. Here’s the coveted Z-smile photos.

Dear Lord, I’ve been asked, nay commanded, to thank Thee for the . . . turkey before us… a turkey which was no doubt a lively, intelligent bird… a social being… capable of actual affection… nuzzling its young with almost human- like compassion. Anyway, it’s dead and we’re gonna eat it. Please give our respects to its family…
Berkeley Breathed, Bloom County

Thomas Dale Proffitt

April 17, 1957 – October 26, 2005

“here’s to you
I sing for my Daddy-O
As I lay him down to sleep.

It’s been so long
Since I lost my Daddy-O
Hope he’s watching over me.”
–Flogging Molly

“How I wish, how I wish you were here. . .
We keep going over the same old ground
have we found the same old fears
Wish you were here.”
–Pink Floyd

There’s not much I could add
Actually, there’s way too much I could add

So I won’t

I miss you Pops!

More Zephyr Pictures

More Pictures of the Zephmeister are now available:

Please Click Here

Zephyr Marcus Proffitt

Zephyr Marcus Proffitt was born by semi-emergency C-section (long story, very personal) at 4:12 pm on September 12th 2006. Momma and Baby are both doing just fine. Click here for more pictures. Vital Stats are as follows:

Weight: 6 lbs, 3 oz
Length: 18 in

Looks just like Connor as a baby, eh? I’ll try to dig up and scan a picture for comparison. He was born before we had a digital camera.

Civil Procedure

So I’m just about done with my second ful week of law school. Thank the gods a 3 day weekend is coming up. Most of the classes really aren’t much more challenging than my undergraduate work. There’s about as much reading, but less writing.

The exception is Civil Procedure. THe professor is so BORING. He’s dry and really doesn’t provide muh insight into the cases. I learn more from the book than I do from him, which is totally the opposite of my other instructors. My other classes I look forward to: the give and take of Socratic instruction. The hypotheticals calculated to elicit thought and insight. The lively discussion of the philosophies underlying the law. Civil Procedure is a different bird, though.

First off, there is more reading in that class than all three of my other major classes combined. I feel like I spend over half my life reading boring bullshit about long arm jurisdiction or “purposeful availment”. Then, when I get to class the professor spends five to fifteen minutes rehashing all the crap We learned from reading. No further insight, no resounding questions. I hate civil procedure.

The funniest part about it, though, is Connor’s response after I was complaining to my wife. See, he’s been practicing reading Dr. Suess at night, so when I told himabout the excess reading, he didn’t understand:

him: “What’s the problem with Ciwil Procee Your anyway, dad?”

me: “It’s just too much reading, man”

“So? You should like reading. With so much reading it just means you’re getting smarter and smarter.”

“Yeah, but it means I have to stay at school later and I don’t get to hang out with you as much.”

“So?”

“But I like hanging out with you.”

“I like hanging out with you too, dad, but if it means you’re getting smarter it can only be a good thing. Don’t you like being smarter?

“”

How do you argue with that logic?

Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900 – 1944), “The Little Prince”, 1943

Yes, It’s been awhile

sorry about my continued absence. A lot has happened recently. I’ll try to break it up by post so this won’t be so mammoth. There are a couple reasons for my absence. The first is VACATION. It’s been so long since I took a vacation, and I can assure you it will never be so long again. I went to California with the family. nine of my brothers and sisters were there with their families. It was a nice setup. We each rented or shared a spot at the Kampgrounds of America that were very nearby each other, and set up the middle as a community area. Imagine about 35 little cousins running around. Sounds chaotic, but it was a ot of fun and very relaxing. I really hope my brother Jacob can make it next year.

Seeing my son dig in the sand and play in the waves like his dad used to when I was his age was a blessing. Watching him scamper from tidepool to tidepool hunting for “octopi” was incredibly energizing, and watching him play with his cousins made me realize that having an enormous family isn’t all bad (though it can be intimidating to outsiders).

We also made a trip to sea world and the San Diego Museum of Natural History. Connor loved petting the bat rays, and stood watching the pendulum at the museum for a good half-hour waiting for the earth’s rotation to make the pendulum knock down the next domino. It’s so satisfying to see his young curiosity about the world around him come alive. I can’t wait until he’s old enough to philosophize with me about nature and spirituality.

I will be posting pictures at a later date (I’m on campus right now, and don’t have them with me), so check back for a link.

The other reason it has been so long is because I purchased World of Warcraft when we got back. That game has been eating my brain since my return, and my time online has been spent doing little else. It is definitely addicting, although the researcher who is badmouthing it seems to be going a bit overboard. See my brother’s blog for details

Anyhow, more to come soon, I promise.

Cheers,

Spence

The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.

Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970)

Bouncing Baby Boy

This one is for my brother’s coworkers who have been begging for word of Clark’s new baby. Booker Talmage (sp?) Proffitt was born around 7 am on August 9th, 2006. He was presenting as breach and had to be taken by C-Section (Our condolences Margaret ) Both baby and parents are doing fine, except, of course, that all three are exhausted.

Lots of stuff

Well, it’s been awhile so I have some news:

Legal Internship

I don’t know how many first year law students arrive with a legal internship already under their belts, but I’m going to be one of them. I snagged an internship at the Department of Corrections with the help of my little brother. So far I’ve just been reading a lot of statutes and case law, but I suppose it’s good practice for school. My job is to familliarize myself with laws and cases regarding prisoner rights (health care, religion, etc.) so I can brief various prison administrators and anser any questions they may have about it. I’m looking forward to getting through my casebook so I can start working with the administration. I’m just over half way through now. The stuff on the 1st amendment religion clauses is really quite interesting. I already feel like I’m getting better at reading and understanding court opinions.

The new rental

Gods, what a nightmare. The rental we are supposed to be moving into has been undergoing a lot of rennovations. We recently ended up firing our contractor because he was not even half finished with the repairs that were due May 31. He even had the gall to blame crackdowns on illegal immigration (of which I have seen little evidence at the Home Depot). Anyhow, we’re going to finish the rennovations ourselves and we will be moving in this weekend if I can get the master bath functional. We can do without luxuries (like countertops, a kitchen sink and a dishwasher) for awhile if we need to.

Law School

I managed to get a needs based grant for $3000. With my Safford loans that still leaves me $3000 short of tuition alone. I’m still waiting to hear back on my residency appeal. Wish me luck!!

That’s all for general news. Leave comments on anything, please. It’s nice to know this little blog is being read.

Spence

If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826)