Eugenio's Blog!

Don't you want to be like this woman from the African National Congress? Vote!

As most of you know, I can’t start my day without my shot of espresso. Regardless if my daily agenda consists of massive studying and class-work or going out to the fields to pick some cucumber-pickles, I need my shot of espresso. I have recently developed another addiction for the morning hour: listening to Britney Spears’ Lucky Radio Remix on my desktop computer. Since I did not bring my conglomerate of .mp3’s on my desktop with me in Ohio for the summer, I have discovered some long lost favorites. Lucky tops the list, and in a close second is FDR’s December 8, 1941 speech to Congress discussing the nation’s urgency in declaring war on the “Empire of Japan." Why do I openly admit these things?

Okay, so one real week of class is over, and I have still yet to find a job. This anxiety better start weaning down soon; somehow I do not think it will. The job search is on everyone’s mind at the law school, even the first years. I had a few students come up to me to discuss interviewing and summer jobs. “Dude, it’s week 1 – you have three years!” I told them all. Similarly, they revert that back to me: “Dude, it’s week 1 – you have two years!” My how quickly they catch on to legal reasoning . . .

I have finally landed a Research Assistant position with the University Law Library. This will be quite the financial relief, as I am planning on now only owing $329,000 after graduation as opposed to $430,000. Do you know how many cucumber-pickles I need to pick to make that? My serious goal is to have a net value of $0 at age 30, which means I have five years after graduation to get out of debt. Plausible? Maybe if my diet consists strictly of cucumber-pickles and tomatoes.

Do you know the maximum number of times I can mention the word “cucumber-pickle” without making it sound annoying? The correct answer is one, and even then it’s questionable.

Saturday night was my one late night allotted for the year. A fellow law student, Ly, threw this cute, small margarita party in her really hip apartment. I really need to learn how to be more artsy. It was a night of great conversation with brief segments of MTV’s Boiling Points – hilarious! After that, K got a call from E, one of my Chicago friends who lives in Iowa City. She was partying it up at the Sigma Pi house in Iowa City, and being an alumnus, I really wanted to stop by. I met some of the members; the sober ones were really cool, the drunk ones were a little out of it. All of the members thought I was this living god; I seriously got asked “Is law school hard?” and “Can I get in?” at least ten times – four of which were asked by the same drunk person who made it a point to constantly remind us that he’s not from Iowa – he’s from Gurnee [Illinois].

The night reached its peak when we were on the outside porch talking with some of the members, and there was this swarm of 18 year old girls stomping out of the house. One girl then goes around to all the guys offering her hand saying, “Hi, I’m [who cares], I’m from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.” I seriously thought she was acting as first, but then K reminded me of the 18 year old and first full weekend of school mentality. Yeah, she wasn’t acting. So when she comes around to me and gives her little spiel, I say, “Oh, Milwaukee, Wisconsin – the Hoosier State.” She didn’t get it.

I figured she then wouldn’t have gotten the following: Oh, you’re from Milwaukee? Actually it’s pronounced “mill-e-wah-que,” which is Algonquin for “the good land."

I am planning a voter registration drive at the Law School in September. I was walking in downtown Iowa City last week, and there was this huge signup at the stationary store. The stationary store is next to the 84 story sky-scraper on Washington Street. [How out of place would that be?] I inquired to the manager how she set up the whole thing, and she gave me the contact information for the Iowa Chapter for the New Voters Project. I called Friday afternoon, and the person in charge was so excited that I called – they were looking for a law school connection. So this will be my democratic do-gooder activity for the year. What does democracy look like? Chant: This is what democracy looks like! Tell me, what does democracy feel like? Chant: This is what democracy feels like!

I have finally obtained a copy of Microsoft Frontpage from the University. I was unable to download it off-campus over the summer so my e-portfolio project was postponed. I have established my legal e-portfolio site with the University of Iowa at http://myweb.uiowa.edu/mollo/. Check it out! Is anyone having “Testing . . . 1, 2. testing.” flashbacks? I will start updating it for potential employers and professionals as soon as I have time – hopefully before graduation.

“No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt, December 8, 1941.

All Quiet on the Eastern Front: Picking Tomatoes at Luckey Farms, Ottawa County, Ohio.

