otium cum dignitate

The Dog Days

It's been pretty freaking hot in D.C. lately.  Two days ago we nearly hit the 100 degrees mark.  Southwesterners may scoff, but add in the brutal swamp-like humidity and 100 degrees on the thermometer feels more like 150 degrees in reality. 

Meanwhile, the summer is passing rather quickly, but that's not such a bad thing.  I'm slowly going through the painful transformation from college kid to adulthood.  One thing I've come to realize is that idyllic schools like Davidson are great for education, safety, and overall cushiness, but they essentially delay the inevitability that is becoming an adult.  True, I felt older when I was a Senior, but not in a real-world sense. 

I basically entered law school in a freshman mindset.  First mistake.  First-year of law school is nothing like freshman year in college.  This brutal reality didn't really set in until spring semester, when I realized that I needed to start thinking about jobs.  Who ever thought about jobs in college?

Then I started thinking about jobs and began to dread the heavy work-week that the legal profession demands.  I figured it would make life miserable and I would hate myself.  Second mistake.  Unlike college, life in the "real-world" is not filled with endless activity and fun.  In fact, most activity occurs either at night or on the weekend.  The days are boring, long, and lonely.  Especially this summer during my off-days, I've found myself craving something productive to do.  Believe it or not, I've now begun looking forward to a real job as a way to finally instill a sense of purpose and direction in my life. 

Fortunately (or not, depending on how you look at it), this summer has given me the time to finally adjust and make the transition to adulthood.  It isn't very fun, but it's inevitable.  Acting and feeling like a college kid just isn't working anymore. 

For those of you who are still in college, I will be the first to suggest that it is not a great idea to go straight into Law School, or any graduate school for that matter, right after college.  The mind needs time to adjust and adapt to a new way of life, and the intensity of grad school is not an ideal environment for this, at least it wasn't for me.  For Law School especially, success and happiness are hard enough to maintain even with a perfectly stable and secure mindset.  For me, the year after college is anything but secure and stable.  It's confusing, emotional, and sometimes frustrating.  Yea, I'm a bit of a softie, I'll admit.  Davidson can have that effect...

In the meantime, my fantasy baseball team remains a well-needed distraction.  After wallowing in the doldrums of the league for weeks, my team began a rapid ascent recently and I'm now enjoying my third place standing for as long as I can. 

At some point, I'll return to this blog in full force.

Review: World Cup 2006

I'm new to this soccer thing.  I don't normally follow or care about the sport.  Before this year's World Cup, the last soccer game I watched was four years ago when the USA lost to Germany in the quarterfinals.

This summer, I tried to get into the World Cup as a number of my friends are soccer addicts.  For the most part, I was disappointed.

First, what could be more depressing than to watch the USA get dominated twice, and fail to even make the second round?  Only in hindsight do we now know how impressive that tie with Italy was.  The USA was just plain horrible.  I was embarrassed.

Next, the refereeing throughout this World Cup was a disgrace.  Too many cards, WAY too many penalty kicks awarded.  The way I see it, a penalty kick should only be awarded if there is a flagrant foul in the box, the kind of foul that most likely prevents a goal.  Let's be honest.  Penalty kicks basically = goals.  In soccer, goals are too precious to be awarded out for cheap or non-existent fouls in the box.

And speaking of penalty kicks, how on earth is it ok that a thirty-day world tournament that occurs once every four years ended with both teams alternating penalty kicks like an 8-yr old soccer drill?  These teams battled for a month, sacrificing their bodies and fighting passionately for their country, only to be belittled by FIFA's pathetic procedure for breaking a tie.

Lastly, I was totally turned off by the ubiquitous flops and faux-fouls that so many teams were guilty of during this World Cup.  In the USA, such behavior is viewed by most as not only unsportsmanlike, but cowardly and pathetic.  In FIFA soccer, it's the standard.  In fact, I think the USA team was hurt by its lack of acting skills.  More dives against Italy or Ghana might have put us over the top.  Maybe.