140km/h is not in their algorithms

Between returning from Calgary, driving to Tacoma for a wedding (and beating the Google maps driving estimate by 43 minutes), preparing for interviews and entertaining friends from out of town, I haven't had much time to attend the cruel mistress that is this blog. Lucky for you, nothing much of note has happened. Except for the awesome time I made on that drive.

As is the case at every summer's end, I start to look forward to another school year. I'm not sure if it's a sad thing or not, but this is the last summer I'll have that. Although, third year law will mark my 20th straight year of school, so maybe it's not so much a sad thing.

Thankfully, it's been a great summer. Every December I usually prepare a list of my year end favorites, so now I thought I'd mention some of the favorite parts of these past 4 months:

Film

Go see Little Miss Sunshine. It's as simple as that.

Books

Nothing was more fun to read this summer than The Ruins, as amazing a character study as it is a horror tale. That said, this is the summer I discovered the writer Cormac McCarthy, finishing Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men and recommending them to everyone I know. I recall this excerpt as being indicative of how great the author is:

"They did not noon nor did they siesta and the cotton eye of the moon squatted at broad day in the throat of the mountains to the east and they were still riding when it overtook them at its midnight meridian, sketching on the plain below a blue cameo of such dread pilgrims clanking north."

TV

This is also the summer I discovered Lost, a show so smart (yet popular) that makes me question the argument that Arrested Development was too smart for American audiences.

I also got into Deadwood, the great, foul-mouthed HBO Western that makes up for the fact I watched an awful lot of Saved by the Bell this summer.