Fort Wayne is #18 on Best Life Magazine‘s 100 Best Places to Raise a Family. Huzzah!

The coveted numero uno spot went to Honolulu. It has 125 beaches nearby. But Fort Wayne has Flat Top Grill. So there.

Interestingly, Best Life Magazine comes from the same folks who publish Men’s Health, which was the tome that declared Fort Wayne America’s dumbest city back in 2005.

So… has Fort Wayne gotten smarter over the past few years? Or do the Best Life/Men’s Health publishers believe that family-raising is best performed in areas of low intelligence? Curious.

Regardless, I’m happy that Fort Wayne has a kudo to add to its roster.

(Thanks to Change Ft. Wayne for directing my attention to this new ranking!)

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General Anthony Wayne, painted by Karen Moriarity

Thanks to Joe Taylor at A Beautiful City for pointing me to Karen Moriarity’s webpage. Karen is a local artist who paints very colorful and stop-you-in-your-tracks renderings of Fort Wayne landmarks (Foster Park, the Anthony Wayne statute, the Landing, etc.).

Foster Park, as painted by Karen Moriarity

As Joe says, “[Karen's] impressionistic works skillfully meld the landscape and cityscape into single artistic representations of our lives here.” Exactly. (You knew that’s what I meant with the stop-you-in-your-tracks verbiage, right?)

Let me put it this way: She’s talented, and her artwork is gorgeous. I hope to own one of her pieces one day!

Pond, by Moriarity: one of the many works I’d love to have on my wall!

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John McGauley at A Beautiful City posted a panoramic photo (or, more accurately, series of photos all “stitched” together) of the Fort Wayne Skyline. It’s really beautiful.

Don’t take my word for it (or this scaled-down version of it)–check out John’s post and click on the photo above to see the larger size .jpg.

John and his co-authors Kevin Whaley and Joe Taylor have a neat site too; I recommend checking it out. I guarantee that you will learn something interesting about Fort Wayne and/or find a really outstanding photo of Fort Wayne and surrounding areas every time you visit.

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My cousin Sam has a good eye for amusing police blotter happenings. Here’s his latest, which made me laugh out loud. Thankfully, I was alone in the law review office when said outburst occurred.

As I skim through the Police notbook every week, Break-ins and burglaries are a common occurance, However this one might just top them all.

Entry from the Bluffton News Banner Police Notebook dated: March 26th 2006.

Monday, 10:39 P.M. Police received a report from a man living in the 300 block of West Washington St. that a man broke into his apartment and smacked him with a peice of wood. Aressted in the incident was Douglass Materson.

Sometimes people break in for money, other times for valuable belongings, But to “smack” somebody with a peice of wood…lol, I dunno this seems like something Bam Margera would do to Phil on Viva la bam… I guess its a good of reason as any to lock your doors at night.

(source: Good Times Bad Times)

Labels: humor

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I decided I’d do some studying* this a.m. at my abode. All was proceeding according to plan, when my entire apartment began to shake violently, and a pounding began happening that, I imagine, mimicked what would occur if King Kong decided to knock impatiently at my wall.

Apparently, it’s Dig Up The Street Day (Mums–is that on your calendar at work?). And I am fortunate enough to live at precisely Ground Zero for said event.

It’s crazy. I literally wobble back and forth in my chair as I write this. And those of you that know me, know I’m not a petite flower. If I’m a-shakin’, the ground’s-a-quakin’.

My poor little rodents are absolutely terrified. Of course, to them, I’m sure this would make every danger instinct hit on red-alert. My hamsters are quivering in their nests. The gerbils are all rapidly thumping their hind legs (which is gerbil speak for, “Holy shit, I think we’re gonna die”). (Actually, it is also gerbil speak for, “I am ready to mate,” but I think in this particular situation, it’s the former. Because if it’s the latter, I have some seriously weird gerbils.)

I used to think I wanted to live all my life in an apartment right downtown in some big city. I know better now. I hate living in an apartment where there is constant semi-truck traffic, loud pizza delivery guys and their hoodlum friends right outside my window until the wee hours of the morning, various road constrction projects due to the fact that my street is a major thru-way for the city… ugh. I long for the peace and quiet of my parents’ & grandparents’ subdivision in Ossian. I can’t wait to have a house.

POUND POUND POUND POUND THUMP THUD THUMP POUND THUD SHAKE SHAKE THUMP SHAKE THUD

Ugh.

I’m going to to school. Maybe the ground is more stable there.

* As to “studying,” I had a couple pages I had to read. And I’d like to point out that (a) that is the first studying I’ve done of any sort in… um… months, and (b) I am utterly unapologetic for that. (Moreover, what does it say about the quality of my classes that I can leave my books untouched for months at a time, and not fall behind? Oy!)

