Done and Done

• In the past 2 days, I submitted my indecency paper to about 65 journals, including all 32 law reviews in the Top 50 that accept student submissions. You can see the final draft here: Beyond Broadcasting: The Constitutionality of Indecency Regulation on Cable and Direct Broadcast Satellite Services. Hopefully, someone will bite. If not, I'll wait a few weeks and then submit to the next tier. Lather, rinse, repeat as desired.


• It's interesting -- exactly one month ago, I really went all out and made this paper my life. Before I started this final push, I would have never thought that, within 30 days, I could A) DOUBLE the length of the paper, B) make it much better, and C) actually finish it and send it out. The paper is so much stronger than it was when it got an A-, and in the process of revising it, I actually had a lot of fun and came up with several new paper ideas. I dare say, perhaps someday I may become a professor? To have several hours a day to think and research and write... seriously sounds like a blast. :-)
  

Bluebookin' like a Maniac; Sweatin' like a Maniac

• So, I'm done with that paper I've been talking about for a couple months -- "done" in the sense that all I have left to do is check my cites and submit the thing. I'll hopefully complete the cite checking today and then submit it to a dozen or so communications law journals. Over the next few days I will submit it to the several dozen public policy journals. Hopefully somebody will bite.
  
  In any case, I am already excited about various future papers. Ideas:
  
  
  • The Obscenity Paradox: If obscenity by definition has no value, and yet some people want to watch obscenity, doesn't that give it value to certain people?
    
  • IP as PII: Are Internet Protocol addresses "personally identifiable information"?
    
  • Grumpy Old Men Syndrome: When old judges meet new technologies
  
  
  
• In other news, my mom and I are spending countless hours at the gym. It's awesome. I've lost a few pounds over the past couple weeks and I feel great! Highly recommended.
  

PS - Rudy is flying. Updates soon!

Mad Dash to the Finish Line

• I am putting my indecency paper on hold for about a week. I have made amazing progress -- going from 27 to 57 pages in just under two weeks! -- but now I have to focus on my classes. My European Union Law exam is on Monday at 9 a.m., and my International Criminal Law exam is Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. Frankly I'm not aiming for an A on these (a B+ will suit me just fine), so a few days prep on each course should be sufficient. I'll probably spend half the day studying EU Law and half studying ICL on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and then do EU Law exclusively on Sunday and ICL exclusively on Monday. Or something like that. I'm not too worried -- EU Law is pretty straightforward and a friend gave me the outline for my ICL class. :-) The biggest problem is that we're not allowed to type our exams -- they have to be handwritten, and I haven't done that since undergrad! Five years ago! Blech. I don't think I still know how to write......
  



• I tried jogging today. I made it about 2 minutes before I collapsed and had to walk. Walked for a couple minutes and then jogged another 2 minutes... all in all I maybe jogged for 5 or 6 minutes total. By the end my pulse was up to 180. 180! I am SO damn out of shape! Three years ago I was jogging for 50 minutes without stopping; now I can barely make it around the block. Just imagine what that means: If a tiger were chasing me, I wouldn't be able to get away. I would be eaten. Let me repeat that: I would be eaten by the tiger. I can't be eaten by a tiger! What a horrible way to go! Thus the only solution is to keep jogging 2 / walking 2 / repeat.
  
  The neat thing is, for about a minute -- mostly toward the beginning of the run -- I felt free. It was exhilarating. To be moving so fast, feeling the cool wind rush past me. It felt liberating! And it reminded me of the feeling I used to get many years ago when I jogged for 20-30 minutes every other day. I want to recapture that feeling. Oh, and the most unexpected part was that about 90 minutes after the 5 minute jog, I felt unexpectedly happy and I didn't know why. Like someone had given me some really great news, but then I forgot it, but still felt happy for some reason. Hannah says those are the endorphins. I'll have to take her word for it -- she is pretty experienced in exercise, after all.

My Starbuckian Existence

Bechaied, this is what I do for hours each day. I hope it pays off.

Starbuckian Existence, originally uploaded by CaseWriter21.

