Burnout

I'm all burnt out, after a busy week. In no particular order:

My Final Exams are finished -- sort of. There are still 4 students who need to take their Final Exams, what with conflicts and medical issues and the like. I'm not much on making the special arrangements, but these four all had legitimate situations.

Actually, the exams were originally scheduled for first thing this coming Monday morning, but none of the students were too keen on the idea, and I was even less keen on the idea (and I had a conflict, to boot). So I was able to get a room (ironically, the same room in which the class had normally convened during the semester) in the late afternoon to the evening, so I held two exam sessions, and covered all but 4 students. That's not bad. And, what with the snowstorm(s), I guess that the students and their instructor really lucked out.

But now, I need to grade the Exams. That's my project this coming week -- along with grading the Term Papers.


2. Our fatso friend, referred to as "He" in prior postings here and here and here, was our houseguest this Shabbat. He initially had set out to go to the city to visit his son and daughter-in-law, but the snow was coming down and he saw the aftermath of a collision, so he called our rabbi, with whom he also has an open invitation. The rabbi's daughter had 3 friends staying over, and one of the rebbitzin's friends was also there, so the rabbi called me to ask us to put He up for Shabbat. It was no problem, especially because our son was still away at school (his last final exam is this coming Tuesday).

The best thing is that He didn't have a chance to stop at the bakery for his usual fattening cakes and pies, so my wife wasn't tempted to eat those things (believe me, she ate enough as it was, especially for Shabbat lunch, when the Ivy League lawyer mentioned here also joined us, thus replicating the same situation -- and results -- as the Shabbat on Sukkot when I was the only nonfatso at the lunch table. But we all had a good time, as usual.

3. A law review article of mine, written and published a couple of years ago, came to the attention of a lawyer with whom I am acquainted. Turns out that it is relevant to a case he has. The upshot is that I got paid to do an hour's research regarding related issues in his case. If he plays his cards correctly, his client stands to gain a nice piece of change from some of his former business associates.

4. Tonight is the first night of Chanukah. It was just me and my wife, being that our son is still away at school. But that's not so bad either!

Happy Chanukah (to all those who celebrate it)!

Two Virginia College Massacres

Just over 5 years before the 16 April 2007 Virginia Tech massacre in Blacksburg, Virginia, there was another shooting massacre less than 100 miles away. On 16 January 16, 2002, Peter Odighizuwa, a student at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, VA, killed the Dean, Anthony Sutin, along with Professor Thomas Blackwell and student Angela Dales.


There are many parallels between the two incidents. The shooter in each case was a foreign-born person legally in the United States who had severe emotional issues, who took out their frustrations with handguns.


But there is also a contrasting distinction between the two incidents, a distinction which seems to have been lost in the news media feeding frenzy. In the Appalachian School of Law incident, the killer only murdered three victims, as compared to the 32 victims at Virginia Tech. And at ASL, the killer's rampage was stopped because another student was able to go to his car and access his firearm, which he used to subdue the killer.


Regardless of your opinions regarding the regulation of firearms, there is no denying the facts.


Disclosure Number 1: Less than 3 months before the ASL massacre, I had met with several ASL faculty members for the purpose of discussing my prospective employment there. Considerations of family and geography dictated that I not pursue the matter any further at that time.


Disclosure Number 2: My wife has two cousins who are enrolled at Virginia Tech. We were, of course relieved to learn that they are safe and sound. But it wasn't really good news that they were not victims, because someone else's family instead of ours got the bad news.


May the victims of both masssacres rest in peace, and may their families be comforted!