Our Hollow Earth

This stuff is too good to keep to myself. If anyone wants a good laugh, check out "The Hollow Earth - Fact of Fiction" and "World Top Secret: Our Earth is Hollow!" I don't know about any of you, but I'm convinced.

After a mild rebuke from Mav I decided it was time for a post. The funny thing is that I haven't been that busy at all. Quite the opposite. Because I took two classes over the summer, I am able to take a lighter schedule this semester than I normally would have. I just haven't really had much to write about lately, so I'll try to fill the space with something that is not too boring. Maybe I'll talk about my preparations to move. I reserved a rental truck and am planning on driving to LV on May 8th. Dad put in for vacation time, so it looks like he and I will be the road warriors again. It's kind of funny because it doesn't seem like it was that long ago that we were making the drive from SLC to NJ. Maybe it is just that the 18 hour days are still so fresh in my mind that I can't believe I will have to do it again. It was actually a pretty cool experience in a lot of ways, and it would be fun to take about 2 weeks and stop at all the cool places along the way. I am looking at apartments right now, and have about 5 or 6 that look like they will be ok. Lindsay and I are also planning a mini vacation to D.C. during my spring break. Neither of us has seen any of the sights in D.C. and we don't want to miss the opportunity while we are so close, so we are going to spend a couple days there. Kind of funny, they have been talking about "Punxsutawney Phil" a lot lately and apparently the ceremony depicted in Groundhog Day is a pretty accurate representation of the actual event. They wear black top hats and have the little rat whisper in the mayor's ear whether or not he saw his shadow. To the left are actual pictures of the madness.

The Gunner

"A gunner, especially in medical schools and law schools, is a person who is competitive, overly-ambitious and substantially exceeds minimum requirements. A gunner will compromise his or her peer relationships in order to obtain recognition and praise from his or her instuctors and superiors. " (Quoted from Wikipedia.com).

The gunner is the guy who always has his hand raised, regardless of whether he has something intelligent to say about the subject. In the gunner's mind, the fact that his hand is up is evidence that his comment is valid. Most of the time his comments are off base, watered down, or just plain pointless. The gunner believes that quantity is more important than quality. He believes (incorrectly) that his endless comments will be rewarded with a grade bump and the admiration of his professors.

In most classes there is one or two gunners. However, my Employment Law class has created a whole class full of gunners. 1/3 of our grade is based on class participation and we are required to participate every class. Participation can either be orally in class, or we can post a 50+ word comment on the course web board. Because it is much easier to get the participation points by participating in class, at any given time about half of the class of 120 students has their hand up. Because we are only graded on participation and not the quality of our participation, most of the comments in class and on the web board are off base, watered down, or just plain pointless. Yes, I swore I would never be a gunner, but today my hand was ready to shoot up like I was a gunslinger in the wild west. I saw an opening when the topic shifted and my arm shot up. I heard my name called and I gave my obligatory 1 sentence answer: "the employee's purpose must have been for collective bargaining or other mutual aid." Pretty insightful stuff. At that point my turn was over, my points were recorded by the professor, and my temporary transformation as a gunner was thankfully finished -- until Thursday's class anyway.

Jury Duty

Right now I'm sitting on a bench outside the law school enjoying some beautiful weather. According to weather.com it is currently 63 degrees here. I can't believe how mild this winter has been. Especially considering last year at this time there was about 2 feet of snow on the ground and it was about 5 degrees (-10 with the wind chill). So I got a notice about 10 days ago that I was called for grand jury service beginning March 8th. The grand jury requirement was once/week for 17 weeks so I wrote back and told them that due to the fact that I will be moving in May, I will be physically unable to perform jury service. A week later I got another notice, this time they had changed me from grand jury to petit jury, which is only a 1 trial commitment. The problem is, they changed the date to June 13th! I guess they missed the whole thing about me moving in May. I called the jury management office today and explained to them that I will not be living in New Jersey at the time, and they told me to just fax a copy of my employment offer and they would release me from service. It's kind of too bad, I think it would be pretty interesting to serve on a jury. It's also kind of funny because I was called for jury duty in Provo and the date was for September 2004, which was about a month after I moved out here.

D.C.

Lindsay and I went to the Washington D.C. temple on Saturday. It is only about a 2 1/2 hour drive from where we live, so it's not too bad. We also watched the new Joseph Smith movie at the visitor center. While we were waiting, we were walking around looking at the displays, and when we got to the display about eternal marriage, the picture (or should I say poster) was my friend from my mission when he got married. The funny thing is Lindsay said "lets see if we know anyone in the picture" and I said "I know that guy" and she thought I was just kidding and I had to convince her I was serious.