It’s amazing what can be accomplished in five days. I have finished my first legal paper for the Journal of Gender, Race & Justice, and I think it went pretty well. My finishing title was “The Manipulation of Science into Human-Made Law: ‘Natural’ Convenience in Determining Parentage.” Pretty nice, huh? I got to bash hard-science and proclaim the social sciences as supreme law – what more could I ask for?

Let us remember what the great Malcolm X said: “Of all our studies, history is best qualified to reward our research.”

This anger towards those who study engineering, computers, and the hard-sciences started in my undergraduate years, where the “North Quad” students had this “North Side Chicago” attitude – yknow, the “I’m better than you; you’re a peasant from the South Side / South Quad” approach. And I’m like, “Lose the ‘tude, dude.” It was capitalism in Urbana-Champaign at its best. Iowa doesn’t seem to have this sort of separation – everyone thinks they’re from the North Side.

I am looking forward to starting class on Tuesday. I have flipped through my syllabus for Constitutional Law II, and all of the topics seem very interesting – discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and there are also some classes on affirmative action court decisions, abortion, and some other interesting and confrontational topics. I can’t wait!

As for my Labor Law class, the professor said on the first week assignment sheet posted in a main hall at the Law Building that “this course isn’t a TV show for your passive enjoyment.” I read the sheet for the first time surrounded by about fifteen nervous first-years, and they look at me like I’m a goof or something as I bust out laughing after reading the assignment sheet. If they only understood Labor Law.

As for mentoring the new first-years, the week went well. There are two people in my small section group of eight students that know Italian! What are the odds?!

I have received two grammatical revisions from C.I. (for Spanish) and D.D. (for English). The Spanish one is beyond my control – the template for the Spanish date conversion is already set and I don’t know how to change it. The English one is beyond my control too – I grew up on the South Side. (Holla!) “Me’s” and “I’s” are interchangeable as far as I am concerned. If you have any disputes about this, you can meet me on the corner of 35^th & Michigan, and we’ll just settle our grammar arguments there.

I went to go see Fahrenheit 9/11 Friday night. I can’t believe I was actually considering calling ahead for reservations to see it – there were, in addition to us, eight people in the entire theatre. Granted, I think I am the last person in the world to see the film, but still.

I was not impressed by the film. Maybe I was expecting this grand revelation of information, which there was at parts, but the information was presented in a boring manner. Even if FOXNews talks about the most boring topic ever, they still make it entertaining. Fahrenheit 9/11 was informational, but O’Reilly gives you more bang for your buck: news entertainment, major arrogance, slanted information, and personal rudeness – you can’t go wrong!

Saturday was Migrant Appreciation Day in Fremont. As part of the festivities, ABLE / LAWO (my law people) performed a skit relating to Migrant life in Ohio. We did this skit on what to do (more of what not to do, actually) when you [a migrant] get pulled over by the police.

I was responsible for making sure that the audience felt comfortable saying the sentence we all know and love, “I refuse to answer,” or “me niego a contestar.” It is in regards to ignorant police officers asking the driver’s national place of origin after the driver has presented the necessary documents of valid driver’s license, registration, and insurance. Normal police officers simply do not have the authority to enforce immigration laws, but they do have the right to take in people who he suspects to be undocumented. This suspicion, however, must be provoked by something the driver presents to the officer (a foreign identification card, a consular identification card, etc.).

A couple of audience members approached me after the skit and asked if I was a teacher (I got really excited during the presentation). I started to cry right there. I used to be a teacher, I told them (tear). * Snaps for teachers. *

The funniest part of the Migrant Appreciation Day was this 6 or 7 year-old kid who asked the clown to make him a balloon car. The clown said, “I can’t make a car – how about a crown?”

Deeply wanting a car, the kid asked, “Are you legal?”

The clown laughed. “All clowns are legal.” Gosh, what these kids learn . . .

I am looking forward to this last week of work. I am getting ready to engage in my first real negotiation before litigation occurs. This case that I have been working on is unreal, and it exemplifies the struggle of migrants:

The housing deposit for the family of four is $200. Their contract started in May, and the ending date was August 1. (For confidentiality purposes, these facts might be a little a skewed; more of a MSNBC skewness – definitely not of FOXNews level). The housing contract says that if they do not continue working until August 1, for whatever reason, the landlord keeps the deposit . . . so what does the landlord do? Yep, he fires the workers days before August 1, thinking it would entitle him to the $200 deposit.

