Least Qualified Man in the Room

On Friday, before going to work, I put on the good suit and went to a meeting of the Philadelphia Bar Association's International Law Committee.

It was cool! But rather intimidating. I was the only law student; everyone else (except for the speaker) were practicing lawyers.

But I got to learn about the International Visitor's Council of Philadelphia, including the upcoming First Wednesday.

Consider for your Attention

Sure, it's fun to read my blog, but what if you want more Philadelphia-style bloggy goodness?

Law, linguistics, and politics, all stewed into one tasty meal. Served up piping hot by Eh Nonymous.

So head on down to http://unusedandunusable.powerblogs.com and get your read on.

More Clay Pot Action

As you can see for yourself.

When is a warranty a bad idea?

My HP Deskjet 3745 is great for dashing off quick text pages and, if I've got the time, surprisingly good looking photos. Indeed, with proper glossy paper and the right settings in the driver details, the output easily rivals a drugstore photos.

But the printer is approaching its first year, and so I got an email today from HP, advising me that an extended three year warranty could be had for $34.99.

The problem here is very simple: a brand-new printer only costs, from HP, $39.99.

Take it from me, a former printer technician. We have reached the era of the throw-away printer, and it is glorious. There is no reason, once it falls out of warranty, to ever have this printer repaired. Just buy a new one. Period. Don't even think twice about it. At worst, give it to a curious 10-year-old to take apart, but forget about repairing it.

HP knows which printer I bought, so I find it even weirder that they would try to sell me a warranty that costs only a few dollars less than a new machine. Indeed, the cost of paying a troubleshooter to sit down in front of the printer would easily exceed the replacement cost--undoubtedly they'll just plug in a usb cable, run a diagnostic, and if the result comes back as anything other than "jam in paper feed area" ship out a replacement "refurbished" unit.

Shorts at Work

This week I'm wearing shorts and seersucker to work.

Why? Well, first off, my legs are quite handsome, thank you very much.

But the important reason is that I'm over at the warehouse, where it's dirty and there are no customers with delicate sensibilities to offend.

But it's fun. I get to fill up boxes, and ship stuff out. It rocks. You get a real sense of accomplishment when you see a big pile of "ready to ships" and you know you were an important part of creating that pile.

Tonight, the big announcement was that the Prez was nominating John G. Roberts Jr. to the Supreme Court. For commentary, I turn to Bench Memos (Part of the NRO stable). I also go to The Volokh Conspiracy, and the SCOTUSblog sister blog The Supreme Court Nomination Blog.

Because tomorrow, of course, people are going to ask me "so, what do you think about the nomination."

Work

So, I worked three days in a row, and now I'm enjoying a day off. It'll be fun to have money coming in again. This week I'll spend mostly at the warehouse, helping to ship out computers to students.

As for the exams earlier this week, I feel pretty good about them. Civ Pro II was a good bit harder for me than Land Use, but neither gave me any horrible vibes.

And tonight, I look forward to doing some long delayed laundry while watching Adult Swim.

Unusual Payment Dispute Resolution Mechanism

Zimbabwean athlete and hermaphrodite claims that "her male organs became enlarged after a traditional healer took revenge on her when she failed to settle a bill for treatment last year"

See the BBC for more.

Research Links Comparative Int'l Law

To be addressed in two days, when I'll have the luxury of boredom for a month. (Last summer exam is Wednesday night, first day back in class for fall is August 29).

Then I'll want to fully investigate The Supreme Court of India, The Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Touro's Summer Program in Shimla, the Bar Association of India, and of course the reason for the research.

Land Use Exam and Me

Tonight is the Land Use exam. Hopefully I'll do well. After the exam, not a lot of rest: Wednesday is the exam for Civ Pro II.

And, right now it's just shy of 90 degrees. Woo-hoo Summer.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Yesterday, I combined two squirts of lemon juice, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 1 1/3 cup sugar, 2 cups chopped rhubarb, 4 cups of sliced strawberries, and 1 cup of cornstarch into a 9-inch store-bought frozen pie pan and cooked it for 1 hour at 375 Degrees.

The good news is that it tastes fantastic. The rhubarb adds a great tang to the filling, and there is bounteous strawberry flavor as well. The cinnamon and lemon are in the background, right where they're supposed to be.

The bad news is that 1 cup of cornstarch was not enough. The filling tastes great but is runny. Instead of free-standing slices, my pie's consistency is more cobbler-like.