Viva Las Vegas

Today on MSN.com I saw this thing where you can put in an address and see a satelite image from like 60 yards in the sky. I thought it would be cool to see if I could find the office building where I will be working this summer. Click here to check it out. My firm is in the Bank of America building.

Haircut

I gave Jay a haircut last night. It was only his second haircut -- his first was over Christmas break. I thought these pictures were pretty cute. The picture of him crying is a little deceptive because he wasn't crying from the haircut, but because we took away the Sonicare toothbrush. He loves that toothbursh more than any of his toys. Too bad they are so expensive, or I'd just buy him one to play with. After I finished his haircut he stood up in the sink and grabbed his own toothbrush and his toothpaste and opened the cap and wiped the toothbrush over the top of the dispenser and proceeded to brush his teeth. It was pretty cute. By the way, Jay now has 4 molars for a total of 12 teeth. He's starting to look like a shark. Unfortunately I don't have a post-haircut picture, but I buzzed his hair and he looks pretty tough. In other news, I got my final grade yesterday -- an A- in Sports and the Law. So my grades for the semester look like this: Commercial Law: A, Military Law: A-, Sports and the Law: A-, and Evidence: B+, for a GPA of 3.639.

Crash

Well, it was bound to happen sometime. Last night while Lindsay was at the grocery store Jay fell down the stairs. Actually, we both fell down the stairs. To provide some background, we have a baby gate in front of the stairs, and rather than unlatch it every time I come or go, I just step over it. Well about 2 weeks ago I didn't step quite high enough and I knocked it over and stepped on the wood frame. The frame broke, and I glued it back together, but a few days ago it got knocked off again and the glue didn't hold. We thought it was ok because Jay doesn't really push on the gate, and it still worked well enough that we were able to set it up. So back to the story, Jay was running around playing and he went over to where the baby gate was. I was on the couch watching tv when I heard a mixture of screams and crashes. I jumped up and saw the gate was skeewampus so I started running down the stairs. Luckily Jay had stopped his fall about half way down the stairs, but I was running down so fast that when I realized he had stopped, I lost my footing and slid down the rest of the way. I'm happy to report that we were both fine, just a little scared. I picked up Jay and he was screaming, but when I took him outside he cheered up pretty quick.

The Luck Continues

I got a little bit of good news today. I just received an email from the law school registrar that stated:

"Mr. Butterfield,

Prof. Ferzan asked me to double check the writing grade for you in her Evidence class and I did, and I make a mistake. She wrote a 3.7 and I read it as a 3.2, which is what I gave back to her anonymously. Please accept my sincere apology for this mistake. Your final grade in Evidence is a B+, I have made the change in our system and you should be able to see it right now.Again, I am very sorry. If you have any questions, please let me know."

It doesn't really make that big of a difference overall, but I thought it was pretty cool. Hopefully my luck will continue.

Grade Update

I got my Evidence grade today and I got a B, so it looks like my good luck ended with my unexpected A in Commercial Law. In Evidence I expected my grade to fall somewhere in the B range, so I can't be too disappointed. I'm still waiting on one final grade (Sports and the Law, probably an A or A-) so I don't know my GPA for the semester yet. Hopefully I'll get that last grade soon. In other news, I made a pretty good roast yesterday. I browned a roast and braised it for about 3 hours in 1 1/2 cups of water, italian seasonings (dried basil, oregano, chili flakes, garlic, etc.) carrots and onions. I did my best impression of the old man and made gravy from the drippings. It turned out really well. The meat was so tender it practically fell apart. Lindsay made garlic mashed potatoes to go with the meal and they were delicious.

R-E-L-I-E-F

I'm supposed to be doing an assignment for my Employment Law class right now, but the school's website is down and I have to submit it online so I decided to post an entry. I had something really cool and unexpected happen yesterday. I have been waiting for my grades now for about a month and on Thursday I finally got my first grade -- an A- in Military Law. That's about what I expected so I was pretty happy with that. Anyway, I have been dreading getting my grade back for my Commercial Law class because I didn't think I did very well on the final. The more I thought about it the more I was convinced that I would be stuck with a C- at the worst and a B at the best. Realistically I was thinking I would get a B- or a C+. Well yesterday I got an email notification that my Commercial Law grade was available, so I opened the grades page and saw that I had gotten an A in the class. What a freaking relief! There was one section of the final that I thought I might have completely missed, but I guess I must have done OK. I'm still waiting on two grades -- Sports and the Law and Evidence. I think I got an A or A- in Sports and the Law. Evidence could be anywhere from a B to an A, so we'll see.