Labels: all about me

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As someone who latched onto Glannon like it was Rose’s wooden door in the movie Titanic, I got a good laugh from the following post. I agree with the fact that Glannon was overly snarky. Sometimes, I liked it. Sometimes, I sort of wanted to kick him. It depended on how my mood was, and how the study session had been going.

An Open Letter to Joseph W. Glannon

First of all, if you aren’t a law student, this might not make so much sense. But, as background, Mr. Glannon is the author an assortment of highly recommended study guides for Civil Procedure and Torts.

Dear Joseph “W.” Glannon,

Thank you for your omnipresent series of books to help me in my preparation for Civil Procedure and Torts. Especially Civil Procedure. I mean, seriously, without you I wouldn’t know Rule 12(b)(2) from a hole in the wall. You’re great! Ten points!

But just one thing.

You’re so snarky! I know you think you’re probably being funny. I’m sure you’re a real classy guy, a guy who likes to joke and drink martinis and light cigars with hundred dollar bills because every law student in the nation buys your books. But after slaving away at a hypo from one of your books, talking about the possible joinder rules and “what about diversity jurisdiction?” and all sorts of possibilities which inevitably result in the answer “The court will have the balance the interests of the plaintiff against the interests of the defendent” which is SO CLEARLY not the answer you were looking for — after all that, you sass us up by writing the first line of your answer as “This is an easy one!” or “Obviously, the jury should find Acme liable for her full damages.”

Seriously. If it was so obvious, would it even be necessary to have it waste space in your leather-bound book? If it was so easy, why must you rub it in and instead allow us to bask in our hypothetical glory. But no, you don’t let us off easy but insist on some sass. Sass makes the world go round? NO. Sass does NOT make the world go round. Sass makes the study group go sad. Or at least have a long laugh. And then quietly, alone, after study group, we go home and are sad. But either way, no good.

And even if we DID get the answer right, why trounce on our happiness with your golden boot of reality? Said golden boot will kick and stomp us IN DUE TIME (i.e. the final). But now? In April? Not necessary. Blissful ignorance, that’s how I like to roll.

So this much I ask of you, dear sir: in your next edition, cut out the sass. I still like your corny jokes and clever names like “Quarles” who keeps suing the city. That’s nice, that’s cute, that makes me feel better about myself. But using words like “certainly” “obviously” and “clearly” just remind us of some of the people in our section we love to hate. And if there’s anything you DON’T want to reach for, it’s any analogy to those types.

Thank you for your time,
Anna Banana

(source: Bananas Go To Law School Too)

Labels: anecdotes and opinions, humor, law school

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So today was a cleaning day. I meant to put one paper in a file folder. Eight hours later…

You know that saying, “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you”? Well, I think a proper cognate to that would be, “Just because you’re cleaning for the sole purpose of relieving unnamed stress doesn’t mean your bathtub wasn’t way overdue for a good scrubbing.”

Anyway, at the end of the day:

• I’d shredded three garbage bags worth of stored-up papers that I didn’t need (and, frankly, probably didn’t need to be shredded, but I really like shredding stuff).
• I’d also filed away months’ worth of papers that I’d left laying for too long
• I’d thrown out loads of papers left over from the law review notewriting process
• I’d finally pitched all the materials I’d gathered from various law schools when I was trying to decide where to attend law school (I think that ship has sailed, no?)
• I tossed all the materials on potential job contacts to which to send resumes during my 1L year
• I’d cleaned all of my rodents’ cages
• I washed all of the garbage cans in my apartment, bases and lids
• I’d vacuumed (once with the big vacuum and once with the Swivel Sweeper to get the stuff the big one missed, and then I used compressed air to fully clean off the Swivel Sweeper, and then used the DustBuster to sweep up the dust from that).
• I’d started doing a basic bathroom cleaning, and wound up doing a full-on aerobic scrubbing of the bathtub, complete with hard-core hard-water stain removal and soap-residue scrapage
• I washed my kitchen table really well, in preparation for doing grad announcements there
• I rousted up all my magazines that I stashed in various corners of the apartment

I realize that this may not sound like anything that would take all day long, but trust me–it did. I had a lot of crap piled up around here.

So now, I have showered all the cleaning dirt away, and am comfy in the PJs and Ugg boots, going to have a Mums & Dad chat, watch some TV, and head to bed. Whew. Sometimes, you just gotta clean.

Labels: all about me

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I don’t know who else might be interested in this, but I figured that for-sure my Dad would be!

