Interesting to note this article about Denver, where I lived for the past 4 years... Growing quickly, it will be a pretty cool place someday, but for now, it's still a little small. ;)

Education is such an egregious problem in the U.S. I have been reading some facts on disinfo.com, and it's amazing. In 1840, over 99% of U.S. citizens were literate. Now, only 83% of whites, and 60% of blacks are literate. Why can't people realize that this is a failure? This country should have a 100% literacy rate, and should be producing the most creative minds on earth. That is a tragedy...

I was surprised to find something interesting today in the field of marriage and morals. Bush is pushing marriage to those on welfare as a way to better times. In all the talk about the benefits or detriments of marriage, or of its morality versus other familial arrangements, proponents always seem to argue that marriage is a cornerstone. But what is it a cornerstone of? A balanced society? A moral society? Maybe, but why?

Marriage is the cornerstone of self-discipline.

Marriage is where people really learn self-abnegation, self-discipline, and compromise. They also learn responsibility and cooperation, although these are learned in the workplace as well. People who internalize these lessons have a stabilizing effect on their surrounding community, and are more likely to be self-sufficient. Taxes can be low then, because government is not saddled with as many extra responsibilities.

Consider software systems: if there are 3000 clients and one server, and there is a task could be performed on either client or server, where should it be performed? If each client can easily handle the one task, the server may still have a very hard time handling 3000 such tasks simultaneously. Therefore, usually whatever citizens can do to be self-sufficient (rather than depend on the government) leads to increased efficiency and prosperity for society. I believe education falls under the same category of tasks, but I must go now... ;)

Last night, I did the diagnostic test included in my first LSAT prep book. It sucked, and it wasn't even nearly as long as the real thing will be. I am really going to have to work on this. I totally froze on the logic games section, when I found that the second question on a game contradicted what I had concluded from the description. After going over the description three times, without change, I was too frustrated to leave the question alone. I ended up only answering 20% of the questions on that section for lack of time. Horrible. Fortunately, I still ended up with an average score, implying that I would have had quite a good score had I not utterly bombed the games section... Argh. If I can speed up, by becoming more comfortable with the questions, I should still be able to do very well. I just need to crank out tons of practice tests.

A day like any other... not quite.

Today is different.

Today is the day that I'm finally making a decision about my life. It's grueling making these decisions, because you want to think that every major decision will lead you to the perfect life. I am going to law school, and I am going to become a patent attorney. I don't know that there isn't something else out there that could make me happier, but I do know that this could work, and it could provide me with something satisfying and challenging to do each day. It could be a job where I command a degree of respect, even while laboring as an associate. It could be a job that I really like to do, for a long period of time. I'm hoping that it is. :)