The Answer to the Missing Dollar

The answer is in the way the question is worded. You cannot add what one person HAS to what someone else has PAID and come up with any kind of a meaningful number, you have to subtract.
Each man has paid $9. The bellhop has $2. Difference
$9 x 3 = $27 2 $25
The hotel clerk has the other 25 dollars.
To look at it from the standpoint of the original $30.
Each man has $1. The bellhop has $2. The hotel clerk has $25. Total
$1 x 3 = $3 2 25 $30

The Missing Dollar

OK smart guys, this is one of my favorite riddles. When I was a supervisor at MyFamdamily.com I held a smart guy contest for my team and I gave them this riddle. The most memorable (albeit incorrect) response was "Why are 3 men getting a motel room anyway?" I will post the answer tomorrow.

Three men went to a motel. The motel manager said a room cost $30, so each man put up $10 and went to their room. A little while later the manager realized the room was only $25, so he sent the bellhop back to the three guys' room with $5. On the way to the room the bellhop couldn't figure out how to split the $5 between the 3 men, so he gave each one of them $1 and he kept the other $2.

This meant that the 3 men paid $9 each for the room for a total of $27. Add the $2 that the bellhop kept = $29. Where did the other dollar go???

The Many Faces of Jay

 
 
 
 

Lord of the dance

I'm a little bit worried about Jay and his current career path. First, he seems to be training for riverdance. Lindsay and I have been watching the DVD's of Alias lately, and when the music to the credits is playing, he jumps up from whatever he is doing and begins dancing like Raquel Welch. He stomps his legs furiously and spins around and the whole time his arms are straight down at his sides. For those of you (Mom) who missed the Raquel Welch reference from Seinfeld, I have included a helpful exchange from the episode below. Jay also seems to be training for the strong man competition or to be a stunt man. He loves trying to push things around -- the heavier the better. His favorite objects to push include his high chair and the shopping cart. He is slowly working his way up to pushing things like vaccuum's and lawnmowers and then maybe our car, etc. Since our return from Utah he has shifted his training focus from pushing to climbing. A couple of days ago I heard him in the kitchen banging what I though were pots and pans (a favorite pasttime of his)so I didn't think much of it. When I walked into the kitchen, I found him on top of the kitchen table banging the cooling rack (Lindsay had just baked cookies) on the table. If his future career options are limited to riverdancer, strongman competitor or stunt man, I think stunt man would be the coolest.

Malcolm: Are you familiar with our star, Raquel Welch?

Kramer: Oh yeah, she's fantastic....

Mr. Graham: She's a train wreck.

Malcolm: There's a big tap dance number just before Jean Harris leaves the school to confront Dr Tarnover.

Mr. Graham: It is a gut wrenching scene.

Malcolm: But, Raquel Welch doesn't move her arms when she tap dances. It's very distracting.

Mr. Graham: There's lot of this [swings his arms] in tap dancing.

Kramer: So, you'd like me to teach how to dance?

Malcolm: No, we want you to fire her.

The summer of George

I played basketball last night for the first time in I don't know how long. It is definitely the first time since I moved to NJ in August 2004, so that gives you a good idea. I decided to play for our Elders Quorum team to try to get a little bit of exercise, and we had our first game last night. The good news is that we won, but the bad news is that I had a shocking realization of just how out of shape I am. I scored a whopping 2 points on a layup, and I airballed a foul shot late in the game. (My legs were so tired I shot it with all arms and missed by about a foot). I feel like George Costanza in "the summer of George" when the doctor tells him "Mr. Costanza. ..your legs have sustained extensive trauma. Apparently your body was in the state of advanced atrophy, due to a period of extreme inactivity. But with a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck, I think there's a good chance you may, one day, walk again." Personally, I am hoping that with a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck, I may, one day, hit a free throw again.

10:10

I have somewhat of an obsession with watches, and I currently own three. My first "real" watch was a 1962 Rolex Air-King (top picture) that was my high school graduation present. I am wearing that watch today, and it is fitted with a black lizard band. Sometimes I wear it with a tan strap, depending on my mood. In 1999 I bought a Rolex Submariner and owned it for about a year, when I traded it for a Baume & Mercier Capeland Chronograph. (Middle picture). I love the Baume & Mercier, but looking back I wish I would have kept the Submariner. The Baume & Mercier is fitted with a "honey" colored crocodile band. In 2000 I received a 1951 Gruen Curvex (bottom picture) as a Christmas present. Like the Air-King the Gruen is fitted with a black lizard band. I don't wear that watch as often as the other two, partly because it is more delicate and I don't want it to break, but also because it is much more dressy. I usually only wear it with a suit. Most of the time that I waste on the internet is devoted to looking at watches, and I have been able to find pictures of watches that are identical or very close to those in my collection. The Rolex pictured is not my watch, but I did buy the dial of that exact watch and had it installed on my watch. The Capeland and the Gruen pictures are virtually identical to mine. By the way, pay attention next time you see a picture of a watch in an advertisement. The hands are almost always set to the 10:10 position. I have heard that this is because it makes the watch appear as though it is "smiling" but another reason is it usually provides a pretty clear shot of the dial.