What kind of sick unethical person would do such a thing?

I plan on leaving Fremont early Saturday to head back to Chicago for the day, and then to Iowa City on Sunday. I’m looking forward to getting back to Iowa City – but with the e-mails that I have gotten in regards to Journal writing preparation, I cannot say I am excited about the week of August 16.

I am wound up about meeting the new first year students. I am a volunteer mentor for the first year class, so I will have a group of 10 or so first years to be my “kids.” Granted, these kids will probably be older and taller than me, but they’ll still be my kids. It will be like middle school in Decatur, Illinois all over again! Hopefully, I will have some students who don’t know English – those are always the fun ones!

I will post again from the huge metropolitan locale of Iowa City, Iowa 52246.

Lastly, I must close with some administrative business. I would like to make clear that I love getting comments. Me da mucho gusto. It gives me much pleasure.

However, recently, someone commented on my blog simply with a first initial. I think I know who this G person was (Italian American, western suburbs, race & science), but I should make it clear for future generations that the initials G, A, D, H, and M have already been taken. The initials L and T are also off limits. Thus, if your first name starts with these letters, I recommend perhaps your first and last initials. If you only have one name like Raven, (from the Disney Channel’s “That’s so Raven”) I would say “Ra” or “Rv” (skipping the vowel) probably works best. (Raven, that’s a hint).

From Mississippi Burning (1988):

Anderson: You know, if I were a Negro, I'd probably think the same way they do.

Ward: If you were a Negro, nobody would give a damn what you thought.

Average rate for picking grade A cucumber-pickles in Ohio: 23.2 cents per 100 pounds.

Entering week number ten in Fremont, I noticed this past weekend how much this program has impacted my life and my habits. Thus, I have created my own Top Ten List in “Ways you know you have been working too long in Northwest Ohio with Migrant Farm-workers, respectively:"

10. You no longer put gel in your hair to go to the supermarket.
9. The song stuck in your head at work is George Strait’s “All my Ex’s Live in Texas.”
8. Your TV is set to Second Audio Program (SAP) as default.
7. You record the nightly broadcast of the news from Ohio News Now (ONN).
6. There are more Spanish-speaking radio stations programmed into your car stereo than Anglophone radio stations.
5. You refer to Whites as Anglos or bolillos.
4. You think watching movies in English are a little too boring.

Know that I have your attention, Christmas is coming. I am getter bigger; my bike is getting smaller. Stephanie Tanner.

3. Farm-workers ask your Mexican region of origin.
2. You actually enjoy doing laundry just to interact with locals at the Laundromat.
1. You wake up in the middle of the night wondering if that new Spanish word you learned the prior day has an accent.

My brother and his family stopped by spacious Fremont, Ohio to eat lunch with me Saturday afternoon. He, along with his wife and two kids are on family vacation to Philadelphia. Luckily, Fremont is right off the Ohio Turnpike, and hence completely on the way to Philly. We ate at the only restaurant I would ever consider bringing relatives to in Fremont; they seemed decently impressed. It was a nice family catch-up, which is slang for thank goodness I am not planning children. I think we’ll do dinner again on their way back from Philly to Chicago – ouch, quite the drive.

So today at Kroger®, I pulled the ultimate gag completely subconsciously. I think it is hilarious when people ask for some card out of your wallet, and you present them with a completely random card. For example, A would pretend to present his laminated miniature high school diploma he carries in his wallet as a credit card at the Coralville Olive Garden®. Well, today, I joined the ranks, except I actually did it, completely not thinking about it. Instead of presenting my Kroger® Plus™ Shopper’s Card to the cashier, I presented by AT&T Prepaid Phone Card of 1000 Minutes.

The cashier looks at me, and says, “What is this?”

Still loading my cart, I respond, “they’re strawberries; they’re two for four dollars.”

She gives me the most confused look ever (rightfully so), and then I realized my mistake. It was pretty embarrassing.

With my random web searches, I have learned that the coolest domain name has been taken by an Italian, Eugenio, of course. How much do you think the website can go for? Check his picture out – if it wasn’t for his over-sized v-neck sweater, I think we could be twins! www.eugenio.com

From one of the greatest movies I watched this summer, Bend It Like Beckham,

Wedding Guest: Lesbian? Her birthday’s in March. I thought she was a Pisces.