On Wednesday of this coming week at two minutes and three seconds after 1 in the morning, the time and date will be:
01:02:03 04/05/06

Additionally, in the comments to that post, we learn that:

We already missed 06:05:04 03/02/01 …

Mark your calendars for:
Six minutes and six seconds after 6AM in a couple of months … 06:06:06 06/06/06

(source: Worthwhile)

Labels: neat-o

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My Mums always talked to me about the multitude of choices we get every day in life. And as I grew up, I realized that was not the “norm” when it came to how people viewed their situations. It seemed that I was much more likely to hear someone blame their circumstances (be they large or small) on others, without ever acknowledging the role they had in creating wherever they were in life. I like the following article, because it reminds us how many choices we have, even in the minutae of daily life.

One of the many oddities about the human race is our reluctance to deal with options. We don’t like having too many choices. It makes us anxious. Every alternative means an opportunity for messing things up. Many of us are more concerned about not being wrong than we are about being right.That’s why we let our habits narrow down the alternatives to one or two familiar ones. It’s much less stressful.

If you want to transform your life, re-establish conscious choice in place of all those automatic, habitual decisions. This will give you back your ability to find fresh options to replace worn out habits; permanently increase your opportunities to learn; and free you from repeating past mistakes.

Beating the workplace blues isn’t a once-and-for-all action. It’s a way of living that will make everything you do more vibrant, more alive and more fun.

Think about what you’re doing about your future. What alternatives have you been ignoring? Which ones have you skipped over? You don’t have to follow them, but thinking about them sure beats rushing ahead blindly.

You have more options than you think. Whenever something happens, you have a choice about how to respond. No one can take that away.

Here are some areas where simple choices can transform your day:

• Try choosing to listen longer before giving a response. Most of us are too keen to talk and not willing to listen carefully enough before we do so. Better listening will save you from many screw-ups.
• Try never to take action when you’re feeling emotional. Step back and wait until you’ve calmed down. Anger, frustration, jealousy or revenge make poor advisers.
• Try seeing things from the other person’s point of view. It might look very different.
• Try to avoid making judgments. We’re all too eager to rush into deciding who’s right and who’s wrong. Do you like people making judgments about you? No? So why do it to them?
• Don’t tell yourself what you can’t do. As soon as you do this, it’ll be true. Try telling yourself it’s okay to try it and find out.
• Don’t take yourself so seriously! Mistakes aren’t the end of the world. They’re so common, anyone can make them. Just remember the person who never made a mistake, never made anything else.
• Don’t be a wimp! Don’t be afraid to be bold, try new things, take a few risks. That’s the only way to create a life worth living.
• Look at your unused options. It can be tough to think about what you haven’t done in the past that might help you transform your life in the future, but you may find some unused gems.

Many people find it really helpful to take an objective look at themselves and their past and present choices. You can do this too. Only you can change your life for the better. Only you can make it worse. It’s up to you.

(source: Lifehack)

Labels: anecdotes and opinions, think-abouts, tips ‘n tricks

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Katie and Mike being carried toward the bustling Metropolis of Ossian in the backseat of The Princess (my car).

Nathan plays navigator & photographer as I play Steerer in Chief.

My dad takes one of his infamous arm’s-length self-portrait shots captures me in the midst of opening birthday cards, while Nathan, Katie, and Mike read said cards and try not to get too bored.

I excitedly admire the many features of my new electric toothbrush, and Katie intently studies the bubble wrap in front of her. (Yes, I’m kidding–she’s reading the toothbrush box with me.)

I smile happily while my family and friends (including Nathan) melodically sing Happy Birthday to me.

“I wish for a speedy end to law school, and a with-flying-colors passage of the bar…”

I (jokingly) prepare to take a big bite out of my cake, and Nathan–behind me–prepares (not jokingly) to smash my head into the cake. He didn’t do that. Which is why he was allowed to live.

The “Fab Four” pose for an after-brunch photo at my parents’ house.

Mike spent some time getting to know the dogs of our family. Unfortunately, in the midst of their bonding moment, Ernie spied a squirrel outside and attempted to flee from Mike’s arms.

Lucy shows her affection for her new friend Mike.

Mike pets Lucy while Ernie looks on.

Ernie and Sparky watch the birds and squirrels out the sliding back door, and Mike watches Ernie and Sparky.

Nathan took a few pictures of some of the family pets. Here is my baby boy, Ernie. Who isn’t really a baby anymore, though Daddio refers to him as such.

My lil’ girl Lucy stares down the other dogs as she holds her treasure–a nylabone.

Having successfully fended off her competitors, Lucy enjoys the delectable flavor of a beef-flavored nylabone.

The lone surviving fish of my brother Alex’s salt-water aquarium, Old Yeller, swims in happy ignorance of the conversations around him regarding his possible demise so as to allow the aquarium to be transported to Bloomington. (I am highly not in favor of said demise, naturally.)

Labels: -FAVORITES-, all about me, friends, pets, photos

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