I won the lottery!!!

I had a funny memory the other day. I was at the church talking to the first counselor in our bishopric and we were talking about pranks we had pulled on people, and one of the all-time funniest pranks came to mind. I was working at the "garage" about 5 years ago, when my cousin Ryan and I purchased some fake lottery tickets from a joke shop in the mall. We hatched a plan to give them to our cousin Brian (a big gambler)and watch his reaction. Anyway, Ryan told Brian that a friend had gone to Nevada and brought back some lottery tickets, and he offered one to Brian. It was later in the evening, probably around 8 pm or so, and Brian was in the sales office along with a few others, shooting the breeze. The lottery ticket had three spots to scratch off, and if all three matched, you "won" the amount revealed -- in this case $10,000. He scratched off the first spot to reveal $10,0000. For anyone who has ever scratched a lottery ticket, this is not too unusual so he didn't really react. His second scratch revealed the second $10,000 and this is where the prank really started to materialize. He was showing it off to everyone around, saying things like "I shouldn't even scratch the third, because I know I won't win. I should just frame it right now with the two $10,000's. But I'll tell you what, if I do win I'm driving to Wendover tonight to claim the prize." For those in on the prank there were a few stifled snickers reminicient of Lloyd Christmas on Dumb and Dumber ("why don't you eat up and we'll tell you all about it.") When he scratched the third $10,000, he was jumping in the air screaming "I JUST WON TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!!! I JUST WON TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!" On about his fifth jump, he saw everyone laughing hysterically at him, and I think I remember some pretty colorful language. I have been privileged to be a part of (sometimes victim of) some pretty funny pranks but that ranks pretty high on the list.

The Jiffy Lube Club

I had to check Jay's oil last night. (Jay is my 14 month old son). I was initiated into the Jiffy Lube Club at a young age when my mother checked my oil, and again 18 months ago when I was bending over the table in Dr. Jellyfinger's office the day after I saw red in the toilet. But back to Jay -- I have been paranoid that he is sick because he was around sick people throughout Christmas break and I have been worried that Lindsay passed him strep. He hadn't been acting sick until last night, when he was really fussy for about 2 hours straight. He is normally a very good boy and although he has learned how to throw a pretty good tantrum, he generally doesn't fuss. Doing my best impression of mom, I felt his head and determined he felt "hot" and must have had a fever. When Lindsay returned from the store, I told her we should take his temperature and concluded that the only way to get an accurate reading was to check his oil. (We had previously tried the mouth and armpit methods with no success). So I greased up the dipstick and Lindsay and I held him down until we got the reading. To my dismay it was 98.0 degrees, so either I was doing it wrong, or he didn't really have a fever. I wasn't about to retest, so we tried to see if there was something else wrong. Lindsay offered him a graham cracker snack and he gobbled it up. Was it possible that he was only being fussy because he was hungry? After all, he had eaten 3 (yes, 3) helpings of lasagna for dinner just an hour before. After a couple more graham crackers I decided to give him a fruit in gel cup (kind of like Jell-O but a little thicker) and he ate it all. Problem solved. The good news is that I learned somewhere, maybe in a college psychology class, that children aren't able to form long term memories until about age 3, so Jay still likes me in spite of his membership in the Jiffy lube club. As a final note, I will be organizing a meeting for members of the Jiffy Lube Club for anyone interested. So far only Jay and I are signed up to attend, but we will welcome anyone else who has already been initiated. (We won't be performing initiations in the meeting).

Back to school

Yesterday was my first day back to school after Christmas break. Although I would have liked another week of vacation, in many ways it was good to get back into my routine. I am definitely eating less (or I should say snacking less) and that is always a good thing. So far I think my favorite class of the semester will be Pretrial Advocacy. It will definitely be the most useful as I prepare for my job this summer. I dropped Federal Courts and added Employment Law today. Federal Courts seemed like it would be interesting, and the Professor is amazing. He clerked for two Supreme Court justices and is brilliant. I just couldn't justify the amount of work the class would require considering it won't really help me when I take the bar, or when I am practicing law. It is really designed for people who want to clerk for a federal judge, or for people who do public interest litigation. The Employment class seems like it will be pretty cool. The firm I will be working for does a lot of Employment litigation, so it may come in handy this summer, plus it is a lot less work than the Federal Courts class. I have a pretty good friend in the class. Her name is Jenn and she is married with two kids. She had her second kid 2 weeks before school started last year. I have had about 3 or 4 classes with her and she is in my circle of friends here at school.