Now, last year I made a number of pies, and then I discovered that I got much more reliable results out of tapioca in my cherry pies, and perhaps the best results when I preheated the filling mixture on low heat on the stovetop ahead of time.

Regardless, I'm now off to study for exams. Monday is Land Use, so I'll be studying that today and tomorrow. Civ Pro II is Wednesday, so Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I'll be hitting the books for that one.

Fun Book to Read

One of the plus sides to all that time spent in airports was that I got to read some books. On Friday I purchased and read The Tipping Point, then on the way home I had Conspiracy of Fools (written by Kurt Eichenwald, a reporter with the New York Times.) Conspiracy of Fools was great, particularly in how it describes what happens when the venal are not restrained by calmer heads.

And tonight, I'm baking a strawberry-rhubarb pie. Hopefully it'll be good.

My Weekend

Well, I managed to get home to visit Mom and Dad on Saturday morning. I was the next-to-last standby passenger able to board the morning flight to Atlanta.

And, as a hint for future travellers: The US Airways Express planes at the Philadelphia F terminal are all small little jets. If you're taking a commuter hop to, oh, State College, they're fine. On the other hand, if you're flying for more than 90 minutes, I can only recommend avoiding the gate, and those flights. Further, on the two occasions I have flown on holidays (this weekend and Christmas), they have had long lines, and overburdened staff.

And there are more basic problems with the design of the airport: the Embraer's hold about 40 passengers when full. Each gate only has about 25 chairs (in the 8 hours I spent at the airport Friday, I had plenty of time to count.)

When everything is going fine, no problem, just sit in the seats next door to your gate. However, when (as on Friday) weather is stopping all flights, it leaves you with lots of people milling around without a place to sit. There is a small food court attached to F terminal, but the Euro Cafe's have a pretty good selection of newspapers and magazines and not much else. Fine for a commuter flight, torture if you're stuck for hours at the airport.

So, when trouble emerges, the F terminal is almost guaranteed to get filled with angry, frustrated people with nowhere to sit and nothing to do (well, they do have a nice art installation, but that'll kill at most 30 minutes.)

The main hallway where everyone walks is also quite narrow (for an airport). So when the golf carts come beeping and driving through, there's not enough room to move out of the way.

And, there appears to be no mechanism for handling cancellations surges. When a full flight cancels, of course, there are going to be about 40 people who all need to have their travel plans booked. This takes a while to sort through, of course. Well, think about what happens when you require people to rebook at the gate. After my flight cancelled Friday, I waited 50 minutes to get to the front of the line to get my travel plans fixed. And I heard the maddening announcement of the PA system "Gate Agents, please rebook at gate. Do not send customers to Special Services."

In other words: "Yeah, we know it sucks for the people at the gate, and we know the customers are getting angry and need help, but don't sent 'em to us."

So, to recap. Avoid flights leaving from Philadelphia's F terminal.

Anyway, on to more pleasant topics:

So I got to see the new house. Big yard and good neighbors (I met some of them). And on Sunday, I got to go to church, where again I was impressed by the friendly folks.

The travel, and the uncertainly associated with it, has left me a bit tired, but otherwise I feel pretty good about my classes (exams are next week, so this weekend will be full studying.)

The Airline Industry Makes Me Cry

Originally, I was supposed to leave at 2:55. I am on the standby list for tomorrow, but the earliest actual flight out that I can be booked on is Sunday Afternoon.

What's most frustrating is that I remember when the system had excess capacity. I remember when it was inexpensive to fly. I remember when, if there was a problem, there were enough staff that the gates weren't overwhelmed with frustrated travelers. I remember when there were more than enough chairs in the waiting area, so that you didn't have to sit on a planter, like I did this afternoon.

We'd entered the plane, and then, per a dispatcher order from Atlanta, the flight was cancelled. Then, I had to wait in a 50 minute line for the lone gate agent to rebook everyone. She was never relieved the whole time. No managers came to help, and nobody went to the big desk, located just feet away, where they could easily man 3 or 4 lines. US Airways is not providing enough customer service staff. This is the same frustration I had back at Christmas (when I was similarly delayed overnight).

So tomorrow, 'round 6:00 AM I'll go back to the airport, hoping that a lot of people oversleep and miss their flight. And then I'll snap up one of their seats and fly to Atlanta, to see Mom and Dad.