OUT SAVING THE WORLD

Obligatory dateline post
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- Just chillin' at Protz's apartment. Not more than two minutes passed after I pulled into the Daily Sentinel parking lot before Protz rushed out, portable scanner in tow, and the crack journalism team of Protz & J-Wo raced off to a raging shed fire northwest of town.

(FUN MESA COUNTY, COLO. FACT OF THE DAY: The street numbers are based off the distance to the Utah state line. So, 23 1/2 Road is, well, 23.5 miles from the state line. However, this is not a guarantee that said roads will not narrow to one lane, turn into gravel and dead end into a fence, as we found out. The More You Know!)

TK: Sappy "Goodbye, Los Angeles" post.

I'm J-Dub and I approve this message at 11:14 PM |

Pomp and circumstance
Pepperdine's official graduation photos. None of me (other than one of the back of my head...can you find it?) but you'll get the idea.

I'm J-Dub and I approve this message at 8:07 PM |

He sings the songs that remind him of the good times
Hello all...thanks to EVERYONE who passed along graduation and/or birthday wishes the past couple of days. You are all the best friends an old man could ask for.

He sings the songs that remind him of the better times

Old hotness: Online photo albums.
New hotness: Putting photos together with a little video, some basic graphics, setting it all to music, and posting it on YouTube for the whole world to watch.

The creative talents of my good law school friend Dr. Vince Adams, Esq., J.D., bring you the first year and the second year of law school.

I hope third year is in the works...probably some graduation photos that need to go on that. Oh, and these things might make it look like all we ever did was get together and drink...well...come to think of it...

I'm J-Dub and I approve this message at 2:26 PM |

Juris Doctor
They let me graduate! Pictures of the funky doctoral graduation costume tk.

Only error of the day: my listing in the commencement program:
"B.A., University of Missouri-Columbia"
Excuuuuse me. That's a B.J., thank-you-very-much. I would have been the only graduate out of 224 to have a Bachelor of Journalism, which I think is kind of cool.

[Please insert obligatory jokes about K* and B.J.'s here.]

I'm J-Dub and I approve this message at 11:05 PM |

Right back where we started from
Truck unloaded, returned, and back to the place where the Great Haul began.

Time for celebration.

The funny thing is, I'm not feeling celebratory just yet. As much as I am ready for law school to be over--and for all purposes it is over--I am getting that sad/nostalgic/pleasedon'tletitendjustyet kind of feeling.

And then there's this thought that hit me just now as I was driving down Jefferson Boulevard, taking in the muggy, nighttime ocean breeze along with the palm trees and billboards: I will soon have only "one life."

For five of the past seven years, May came along, and I moved back to my Wisconsin Life. I enjoyed summer and WILS and the radio station and all those things, and then mid-August came, and I went back to my Other State Life, either 500 or 2200 miles away. It was sort of a permanently guaranteed vacation, or perhaps attention deficit disorder of the residential variety. On top of that, there was the added benefit of adventure, exploring new cities, counties, states, eating different food, (not) voting for action-hero governors...you get the idea.

But, Milwaukee is familiarity. It is Linus's security blanket. It is home, and the paradox is, for the past seven years, I've called home places other than capital-H-home. I worry it won't be exciting enough, won't have the same thrill of opening my wallet and seeing that driver's license from a New and Different Place.

Yet, I think back to those two summers I spent in Columbia, Mo., and having my own little house (ok, ok, it was with Irfan and Rob) and feeling connected, feeling like I had a place that really was capital-H-home. I'm hoping Milwaukee 2.0 will be that and more.

CONFIDENTIAL TO GOODLOVIN: Sorry I missed you--my time in Milwaukee was too brief. But rest assured, I will soon be back...for good.

Time to graduate...

I'm J-Dub and I approve this message at 12:55 AM |

Dispatch from the road
BROOKFIELD, Wis. -- In theory, the drive is over. However, I'm technically 15 miles shy of my intended destination; in fact, I'm not even in the county (Milwaukee) I'm headed to yet. But, close enough.

The only real news to report today is this unusual discovery: on this trip, I actually liked Nebraska more than Iowa. Crazy, right? But Nebraska's roads are smoother, wider, and while rolling hills make for nice scenery in a car, they're a pain for quasi-truckers such as myself. And, for possibly the first time ever, I was happy--HAPPY--to see the Illinois border.

Tomorrow: Unload. Relax.

Special non-road-related updates
E-Hu has already noted that a dial tone would have been better than our Mizzou journalism Spring 2003 graduation speaker. I will go so far as to say a dripping faucet or a cacophony of mooing cows would also have been better (the latter would actually have been kinda cool; imagine the exchange: "who was your graduation speaker?" "oh, just a buncha cattle.")

However, MU's journalism class of 2006 got wise words of wisdom from my freshman year next-door neighbor in the dorms, who has already made a name for himself with some other projects.

Meanwhile, another former 3rd floor FARCer...and everyone's favorite Superfan, to boot, has made McSweeneys.

That. is. AWESOME.

I'm J-Dub and I approve this message at 8:50 PM |

Dispatch from the road
OMAHA, Neb. -- Here's a little formula I cooked up today:

(Crosswind speed + Height of vehicle) * Miles of Nebraska travelled / Omaha² = Amount of fun of the drive.