I've gotten in the habit of downloading cases into Word and then making extensive use of the "Comment" function. I'll highlight some lines I want to quote, and then "comment" in a manner that closely approximates what I'll write in the paper. It's a very efficient system. Too bad I didn't figure it out until 3+ years into law school.

Touch to make it grow

Lessons Learned from July 29-30, 2006

• When doing anything that stimulates my mind -- such as writing a paper I'm very excited about -- never work on it all the way up to bedtime. Doing so is a recipe for a busy mind that won't shut the hell up and let me sleep. Always try to leave a few hours between extended analytical activity and sleep.
  
  
• If a "Video / DVD" shop has totally blacked out mirrors and requires you to walk through two hefty doors to get in, it probably doesn't sell used copies of It's a Wonderful Life. This can be confirmed by looking around the cramped room to see whether you are surrounded by pictures of naked people having explicit sex. If this is the case, slowly back out of the shop and don't look back.
  

I have enthusiasm, on paper

• Is it odd that as soon as class lets out for the weekend, I rush to Starbucks and eagerly proceed to work on the paper I'm trying to get published? Is there something wrong with me, in that I am actually excited about working on it, and I would rather do this than watch a movie or go sightseeing? Should I be worried that when I find something in my research (a quote, a fact, a statistic, etc.) that really bolsters my claim, I become practically giddy?
  
  
• I worked on the paper for five hours today. The problem is, Every time I think I'm nearing completion, I'll feel compelled to write a sentence that opens up at least another hour's worth of research to verify what I just said. Everything I say has to be cited -- and the research I do to cite it leads to a lot more work.
  
  For instance, I wrote, "They repeat oft-used explanations, note that new technologies built into cable and DBS services give users the power to deal with unwanted indecency, and that’s that – a few pages at most.[1]
  
  "[1] See, e.g. ___________ [LIST THE RECENT CABLE/DBS INDECENCY RULINGS]"
  
  And then I had to do another Lexis search looking for all the indecency rulings having to do with cable and satellite. So I put the search words into Lexis ["indecency & (DBS or satellite or cable)"] and limited my search to FCC decisions, and I got 260 results, at least some of which I had to skim to figure out what they're about. And then in skimming one, I'd see a title like, In the Matter of Complaints Regarding Various Television Broadcasts Between February 2, 2002 and March 8, 2005, and see that it's 97 pages, and realize that I have to read at least some of it. And that document will no doubt lead to at least another few questions, each of which have to be researched, beginning the process again.
  
  Or I'll re-read the paper and realize that I have left out some incredibly elementary (and therefore important) stuff. For instance, what's the TEST for whether something is indecent?
  
  Research papers are like plants, blossoming and sprouting new leaves every time you ask another question. It gets very unwieldy very quickly. The good news is that it leads to a lot of potential new paper topics. :-)
  
  
• I've been having an amusing back and forth with somebody at the FCC, using the web "contact us" form. I'm trying to find out if the FCC can sanction obscenity on satellite radio. Obscenity is different from indecency; indecency has some limited First Amendment protection, while obscenity has none at all. The FAQ on their web site says yes, but the law they cite to only applies to "satellite television." So I'm trying to find out what the actual law is.
  
  The customer service rep writing back has only limited mastery of the English language, and probably no training in the law. I mean, try to parse this for an actual answer:
  
  

  Thanks for writing the FCC again. The information we sent you states the FCC has no authority to regulate programming on satellite radio. This also applies to sattelite and cable tv. No complaint received at the FCC remains unanswered. The Enforcement Bureau reviews complaints received and takes appropriate action when necessary. There´s a difference between not having authority to regulate programming and having authority to impose sanctions on obscene programming. I am enclosing our Fact Sheet on what constuitutes Indecency and Obscenity.

  
  As you might imagine, the "Fact Sheet" was just as helpful.
  
  
• Okay, I'm pissed at the English language. Rereading this post, I realized that I wasn't sure if I had used the word "sanction" properly when I said that I wondered if the FCC could "sanction obscenity on satellite radio." I meant punish. Turns out, it can mean punish OR condone! You're supposed to determine the meaning contextually, but look what happens when it could go either way. Heh. I'm going to stop using that word.