Since I’ve been the opposite of a “hyperactive blogger” lately, I figure this would be a good time to point y’all toward another blog that I’d recommend putting on your daily reading — er, viewing — list: Chris McLemore’s photo blog.

Chris is a fellow rising 3L at NDLS, and simply put, his photos are awesome. It’s always a pleasure to visit his site and just surf through the recent posts. As someone who fancies himself a decent amateur photographer, I constantly find myself looking at Chris’s pictures and thinking, “Damn, I wish I’d taken that!”

Anyway, the blog was formerly known as “My Day in London” (because Chris was in NDLS’s London program last school year), but now it’s called as “My Day in…the District” (because he’s in D.C. for the summer). In reality, the pictures come from all over the place, as he’s done a lot of travelling recently. Regardless of where he is, I hope he’ll keep the blog going, because it’s a fantastic site.

P.S. The, uh, non-hyperactivity of my blogging pace is likely to continue this week, by the way. I’ve got a big work deadline on Thursday, so I expect to be extremely busy until then.

I really wanted to get this post up Friday night before the knockout round commenced, but I’ll go ahead and stick with what were my predictions going into Saturday:

Second Round
Germany over Sweden
Argentina over Mexico
England over Ecuador
Holland over Portugal
Australia over Italy
Switzerland over Ukraine
France over Spain
Brazil over Ghana

Quarterfinals
Argentina over Germany
England over Holland
Australia over Switzerland
Brazil over France

Semifinals
Argentina over Australia
England over Brazil

3rd-Place Match
Brazil over Australia

Final
Argentina over England

Some comments on the above predictions:

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For several weeks now, I’ve been ruminating, researching and tentatively planning various possible scenarios for what Becky and I could potentially do with the upcoming 4th of July weekend. As soon as I learned that I have four days off from work — from Saturday the 1st through Tuesday the 4th — I felt that I definitely wanted to make the most of the opportunity to travel somewhere and do something fun, hopefully with Becky and perhaps other family and/or friends. A trip to Connecticut and New Hampshire was considered, as was a trip to Buffalo, a trip to Las Vegas (flying out mother-to-be Shannon as a pre-baby treat) and even a trip to Glacier National Park in Montana. Ultimately, however, plans for Vegas fell through because of Shannon’s work schedule, going back East was deemed impractical in terms of time and money, and the Montana thing was revealed as totally absurd. So, last night, we finally decided on a far more sensible plan…

We’re flying to L.A. on Friday night, hanging out with Adrienne, then taking an Amtrak train up the coast to Seattle, touring the Space Needle and visiting David, and finally catching a very early-morning flight back to Phoenix so I can return to work bright and early.

As I said, very sensible. :)


The Coast Starlight, reputedly the most scenic of Amtrak’s routes.

Okay, okay, so it sounds a little hectic and crazy. “Fill the unforgiving minute,” as my dad always says (quoting Kipling). But that shouldn’t surprise regular readers, who are well aware of my penchant for random, whirlwind trips. I’m all about travel for travel’s sake, or more precisely, for the sake of “making a memory.” And I’m even more enthusiastic when the itinerary involves crossing an item off my “life’s to-do list,” or in this case, three items: riding the Coast Starlight (especially important since it could be shut down at any time), visiting the Hollywood Bowl (where we’ll be catching fireworks on Saturday), and going up the Space Needle.

Besides, believe it or not, the trip isn’t going to cost that much. Despite the multiple stages, long distances and last-minute bookings, the total cost is significantly less than what a Buffalo or New England trip would have set us back. And to me, it’s totally worth it. As objectively inconvenient as long-distance Amtrak trains are, I love them. Ever since riding the Sunset Limited to New Orleans in 2002, I’ve wanted to take the Coast Starlight from L.A. to Seattle, and now I finally get my chance. Plus, we get visits with Adrienne and David as part of the package deal! Two great friends, two fantastic cities, three states, three life’s to-do list items, 1,389 miles on the tracks and 1,476 miles in the air, all in one holiday weekend? Not bad!

And the best part is, as all this plural pronoun usage implies, Becky has agreed to come along, bless her heart. She’s not usually quite as enthusiastic about this sort of thing as I am, but I guess she’s in an adventurous mood these days. Perhaps it’s that we both feel the oppressive onset of approaching adult responsibilities — bar exams, billable hours, and God willing, babies* — and thus we want to make the most of our youth while we still can! I know I definitely feel that way, and I fully intend to squeeze every possible ounce of memorable fun out of my 3L year… especially if I get a job offer at the end of this summer, knock on wood. :) So this, and the Atlanta thing, probably aren’t the last “random trips” you’ll be hearing about between now and next August. But they’re a good start!

*Don’t worry, padres, there isn’t any big news that we’re keeping from you. We’re talking about purely hypothetical future babies. :)

(a) Can’t make it up. (b) Only in The O.C. [Hi the Happy Couple Bea & Andrew :] (c) But just as with Briandot’s post re how hard cases make bad law :) there’s a Sad side to this one, because the poor drunken birdies probably were not imbibing the Guinness (an’ couldn’t yer man pour a half-keg’s worth down th’ ould distensible gular pouch o’ th’ bill begob :) but rather ingesting algae tainted with domoic acid, another poison which Impairs the Judgement :> ~

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. (June 24) - The driver was sober. The bird he hit may have been under the influence. A California brown pelican flew through the windshield of a motorist on the Pacific Coast Highway in Orange County Thursday, and wildlife officials said the bird was probably intoxicated by a chemical in the water.

Though toxicology tests take several weeks, the odd bird behavior was likely the result of poisoning from domoic acid, which has been found in the ocean in the area, said Lisa Birkle, assistant wildlife director at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach.

…The Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center has received 16 calls of strange bird behavior in the past week, and was holding three other birds found disoriented and wandering through yards and in streets.

Domoic acid poisoning was the most likely cause of a 1961 invasion of thousands of frantic seabirds in Northern California that inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s film “The Birds.”…

Read the rest. I bet there’ll be a big flap about this. Yes, all the seabirds and voters of the Golden State are going to squawk. This must Never Happen Again. :}

Is anyone else watching this Netherlands-Portugal game? Holy cow. What a freakin’ disgrace.

It’s good news for England, though, because Portugal’s best player was sent off with a bulls**t red card, and thus won’t be available for the next game if Portugal wins. (Portugal leads, 1-0, at 83:35.)

UPDATE: Portugal advances. The referee presumably will not.

UPDATE 2: Andrew thinks the ref wasn’t the problem, the players were.

Colin thinks Portugal should be banned from the 2010 World Cup.

The Brits are in the quarterfinals of the World Cup. God bless England! :)