Today's solution: No fun.

(I wonder what the square root of Omaha is...)

I'm J-Dub and I approve this message at 11:46 PM |

Dispatch from the road
The Ohhhhh, we're halfway there edition

LARAMIE, Wyo. -- No news is good news. All trucks were getting pulled off at the Wyoming Port of Entry, but my exchange with Wyoming Port of Entry Guy went like this:

OSTW: Hi. I just have a rental truck.
WPOEG: See you later.

Also, Wyoming apparently has no highway patrol troopers. Utah has someone pulled over every 50 miles or so. I have yet to see evidence that law enforcement exists in the Equality State (other than Port of Entry Guy.)

Tomorrow: Nebraska. 445...miles...of...Nebraska.

I'm J-Dub and I approve this message at 1:15 AM |

Dispatch from the road
BEAVER, Utah -- I still have three more days of this trucking deal ahead of me.

Crap.

Today featured:
*navigating the White Boxy Warrior of Interstate Happiness through LA freeway traffic. I only had to change lanes a few times, the first one featured a limo driver who really laid on the horn. (I think that must mean something different in different cultures, like a good luck wish, as if the horn is saying HEEEEEEEEEYYYY! GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR MOOOOOOVE!)

*running into a fellow Pepp law student at the Chevron in Barstow, Calif.

*getting pulled off the road at the Utah Port of Entry (the weigh station, yeah, i have to stop at most of those)

*finding out everyone was getting pulled off because I-15 was temporarily closed due to wildfire

*spending 2 more hours in the truck than I really wanted to due to those delays

*hearing Utah-clean versions of popular songs

I'm J-Dub and I approve this message at 12:43 AM |

Life's like a road that you travel on
Where there's one day here and the next day gone

The next week and a half might just be the nuttiest week and a half in my life.

The rundown:

Tomorrow involves taking my last final exam of law school, loading up the White Boxy Warrior of Interstate Happiness (also known as my 15' Penske rental truck behemoth...I only needed the 10' truck but I got an "upgrade"), and if I have time, a big Hollywood pre-graduation party with most of my law school compadres, bringing us to
Friday, when I set out on my northeastwardly convoy across the California desert, Nevada, a bit of Arizona, and end the night in southwestern Utah, waking up on
Saturday, where the truck and I head north to Salt Lake, then turn right onto I-80 and park for the night in Laramie, Wyo., until
Sunday, where the remainder of Wyoming and 98% of Nebraska lay ahead of me, spending the night in Omaha, so that on
Monday, I finish the long haul to Milwaukee, where on
Tuesday, we'll unload the truck at my new place, and
Wednesday, I'll return the truck and fly back to Los Angeles with the moms, because
Thursday is Senior Breakfast and Awards, leading up to the much anticipated
Friday where, if the way be clear, they let me graduate, which means
Saturday will be a pretty sweet 25th birthday party.

There's no load I can't hold
Road so rough, this I know
I'll be there when the light comes in
Tell 'em we're survivors...

I'm J-Dub and I approve this message at 4:30 PM |

A respectful dissent
Jason and SFD have recently discussed "The Rules" of visiting states. While I agree with the right honourable gentleman from New York and the right honourable gentleman from Texas on many of their key points, I must respectfully dissent from their rules.

I take a much more legalistic point of view (go figure.) If you are subject to a state's jurisdiction, you have visited that state. If a process server can whack me with a pleading and haul me into court, you'd better believe I'm in that state. Thus, airports count.

However, I'm of the view that flyovers do not count. Federal law regulates all areas of conduct aboard an aircraft and traffic in the skies, and I'm not aware of any state court cases involving conduct on an aircraft.

Now, the part where I agree is that layovers are of a secondary quality to "real visits." In fact, I would propose four different strata of state visits:

1. Transportation transfers (air, train, or bus)
2. Driving through a state, but not stopping
3. Driving through a state with stop(s) (feet have to touch state soil)
4. Sleeping one night within state limits

Your thoughts are welcomed...

I'm J-Dub and I approve this message at 7:08 PM |

Things are looking up
Brewers-Dodgers tickets: got replacements emailed to me in PDF format
Brewers themselves: on a roll. Nothing like waking up at noon on Saturday to find the Brewskis already up on the Cubs 10-0.
Finals: Will be 2/3 done by Wednesday afternoon
CLIPPER NATION: Who wants to cheer on L.A.'s other basketball team? Yeah, I do. And a Clips-Lakers series would be a-mazing.

But here, dear readers, is the coup de grace of this blog post, although the two readers who would actually get the biggest kick out of this have already seen it.
Amy "Why don't boys like me" L*ftus, former Mizzou basketball...uhh...player...has moved to a different sport. Now, given that she is female (snicker), what sport might she have moved on to? Soccer? Golf? Softball? How about hockey?

Nope, nope, nope, and nope, though she might make an OK goalie.

No, our old friend A-Lo, the "Defender of Justice," has moved on to professional women's tackle football. On the offensive line, no less. Seriously.

Unfortunately, so true

I'm J-Dub and I approve this message at 12:23 AM |